Ref: article by Murielle Bachelier and Christelle Laffin, Figaro Madame, December 2021
TO RESCUE HIM FROM OBLIVION.
This is how the project for this monograph dedicated to decorator Slavik came to life, shortly after his death in 2014. A student at Ensad (École nationale supérieure des arts décoratifs), the young Russian Wiatscheslav Vassiliev found this diminutive that rings like a stage name.
Slavik wanted to be a painter, in the surrealist vein of Dalí, whom he admired. His sense of theatricality diverted his trajectory. He became the decorator of the trendiest Parisian restaurants of the 1960s and 1970s, creator of unique atmospheres. Fame arrived at age 38 in 1958 with the creation of the flamboyant Drugstore on the Champs-Élysées, revolutionizing the concept of the store.
The visionary had a passion for serpents, which can be found in the shape of his numerous bar counters “especially because they are curved. I am very sensitive to the sensuality of the curve.”
“Slavik, les années Drugstore”, by Pascal Bonafoux, Peter Knapp and Margo Rouard Snowman, Éditions Norma.
