Ref: article by Valérie Solvit, Service Littéraire, March 2022
Wiatscheslav Vassiliev, known as Slavik, made Paris shine for over 60 years. His story and work inscribed the capital in the design of the century.
From the Dôme in Montparnasse, the Jules Verne at the Eiffel Tower, the Muniche and the drugstore in Saint-Germain-des-Prés, the Renault pub on the Champs, Slavik is inspired and inspiring.
Whimsical, of course, he was nourished by the aesthetics of Diaghilev’s ballets and that of the Bauhaus. He invented a contemporary poetic rococo style that was more than memorable.
Today, thanks to six years of research by his partner Géraldine, we discover his full importance, the history of legendary places, restaurants, nightclubs, bars, and brasseries.
A masterful book initiated by his children Philippe and Barbara.
It all began after graduating from Arts Déco. A painter and decorator, born in Tallinn, Estonia, Slavik created highly modern citrine-like creations during this grey post-war period (with a surrealist spirit for Galeries Lafayette). He collaborated with the Adnet brothers for furniture, with Cassandre the poster artist, and with choreographer Serge Lifar.
His life? A novel. A dandy, elegant, audacious, having dared the “Americano-Slavic” style across more than 300 venues, collaborating with the best artisans all the way to Venice, which he knew and loved madly, he fled Saint Petersburg, Berlin, the cold, and famine. Arriving in Paris, “the city of love,” as he himself said, he lived for great emotion, for passion.
Passion in everything: women, Art, gastronomy. He loved sauerkraut, herring, caviar, black bread, Koulibiac, and French charcuterie… He was a great Frenchman, and his soul was Russian.
What we must know about him, as Cocteau said of Bérard: “He invented, found, told stories, played, staged, magnified, recreated the world, on restaurant tablecloths. He had a sense of enchantment and wonder.”
