Born in 1920, Wiatscheslav Vassiliev, known as Slavik, was put in charge of the aesthetics of the Publicis group by its CEO Marcel Bleustein-Blanchet in 1954. A Russian emigrant who studied at the School of Decorative Arts and Idhec, he donated to the Drugstore des Champs -Elysées then to that of Saint-Germain-des-Prés their characteristic color, also partly taking up the moldings of the Véro-Dodat passage in Paris. A workaholic, he designed more than 300 decorations for brasseries, nightclubs, restaurants and hotels.
The book overflows with drawings, models, fashion or advertising posters, each one more stunning than the other. Then appears the evidence, Slavik was the decorator of a crazy time when the economic crisis was still far away, where the profusion, the audacity, the frantic pace of innovations punctuated the march of the world. With their legendary rigour, the Norma editions drive this dynamic over the pages. Ah, how one would love to leaf through this little marvel of publishing in one of the rococo-baroque alcoves of the late Drugstore Saint-Germain!
“SLAVIK, THE DRUGSTORE YEARS”, by Pascal Bonafoux, Géraldine Cerf De Dudzeele and Philippe Maynial, illustrations Peter Knapp, Norma, 352 pages, €49
