Walt Disney: Animating the Inanimate
Last month, we were invited by the French Chamber of Commerce to attend The Wallace Collection’s latest exhibition: Inspiring Walt Disney: The Animation of French Decorative Arts. And it was as wildly fantastical as you’d imagine.
Galleries and galleries of the animator’s twentieth-century hand-drawn creations placed alongside rococo art and furniture – a uniquely ornamental type of French artwork, architecture and decor popular in the 18th century – reveal the surprising and enchanting connections between these two artistic moments in time, one of which led to the creation of one of the most valuable brands in the world.
As an ambulance driver in WWI, Walt Disney’s time in Europe sparked a lifelong fascination with Europe and a deep affection for France. Sparking his imagination, the elaborate interiors set the scene for many of his renowned tales.
Part of the exhibition explores the parallels between Beauty & The Beast’s beloved characters and the ornate furniture they were inspired by. From a charming candelabra called Lumiere to a tightly-wound clock known as Cogsworth, Disney popularised the fancy trappings of the ancien regime.
Check out our trip to the exhibition on our instagram via this link.
Embracing theatricality and exuberant fantasy while flirting with romanticism, the exhibition in its entirety – along with a seminar on the intersections of art, pop culture and luxury – epitomised how the storytelling, craftsmanship and imagination underpinning the finest rococo works of art inspired a movement, and how that cycle has continued to this day. Not only in terms of art, but by causing cataclysmic shifts in entertainment, hospitality, travel, business and luxury itself.
At its core, luxury is about animating the inanimate.
Imbuing a product with meaning far greater than the sum of its parts. Designing what ownership of a luxury item represents for the owner – both internally and externally – through the origin of the product and the meaning attached to it.
Luxury, from whichever era, appeals to higher levels of aspiration, imagination and fantastical beliefs. Through the creation of desire and stimulation of dreams.
It appeals to an idealised inner self, and it's the job of luxury brands to define the parameters of that idea. Just as eighteenth-century rococo artists did. Just as twentieth-century Walt Disney did.