Disguised Asceticism: The Promotion of Austerity in Interior Design during the Interwar Period in Flanders, Belgium

Ascetism and austerity were—and to a certain extent still are—powerful ideological tropes in interior design. Modern architects designed simple and austere home interiors attempting to rationalizing household practices and promoting a more ascetic lifestyle. In her essay, Sofie de Caigny describes how these modern interiors were marketed to the rural and working classes in Flanders during the interwar period. In order to analyze this market campaign, De Caigny mainly studies magazines aimed at women and directed by social organizations such as the Catholic Working-class Women and the Socialist Visionary Women. Because the ascetic modern ideal encountered little success among the popular classes, the social organizations advocated an ‘integrative modernity’ that was in tune with their popular values. It promoted therefore a more ‘cosy’ interior with a traditional and rustic aesthetic. De Caigny’s argument is that the marketing of austerity was promoted as a means of social emancipation and dissociating the working-class from bourgeois culture—but these social organizations also perpetuated conservative belief in social and gender inequality.