The International Exhibition of Modern Decorative and Industrial Arts (Exposition internationale des arts décoratifs et industriels modernes) was a World's fair held in Paris, France, from April to October 1925. It was designed by the French government to highlight the new style moderne of architecture, interior decoration, furniture, glass, jewelry and other decorative arts in Europe and throughout the world. Many ideas of the international avant-garde in the fields of architecture and applied arts were presented for the first time at the Exposition. The event took place between the esplanade of Les Invalides and the entrances of the Grand Palais and Petit Palais, and on both banks of the Seine. There were 15,000 exhibitors from twenty different countries, and it was visited by sixteen million people during its seven-month run. The Style Moderne presented at the Exposition later became known as "Art Deco", after the name of the Exposition.
The idea for an exhibition entirely devoted the decorative arts originally came from the Société des Artistes Décorateurs (The Society of Decorative Artists), a group founded in 1901 which included both established artists, including Eugène Grasset and Hector Guimard, as well as younger artists including Francis Jourdain, Maurice Dufrêne, Paul Follot and Pierre Chareau. Decorative artists had been allowed to participate in the previous two Paris Salons, but they were placed subordinate to the painters, and they wanted an exhibit which gave first place to decorative arts. The first Salons of the new group were held in the newly opened Museum of Decorative Arts in the Pavillon de Marsan of the Louvre. The Salon d'Automne, a new Salon founded in 1903, honored painters, sculptors, graphics artists and architects, but again decorative arts were largely ignored. Frantz Jourdain announced the idea of holding a separate exhibit of decorative arts as soon as possible.