Nash Motors
She was soon contracted by Nash Motors and styled the elegant interiors of most of the cars from 1948 to 1956. Even the economical Nash Rambler models were prominently promoted as "irresistible glamour" on wheels. The innovative 100-inch wheelbase Rambler was conceived initially as a well-appointed convertible with its interior designed with the aid of Rother as a consultant. Nash used a strategy to give the new Rambler a positive public image by avoiding it being seen by the public as a "cheap little car." It was "well-equipped and stylish" with no "stripped-down" versions. The focus on design and quality features helped establish a new segment in the automobile market, as the Rambler is widely acknowledged to be the first successful modern American compact car.
Rother designed the Rambler's interiors to appeal to the feminine eye knew because she knew what women looked for in a car and her designs featured elegant, stylish, and expensive fabrics that coordinated in colors and trim. The new 1951 Rambler models were also "given the custom touch" with fabrics and colors selected by Rother that "equaled the best of interiors in American luxury cars of the period."
She toured the 1951 Paris Auto Salon, and was the first woman to address the Society of Automotive Engineers in Detroit. In 1953, Nash was awarded the Jackson Medal, "...since 1898, one of America's most sought-after awards," according to an advertisement, for excellence of design. Many Nash sales brochures and Rambler advertisements of the time featured the copy stating: "Styling by Pinin Farina and interiors by Madame Helene Rother of Paris" as proof of the European influence on company's automobile styling. She conferred with Pinin Farina, who styled the exterior of the 1953 Nash Airflytes, to coordinate with the interiors and new custom fabrics. In 1954 the Nash Ambassadors had a big feature: the completely new interior by Rother. That year, Nash merged with Hudson to create American Motors Corporation (AMC), but her influence on interior fashion in automobiles continued.
Read more about this topic: Helene Rother
Famous quotes containing the words nash and/or motors:
“Middle age is when you’ve met so many people that every new person you meet reminds you of someone else. . . .”
—Ogden Nash (1902–1971)
“When General Motors has to go to the bathroom ten times a day, the whole country’s ready to let go. You heard of that market crash in ‘29? I predicted that.... I was nursing a director of General Motors. Kidney ailment, they said; nerves, I said. Then I asked myself, “What’s General Motors got to be nervous about?” “Overproduction,” I says. “Collapse.””
—John Michael Hayes (b. 1919)