1. Helene Rother was the first woman to work as an automotive designer when she joined the interior styling staff of General Motors in Detroit in 1943.
23 Facts About Helene Rother
1. 2.
Helene Rother specialized in designs for automotive interiors, as well as furniture, jewelry, fashion accessories, and stained glass windows.
3.
Helene Rother was posthumously inducted into the Automotive Hall of Fame in 2020.
4.
Helene Rother later moved to Paris, where she designed both high fashion jewelry and popular miniature animal pins worn by women on hats and dresses before World War II.
5.
In 1932, Helene Rother gave birth to her daughter, Ina Ann Helene Rother, whose father would later be active in the French Resistance and on the run for years.
6.
Helene Rother fled from Nazi-occupied France, together with her seven-year-old daughter Ina, to a refugee camp in northern Africa, where they stayed for four months before finding passage to the US on a ship and arrived in New York City on 11 August 1941.
7.
Helene Rother joined the interior styling staff and was responsible for upholstery colors and fabrics, lighting, door hardware, and seat construction.
8.
In 1947, Helene Rother established her design studio in the Fisher Building, specializing in designs for automotive interiors, furniture, and stained glass windows.
9.
Helene Rother was contracted by Nash Motors and styled the interiors of most of their cars from 1948 to 1956.
10.
Helene Rother designed the Rambler's interiors to appeal to the feminine eye because she knew what women looked for in a car.
11.
Helene Rother's designs featured elegant, stylish, and expensive fabrics coordinated in colors and trim.
12.
Helene Rother toured the 1951 Paris Auto Salon and was the first woman to address the Society of Automotive Engineers in Detroit.
13.
Helene Rother conferred with Pinin Farina, who styled the exterior of the 1953 Nash Airflytes, to coordinate with the interiors and new custom fabrics.
14.
Helene Rother purchased a home on Chicago Boulevard in Detroit, with living quarters upstairs and a studio downstairs, where she continued other independent consulting work.
15.
Helene Rother's clients included several tire manufacturing companies, as well as non-automotive firms.
16.
Helene Rother was responsible for designing the interiors of ambulances and hearses for Miller-Meteor.
17.
Helene Rother decided she wanted to begin producing art again, so she visited Europe where she saw the struggle to restore or rebuild war-damaged churches and cathedrals.
18.
Helene Rother designed stained glass for churches in the US and had installations in the mid-1960s, mainly in Michigan.
19.
Helene Rother designed stained glass windows for a modern cathedral, Our Lady Queen of Peace, in Harper Woods, Michigan.
20.
Helene Rother used 1-inch thick pieces of glass, which consisted of twelve elongated triangular frames that merged at the top of the circle.
21.
Helene Rother remains relatively unknown in the world of stained glass as women who designed stained glass, either independently or under a major studio name, were mostly unrecognized at the time.
22.
Helene Rother is an industrial designer with an impressive record.
23.
Helene Rother has been identified as the "patron saint" of the Las Vegas Concours d'Elegance and a bust inspired the design of the award trophies.