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Styling Synthetics: DuPont's Marketing of Fabrics and Fashions in Postwar America

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  13 December 2011

Regina Lee Blaszczyk
Regina Lee Blaszczyk
Affiliation:
REGINA LEE BLASZCZYK is an independent scholar affiliated with the Department of the History and Sociology of Science at the University of Pennsylvania and the Hagley Museum and Library.
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Abstract

Scholars have studied innovation from various perspectives, but few have considered the interaction between big business and the fashion marketplace. This study examines the efforts of E. I. du Pont de Nemours & Company to create and expand the American synthetic-fibers market after World War II. DuPont described this work as transforming the “relatively simple ‘art’ of selling fabric” into the “complicated ‘science’ of marketing.” This process involved developing in-house marketing expertise and reaching out to sources as disparate as American fabric designers, Parisian couturiers, Seventh Avenue manufacturers, southern textile giants, and mass-market retailers. To promote the “wonders” of synthetic fibers, DuPont relied on “fashion intermediaries” to determine what customers wanted and how its fibers could meet those needs. This study suggests that the mass-market success of DuPont's synthetic fibers owed as much to creative marketing, styling, and performance as it did to industrial research and organizational innovation.

Type
Articles
Information
Business History Review , Volume 80 , Issue 3: Fashion and Style , Autumn 2006 , pp. 485 - 528
Copyright
Copyright © The President and Fellows of Harvard College 2006

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References

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40 Horowitz, The Anxieties of Affluence, 51–64.

41 Dichter, Ernest, “Nine Ways to Vitalize Textile Sales,” AF 43 (Summer 1958): 54Google Scholar.

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55 Holmes, “History of the Textile Fibers Department,” 69–76, 91; Hounshell and Smith, Science and Corporate Strategy, 394–407; press releases and photographs, “Orion Becomes a Man” promotion, Feb.-Mar. 1953, box 74, PR-HML.

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61 Kester, “Idea Fabrics,” 4.

62 Ibid. By 1963, Stevens was the second largest U.S. textile manufacturer, and one of DuPont's biggest customers, purchasing $36.7 million worth of goods from the Textile Fibers Department. See M. C. Huston, “Robert T. Stevens Visit,” 30 Mar. 1964, box 28, acc. 1814, papers of Crawford H. Greenewalt, Hagley Museum and Library, Wilmington [hereafter cited as CG-HML].

63 “Foreign Fabrics,” DM 44 (Sept.-Oct. 1950): 31Google Scholar; press release, “Collection of 100,000 Foreign Fabrics Opened by DuPont,” 13 Apr. 1950, box 2, PR-HML; “Synthetic Fabrics Make Dress Preview,” NYT, 9 June 1954.

64 Bednar, Robert M., “Showcase of Fashion Fabrics,” DM 59 (Jan.-Feb. 1965): 16Google Scholar.

65 Ibid., 16,18.

66 A. J. Dallas to Dorothy Liebes, 20 Jan. 1955, folder: special letters, box 17; Dorothy Liebes, “My Story,” typescript, n.d., 444–46, box 4; Dorothy Liebes–T. Nash Broaddus letters, 1, 4 Feb. 1960; and Dorothy Liebes to P. D. Atwood, 18 Jan. 1961, in folder: DuPont 1960, box 1, all in Dorothy Liebes Papers, Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C. [hereafter cited as DL-AAA].

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68 Dorothy Liebes to L. R. Blackhurst, 15 Aug. 1962, folder: DuPont, 1962, box 1, DL-AAA.

69 A. H. Freeman, “The Market for Bedspreads,” MR-53-9, 8 Dec. 1953, box 78, TF-HML.

70 Carpet Institute, Basic Facts about the Carpet and Rug Industry, 10–11.

71 Liebes to Blackhurst, 27 May 1960, folder: DuPont 1960, box 1, DL-AAA.

72 Harry Palfreeman, “Fibres and Carpets,” Canadian Textile Journal (28 Nov. 1958): 71.

73 Liebes to Blackhurst, 28 June 1960, folder: DuPont 1960, box 1, DL-AAA.

74 Holmes, “The History of the Textile Fibers Department,” 14, 26, 35–38; Don W. Gay, “Concept Marketing,” 15 Dec. 1976, 12, JWL-CHF; L. R. Blackhurst Jr. to R. W. Jones, 25 March 1964, folder: March–April 1964, and Dorothy Liebes to Everett Brown, 28 July 1964, folder: July–Aug. 1964, both in box 7, DL-AAA.

75 L. R. Blackhurst to P. R. Price, “Membership Luncheon,” 15 Dec. 1960, folder: DuPont, 1960, box 1, DL-AAA.

76 Liebes to Blackhurst, 15 Aug. 1962; Dorothy Liebes Design to L. R. Blackhurst et al., “Activities Report, July 1962,” folder: DuPont 1962, and Judith Mortenson to Mary McLoud, 12 Aug. 1960, folder: DuPont 1960, both in box 1, DL-AAA.

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80 Dorothy Liebes to Al Freeman, 23 Apr. 1962, folder: DuPont, 1962, box 1, DL-AAA.

81 Dorothy Liebes to C. B. Tyson, 25 Jan. 1960, folder: DuPont 1960, box 1, DL-AAA.

82 G. D. Hobbs, “The Dress Industry,” Textile Fibers Department [1952], box 78, TF-HML.

83 “Weaving New Fabrics,” NYT, 28 Sept. 1951; “Fashion Show at Opera,” NYT, 30 Oct. 1954. The fiber industries had been sponsoring fashion shows to promote cotton and rayon since the early twentieth century. Conversation with Dilys E. Blum, curator of Costume and Textiles, Philadelphia Museum of Art, 1 Aug. 2006.

84 On Paris, see Banner, Lois W., American Beauty (Chicago, 1983)Google Scholar; Steele, Valerie, Paris Fashion: A Cultural History (New York, 1988)Google Scholar; Crane, Diana, Fashion and Its Social Agendas (Chicago, 2000)CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Palmer, Alexandra, Couture and Commerce: The Transatlantic Fashion Trade in the 1950s (Vancouver, 2001)Google Scholar; and Blum, Dilys E., Shocking! The Art and Fashion of Elsa Schiaparelli (Philadelphia, 2003)Google Scholar.

85 Herbert Brean, “High Style Cash and Carry,” Life, 26 Jan. 1953, reprinted in Inside the Fashion Business, eds. Jarnow and Judelle, 151–56; “C'est Si Bon, U.S. Buyers Say of Paris,” NYT, 12 Feb. 1958.

86 For DuPont's 1930s experience with designers, see Madame Margé Collection, Special Collections Department, Gladys Marcus Library, Fashion Institute of Technology, New York.

87 L. Mehrmann to E. B. Winn, “Introduction of Qiana through the Parisian Couture,” 8 Aug. 1968, and Lyn Stevenson to Helen Gray, “Fall Paris Collections—July 1968,” 9 Jan. 1968, both in box 18, PR-HML.

88 On DuPont and French fashion, see Blaszczyk, Regina Lee, “DuPont et la Chambre Syndicale de la Couture Parisienne,” in La Mode des Sixties, eds. Ruffat, Michèle and Veillon, Dominique (Paris, forthcoming)Google Scholar.

89 Holmes, “History of the Textile Fibers Department,” 19, [23f], [23g].

90 Martin, Richard, ed., The St. James Fashion Encyclopedia (New York, 1997), 152–54Google Scholar; Liaut, Jean-Noël, Hubert de Givenchy: Entre Vies et Légendes (Paris, 2000)Google Scholar.

91 Holmes, “History of the Textile Fibers Department,” 13.

92 Press releases, “American Man-Made Fiber Featured in Givenchy's Collection,” 5 Feb. 1954, and “New Givenchy Collection Features Surah with Orion,” 18 Feb. 1954, box 2, PR-HML.

93 Holmes, “History of the Textile Fibers Department,” 14; photographs of Chanel designs, Mar. 1954, box 74, PR-HML.

94 “Parisians Pour Plaudits on Synthetics,” Chemical Week 74 (26 June 1954): 24Google Scholar; “Synthetic Fabrics Used by Parisians,” NYT, 12 July 1954.

95 Photographs and captions of Givenchy's Orion sweaters, Jan.-Feb.1955, box 71; press releases, “Orion Stars in Paris in Special Givenchy Collection,” 5 Feb. 1955, and “First Fashion Show in United States of Paris-Designed Costumes in Orion,” 17 Mar. 1955, box 4; “Paris-Designed Costumes Containing Orion Acrylic Fiber,” fashion show by the DuPont Company, Hotel Plaza, New York, 17 Mar. 1955, box 4, all in PR-HML. Palmer [Couture and Commerce, 183–94] describes strategies developed by 1950s couturiers to benefit from the mass market, including licensing, boutique lines, and ready-to-wear. Givenchy's Orion sweaters, shown in the weeks after his regular collection, may have fit one of these models.

96 Photograph of Balmain's Nymphea gown, 29 Feb. 1956, box 71; press releases, “Use of Nylon at Dior Expected to Influence American Fashions,” 25 Feb. 1958, box 2, and “Paris Shows Spectacular Late-Day Fashions in Fabrics Containing Man-Made Fibers,” 12 Aug. 1958, box 2; photographs of Paris collections, 26 Aug. 1958, box 69, all in PR-HML.

97 Gay, “Concept Marketing,” 14–15.

98 Photographs showing displays of multifibers in Paris fashions, Mar. 1958, box 69, PR-HML.

99 “Keeping the Accounts,” BL 11 (Nov.-Dec. 1957): 1Google Scholar.

100 Photographs, “Orion in Paris” fashion show, Sept. 1955, box 71; “Paris Couture Costumes with Orion Acrylic Fiber,” 21 Sept. 1955, box 4; script for Paris fashion show, 21 Sept. 1955. box 4, all in PR-HML. The disposition of DuPont's couture models is unknown. Generally, models imported as design sources were shipped out of the U.S. within six months in order to avoid paying customs duties, but this may not have been an issue for DuPont. See “C'est Si Bon,” and Palmer, Couture and Commerce, 135–47.

101 Eleanor Parrish to Crawford H. Greenewalt, 26 Aug. 1957; Andrew E. Buchanan Jr. to Greenewalt, 13 Sept. 1957, both in box 27, CG-HML.

102 For French designs and American copies, see materials for the “Paris in America” promotion, Mar. 1959, box 64, PR-HML. In some instances, couturiers created models using DuPont fibers, but prohibited reproduction; see folder: “Sample of Orion and Other Fibers Combinations,” 1961, box 18, PR-HML. American firms importing Dior originals to make spin-offs that retailed for less than $100 were forbidden to use the couture house's name to market them. Dior sanctioned the use of the pseudonym “Monsieur X” for these moderately priced copies. See Gloria Emerson, “What's in a Name?,” NYT, 16 Sept. 1960; and Palmer, Couture and Commerce, 174–75.

103 William M. Freeman, “News of the Advertising and Marketing Fields,” NYT, 4 Nov. 1956; “Hot Competition in the Making"; “Beating the Drums for a New Fiber,” BW (12 Nov. 1960): 134–38; Louis F. Laun, “Forward Looking Marketing Techniques at the Fiber, Mill, and Manufacturing Levels,” speech given at the Fashion Institute of Technology, New York, 17 Nov. 1969, in Inside the Fashion Business, 2nd ed., eds. Jarnow and Judelle, 90–94.

104 Press releases, “Givenchy Sweater Collection Launches New Orion Filament Yarn,” 26 Jan. 1959, and “Givenchy Sweater Collection Presented to Press by DuPont,” 17 Feb. 1959, both in box 1, PR-HML.

105 Charles H. Rutledge to Mrs. A. T. Lubin, 12 Feb. 1957, box 27, CG-HML.

106 “Hot Competition in the Making”; “Too Many Fibers Spoil the Miracle,” BW (29 Oct. 1966): 165–70.

107 Textile Organon 52 (Oct. 1981): 176Google Scholar; Gee, “Textile Fibers Department”; Holmes, “History of the Textile Fibers Department,” 91, 95.

108 DuPont Fiber Facts (Wilmington [ca. 1965])Google Scholar; Rutledge to Lubin; DuPont's Biggest Customer,” BL (May-June 1967): 1–7.

109 Hounshell and Smith, Science and Corporate Strategy, 419; photos 416–25 and 416–35: “Orion Becomes a Man,” 24 Feb. 1953, box 74, PR-HML.

110 Roswell Magill to Crawford Greenewalt, 20 Oct. 1959, box 27, CG-HML.

111 “Blended Synthetics Offer Any Cloth You Want,” 32–34; “Wardrobe Revolution,” BL 14 (Nov.-Dec. 1960): 16–18Google Scholar; Milestones in the DuPont Company's Textile Fibers History, 13th ed. (Wilmington, 1980), 5Google Scholar.

112 On Ward, see Textile Distributors Institute, Men's Wear Fabric Styling Clinic Work Kit, 24 Feb. 1955, Special Collections, Paul J. Gutman Library, Philadelphia University, Philadelphia; Holmes, “A History of the Textile Fibers Department,” 98, 102, 110.

113 Untitled press release, 8 Apr. 1959, box 1, PR-HML.

114 “Wardrobe Revolution,” 12–15.

115 “The Sweater Girl,” BL 13 (Jan.-Feb. 1959): 12–15Google Scholar.

116 Press release on sweaters, untitled, 2 Oct. 1959, box 4, PR-HML.

117 “The Leader Can Never Stop Running,” 21.

118 “DuPont Sees Rise in Textile Needs,” NYT, 15 Sept. 1959.

119 Gomer H. Ward, “Where the Action Is,” 5–6, speech to the Textile Salesmen's Association, New York, 13 Apr. 1967, box 83, TF-HML.

120 Weiss, E. B. and Weiss, Richard E., 1010 Tested Ideas that Move Merchandise (New York, 1962)Google Scholar; and Weiss, E. B., Management and the Marketing Revolution: Merchandising Strategies for the New Era (New York, 1964)Google Scholar.

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122 “Fabrics on the Move,” DM 56 (July-Aug. 1962): 20–22Google Scholar.

123 “Dealers Cautioned on Apparel Trends,” NYT, 21 Oct. 1966.

124 Blaszczyk, Imagining Consumers, chs. 3–4.

125 “From Miami to Mount Tremblant,” DM 57 (Mar.-Apr. 1963): 23–25Google Scholar.

126 See “Where Did Stretch Fabrics Begin?” AF 63 (Winter-Spring 1964): iv–vGoogle Scholar.

127 Steele, Valerie, Fashion, Italian Style (New Haven, 2003), 25–27Google Scholar; Heine, Emily, “New Fabrics Are Shaping Sportswear,” DM 55 (Sept.-Oct. 1961): 4Google Scholar.

128 Press release on Lycra, 28 Oct. 1959, box 80, PR-HML; Hounshell and Smith, Science and Corporate Strategy, 431.

129 Press release, “Lycra Spandex Fiber” [1959–60], box 29, PR-HML; “Lycra: Sheer Strength in an Elastic Fiber,” DM 56 (May–June 1962): 8–9Google Scholar.

130 J. T. Phillips Jr. et al., “The Women's Apparel Industry,” report by the Corporate Research Division, Morgan Guaranty Trust Company, N.Y., 19 Apr. 1967, 1–6, 9–10, box 28, CG-HML; “Cossard's Color Live-in Keeps America Beautiful,” Corset, Bra, and Lingerie Magazine 145 (Mar. 1968)Google Scholar: cover.

131 On intimate apparel and feminine identity, see Steele, Valerie, Fashion and Eroticism: Ideals of Feminine Beauty from the Victorian Era to the Jazz Age (New York, 1985)Google Scholar.

132 Mrs. Arthur E. Bobert, Janesville, Wis., to DuPont Show of the Week, New York, 16 Dec. 1962, box 79, TF-HML.

133 W. H. Ayers, “The Shirt Industry,” MR-52-2,11 July 1952, box 78, TF-HML.

134 Ibid.

135 Press release, “Flexible Spring Fashions Have New Built-in Action,” 3 Feb. 1964, box 14, PR-HML.

136 Photographs for suit by Palm Beach and casual wear by Esquire and Amho, 3 Feb. 1964, box 14, PR-HML.

137 White, Reconstructing Italian Fashion; Breward, Christopher, Fashioning London: Clothing and the Modern Metropolis (New York, 2004)Google Scholar.

138 “A Tale of Gods and Fashion” (Wilmington, 1962)Google Scholar, Archives Center, Smithsonian National Museum of American History, Washington, D.C., cited by Scott in “Dressing Down.”

139 Nora Ephron, “The Man in the Bill Blass Suit,” NYT, 8 Dec. 1968.

140 “Fall 1964 Resource List—Men's and Boy's Wear Containing Lycra Spandex Fiber” [1964], box 73, PR-HML.

141 Clement A. Norton to DuPont Company, 13 Nov. 1963, box 79, TF-HML.

142 “New Stretch for Men's Clothing,” BW (25 Jan. 1964): 86–87.

143 Martin, St. James Fashion Encyclopedia, 405–7; press release, “Teen Girls See What's Right—as Well as Wrong—in Fashions Just for Them,” 12 Feb. 1963, box 74, PR-HML; “Visitors to Fair Will Be Greeted by a World of Fashion,” NYT, 17 Apr. 1965.

144 “Yoga Inspires Maker of Casual Styles,” NYT, 2 May 1964.

145 Press release, “World's Fair Guides’ Uniforms Showcase Fibers by DuPont,” 6 May 1964, and photograph RS-WFDP: “World's Fair Hostess Uniform,” both in box 17, PR-HML.

146 Press release, “DuPont Offers Retailers Stretch Corps 1965,” 3 Aug. 1964, box 17; Stretch Your Sales… Comfortably… (Wilmington, [1964])Google Scholar, box 73, both in PR-HML.

147 “13 Women Triumphing Vicariously,” NYT, 5 Feb. 1995; Ackmann, Martha, The Mercury 13: The Untold Story of Thirteen American Women and Their Dream of Space Flight (New York, 2003)Google Scholar; Nolen, Stephanie, Promised the Moon: The Untold Story of the First Women in the Space Race (New York, 2003)Google Scholar.

148 “Biography of Mrs. Geraldine Sloan,” 1964, and untitled press release on John Weitz's wardrobe for Sloan, July 1964, both in box 17, PR-HML.

149 Ibid.

150 Ward, “Where the Action Is,” 4; Ernest Dichter, “The Peacock Revolution: The Psychology of the Young Men's Market,” speech delivered at Scottsdale, Ariz., 18 Feb. 1966.

151 Holmes, “The History of the Textile Fibers Department,” 93; Brown, Alfred E. and Reinhart, Kenneth A., “Polyester Fiber: From Its Invention to Its Present Position,” Science 173 (23 July 1971): 287CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed; Textile Organon 52 (Oct. 1981): 176Google Scholar.

152 Gee, “Textile Fibers Department.”

153 Schulman, Bruce J., The Seventies: The Great Shift in American Culture, Society, and Politics (New York, 2001)Google Scholar; Jones, Geoffrey, Multinationals and Global Capitalism: From the Nineteenth to the Twenty-first Century (New York, 2005)Google Scholar.

154 Hardin, “Miracle Fiber to Commodity”; Schneider, Jane, “In and Out of Polyester: Desire, Disdain and Global Fibre Competitions,” Anthropology Today 10 (Aug. 1994): 2–10CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

155 Handley, Nylon.

156 Sears Apparel and Decorator Fashion Fabrics, Fall and Winter 1974 (Chicago, 1974)Google Scholar, author's possession.

157 Textile Organon 52 (Oct. 1981): 176Google Scholar; 52 (Nov. 1981): 185–199; Fiber Organon 61 (Sept. 1990): 201–16Google Scholar; Ann Marie Murphy to DuPont Company, 3 Apr. 1976, box 79, TF-HML.

158 Hounshell and Smith, Science and Corporate Strategy, 328, 504, 538; This Is DuPont: Man-Made Fibers (Wilmington, 1951), 1Google Scholar.

159 Arnold, Pauline and White, Percival, Clothes and Cloth: America's Apparel Business (New York, 1961), 160Google Scholar.

160 “Dupont's Fashion Show Is Designed to Sell Fibers,” NYT, 24 Jan. 1971.

161 James J. Hackett, “The Outlook for Man-Made Fibers and Yarns in Textile Products,” typescript of an article for Journal of Commerce, 16 June 1964, box 28, CG-HML.

162 “Stretch and the American Concept of Comfort in Fashion,” iii.