Regina Lee Blaszczyk

Have you ever wondered why fashion colors change from season to season? Why black has suddenly appeared in all the stores? Who decides which colors will be popular?

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"The Importance of Being True Blue:
The DuPont Company and the Color Revolution"

IN AUGUST 1926 Irénée du Pont, vice chairman at E. I. du Pont de Nemours & Company, wrote to Henry H. Bassett, general manager of the Buick division at General Motors Corporation (GM). During the early 1920s DuPont and GM, both under the leadership of Pierre S. du Pont, had collaborated to develop Duco Finish--a type of quick-drying, durable, inexpensive, and colorful automotive lacquer. More recently DuPont's corporate colorists had created a distinctive palette for GM. Now the automotive giant, which used Duco on many of its cars, was trying to lure DuPont's premier colorist, H. Ledyard Towle, to its Fisher Body division. Irénée du Pont objected.

Towle ran the DuPont Company's Duco Color Advisory Service in New York, taking orders from automobile companies and advising them on style and color. In the process Towle developed an insider's view of automobile finishing. The Duco Color Advisory Service enhanced Du Pont's reputation as a trustworthy firm that responded to its customers' needs while safeguarding their aesthetic decisions. If Towle were to leave for GM, accounts with other automakers might be jeopardized. Irénée du Pont cautioned Bassett: "Many of the customers for Duco would properly feel that some of their confidences had been violated." It was imperative that Towle--and Detroit's trade secrets about color--remain at DuPont.

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How did this tale of industrial espionage end?

Did Towle stay at DuPont or go to GM?

Find out by reading the complete essay in Elspeth Brown's edited book, Cultures of Commerce: Representation and American Business Culture, 1877-1960 (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2006).