Helene Rother (1908–1999) was the first woman to work as an automotive designer when she joined the interior styling staff of General Motors in Detroit in 1943.

], where she designed both high fashion jewelry and popular miniature animal pins worn by women on hats and dresses before World War II.

[5] 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 U.S. on a ship and arrived in New York City on 11 August 1941.

They described her "efforts have encompassed items ranging from jewelry and accessories to several of today's automobiles, and quoted her that "even the Army is ahead of industry in employing the talents of women.

[16] 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.

[19] 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.

[24] That year, Nash merged with Hudson to create American Motors Corporation (AMC), but her influence on interior fashion in automobiles continued.

Rother purchased a home on Chicago Boulevard in Detroit, with living quarters upstairs and a studio downstairs, where she continued other independent consulting work.

[6] A sterling flatware pattern called "Skylark" was designed by Rother for Samuel Kirk & Son, silver craftsmen firm since 1815, that the company issued from 1954 into the late-1980s.

[26] Rother decided she wanted to begin producing art again, so she visited Europe[clarification needed] where she saw the struggle to restore or rebuild war-damaged churches and cathedrals.

[30] The glass was selected and fabricated into small pieces by a family group of craftsmen in Buche, a suburb of Paris, before being shipped to the U.S. for final assembly during the construction.