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  The company did a flourishing business with Detroit and I found it exciting to be assigned to design new patterns for the fabrics in automobiles. At that time, cars were upholstered in grey velour which looked depressingly similar to a dead mouse. The gloomy grey might be all right for the formal, chauffeur-driven town car but not, I thought, for the "home on wheels." It seemed to me the fabrics for the family car should have an outdoors look, the textured expression of say, Harris tweed, provided it was woven sufficiently hard and flat so that the passengers, sliding in and out, would not generate enough friction to start a fire. 
  When some designs were ready, Elmer Ward and one of his assistants, Arthur Brown, took me to Detroit for a conference with Verne Fisher, the chief stylist for General motors. On the way, they did some coaching, cautioning me, "Now, Dorothy, don't say this and don't say that." I know