Brr! It's a chilly day here at Hagley Library, so we hit the Digital Archive looking for some winter weather #FashionFriday inspiration. We found it in this 1963 photograph of Olympic medalistalpine ski racer Betsy Snite, seen here modeling a sweater made of Orlon from the Textile Fibers Department of the DuPont Company.
The department, established in 1936 as the Rayon Department, specialized in researching and developing synthetic fibers for fabrics such as Rayon, Nylon, Teflon, Corian, and Kevlar.In 1952, the DuPont Company organized a Product Information section within the Public Relations Department. Its main purpose was to create news releases accompanied by photographs like this one that would be run editorially by trade journals and newspapers to create inexpensive publicity and indirect advertising.
This photograph is part of Hagley Library's collection of DuPont Company Textile Fibers Product Information photographs(Accession 1984.259). This collection consists of the Fabric master files and Textile reference files maintained by the Product Information Department. The majority of the photographs in the Fashion master files are posed fashion images featuring women modeling clothing made from DuPont synthetic fibers. There are images that feature children's and men's clothing as well. To view a selection of images from this collection, click here to visit its page in our Digital Archive.