The Drefuss designs were part of a new wave of appliance design that emerged in the mid 1930s. Up until this point, the vast majority of domestic appliances were styled with function rather than any aesthetic appeal in mind, but as appliance ownership increased (particularly in the USA), sales decreased as the market reached saturation point, a matter not aided by the repurcussions of the Wall Street crash of 1926 and the economic depression that followed.

The solution that many manufacturers chose to stimulate the market with was good design, which would add showroom appeal to new goods and also render older but still functional goods stylistically obsolete. When the first of Dreyfuss' designs appeared in the USA in 1936 with the Hoover 150 Cleaning Ensemble, the preceeding models of the Hoover vacuum cleaner had been little changed in outward appearance since 1919, despite various technical improvements. Dreyfuss kept the basic layout of the components, which were of sound design anyway, but improved several other aspects of the design.

The machine was made lighter in weight thanks to the substitution of aluminium with magnesium alloy and bakelite plastic, and the fitting procedure for the hose and its attendend bakelite accessories was greatly simplified. Most noticeable however, was the comprehensive redesign of the motor head of the cleaner. The Hoover Cleaner of 1919 was strictly functional in design; Dreyfuss applied the principles of streamlining to this. Although the only change this made to the operation of the machine was the lack of nooks and crannies that could gather dust, it provided a striking visual contrast to the older products, and suggested modernity and efficiency.

After the launch of the 150 in 1936, several different variations appeared; the European equivalent model 160 was introduced in 1938, and more basic models (with single speed motors) such as the 26, 27 and 28 in the USA and the 262 like the machine in the photos in Europe. However, in keeping with the principles of built-in obsolescence, this family of cleaners was quickly superceded by the launch of the model 60, introduced to the American market in 1940 (and belatedly to Europe as the model 612 in 1949), this cleaner abandoned the rounded teardrop shape of the 150 and its associated models in favour of a rather more squared up and aggressive style. Again, this machine was the work of Dreyfuss, but when he next totally restyled the flagship model of the company with the model 65 (UK model 652 of 1957), its design had clear echoes of his initial work for Hoover.