Lilly Pulitzer
Summer, sun and sea
Lilly Pulitzer’s concept may be best described with the words of summer, sun and sea. Whenever one looks at one of her clothing, they think of a sandy beach or palm trees in sunny Florida—and not without reason.
The story dates back to the 1950s. It doesn’t take a fashion historian to know that women’s dress and fashions in general underwent dramatic changes in Europe at that time. A decade after the Second World War, Dior, Givenchy and Chanel were dictating the changing lines and shapes of womenswear, while French designs were being replicated the world over. Lilly Pulitzer—whose husband was the grandson of press magnate Joseph Pulitzer who established the Pulitzer Prize—opened her first fashion store in Palm Beach during the same period, which was the result of chance. The story began when the young woman, Lilly first opened a juice stand. Since her husband owned large orange groves, it was not a bad idea to squeeze juice from these fruits and sell as refreshing drinks in Florida’s summer heat. She soon learned that squeezing juice was staining her clothes. To women’s joy, she resolved the problem not by putting on an apron but by sewing a couple of colourful and printed dresses to easily hide stains and maintain her attractive appearance. So it was that ladies were no longer lining up at the stand to buy juice but to beg Lilly to sell them the eye-catching dresses.
Lilly Pulitzer quickly sized up the situation and switched to clothing design. Leaving the juice stand behind, she started making colourful, bright and playful dresses, which would soon become very popular.
A real breakthrough came when her former classmate, Jacquelin Kennedy, the then First Lady, was photographed wearing one of her dresses. What happened next is what happens today when a celebrity is photographed wearing any dress: everyone wanted that dress. Lilly Pulitzer commenced large-scale production and began opening stores selling her dresses.
The Jacqueline dress is still produced today by the company, which gets immediately snatched up by the most loyal (or rather most determined) buyers.
The brand later began to experience problems and she closed its struggling operation in 1984. The brand was reborn and today Lilly Pulitzer dresses are very popular, primarily in the US. In terms of price, ‘Lillies’ are more like high-end clothes, which definitely capture the essence of Palm Beach. It is to be noted that the company does not produce fall/winter collection, just summer collection consisted of resort wear and beach dresses. Lilly Pulitzer explained this by stating that it’s always summer somewhere.
