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Lilly Pulitzer quickly shifted from a housewife, to a booming textile and clothing designer. Lilly started her early life off coming from strong surnames and was the middle of 3 daughters. She had success in her education and even rubbed elbows with future First Lady, Jackie Kennedy. She eloped at 21, and was a mother to 3 children. In this time of her life, she thrived as a notable party host. But even with all of her parties and warm company, Lilly went into a bout of depression and was checked into a psychiatric facility. Following her release, her only medical advice was to find a hobby. Her husband, a successful citrus grove owner, offered to let her sell his oranges. She started selling to her neighbors off a wagon, and quickly upgraded to a juice stand.

After long days of selling her juice, she noticed her crisp, white shorts were becoming stained by the splashing juice. She headed to Five-and-Dime and bought some brightly printed fabric to take to a seamstress to make shift dresses, with slits on the sides to accommodate bending over at her stand. She even sold some dresses at the stand to her customers for $22.50 a piece. Lilly couldn’t keep up with the overwhelming success her dress sales brought, and within one year, she was shipping to Lord & Taylor and Saks Fifth Avenue. She opened her first shop off of Worth Avenue in 1961 and by 2010, Lilly Pulitzer had grown to be a $250 million company.

Lilly can attribute some of her success due to her social status, lineage, education and peer connections, but, with her determination and simplistic design features, her brightly patterned dresses soared in sales. It wasn’t always smooth sailing for the company as a whole, filing for bankruptcy in 1984, and a decade later two businessmen bought her brand for revival and she remained a consultant after her retirement in 1993. Lilly passed from natural causes in 2013, but her colorful designs live on. The true brand identity is found in the hand painted patterns and designs the company is based on, and to know it’s a true Lilly design, look for the hidden “Lilly” in every print. To fully describe the perfect Lilly client, “The Lilly girl is always full of surprises. She lives everyday like its a celebration, never has a dull moment, and makes every hour happy hour.” -Lilly Pulitzer.

Current Prints

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Collaborations

Lilly Pulitzer x Swell

Lilly Pulitzer x Target

Lilly Pulitzer x Pottery Barn

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I chose Lilly because I had an absolute infatuation with her during high school. I even stayed up for her first Swell x Lilly Pulitzer water bottle launch to get my hands on two of the exclusive water bottles, even if it was at 4am. During my senior year, I wasn’t myself without my Lilly shorts on and eating my avocado toast on a Lilly plate.

You can follow the brand @lillypulitzer and keep up to date with new prints and collaboration launches.

XOXO,

Kenzie Rae

***Written for my Textile Design course at The University of Alabama