The weather has been getting warmer, well, ever so slightly warmer… storage boxes are being taken out from underneath beds. University Avenue boys, just like our irons, are turned on for the return of sundresses to our closets.
What does this glorious return entail, you ask? Lilly, Lilly Pulitzer as far as the eye can see.
Whether you think Lilly is “that shower curtain company,” or if you think that Lilly is God’s gift to men and women alike, there’s a reason Lilly Pulitzer was named the Queen of Prep, and her story is certainly worth a read:
At 21, heiress and socialite Lillian McKim eloped with Peter Pulitzer, escaping from New York to Palm Beach. Peter was the owner of several orange citrus groves. Using her husband’s produce, the newly married Lilly Pulitzer opened a juice stand off of Worth Avenue in Palm Beach.
Lilly soon found that the stains from the juice ruined her dresses, so she had a shift dress made in brightly colored cotton to disguise the stains. Soon, customers seemed to love her dresses more than the juice, so she produced more of the dresses and sold them at the juice stand. Her dresses quickly became known as “Lillys,” and she ditched the juice stand in order to pursue her already successful line of colorful frocks.
In 1959, she became the President of Lilly Pulitzer Inc. In 1962, the brand really took off when Jacqueline Kennedy appeared in LIFE magazine wearing a “lilly.” Pulitzer said this about her rise to success, “Jackie wore one of my dresses – it was made from kitchen curtain material – and people went crazy. They took off like zingo.”
The brand was wildly successful from the 1960’s to the 1980’s, and Lilly reigned as the brand for America’s elite. Sadly, Lilly experienced a decline in the start of the ’80’s. In 1984, she shut her doors and halted the production of her Lillys. But, never fear, in 1993, the brand saw a revival after it was purchased by Sugartown Worldwide Inc. They purchased the company because “They just loved Lilly, their mothers and sisters loved Lilly, and they wanted to bring the line back.” Since, the brand has been wildly successful, clothing generations of preppy women.
Charlotte from Sex and the City in Lilly: Do we need any more evidence of the brand’s revival in the 90’s?
Lilly Pulitzer died in April of last year, but her legacy still lives on. Just look at the quad on Spring day!