Wearing Lilly Pulitzer

Answer 1

Luscious lime greens, passionate pinks and yellows the color of the sun, these are the colors of Lilly Pulitzer. It was only a few years ago that the name Pulitzer evoked the image of the prestigious literary prize; and though the prize is still awarded, the name Pulitzer has taken on a whole other meaning. The force behind the change comes in a petite package wrapped in colorful cotton and known as Lillian McKim Pulitzer.

No one would argue that Lilly Pulitzer has made a giant impact on the world of fashion. To mention her pinks and greens and shifts and sandals would be reapeating things that have replayed countless times in the preppiest of circles up and down the East Coast and far beyond.

Frequently Lilly Pulitzer is described as an entrepeneur, but it his her trail blazing spirit that often takes a back seat to her colorful clothing line. Unlike many women of her era and upbringing, Pulitzer was not content with just being a wife and one of Palm Beach’s most creative hostesesses. Lilly wanted to do something, and do she did.

She began selling oranges door to door to the hoi poli of Palm Beach. Imagine going to the back door of your mansion and finding Lilly selling produce from the back of her car !!! This led her to the next venture which was opening a fruit stand that featured freshly squeezed Orange Juice. Lilly was not afraid of hard work. She had after all, been a volunteer nurse’s aide in a veteran’s hospital and worked with the Frontier Nurses Service in the Appalachian area of West Virginia and Kentucky. Lilly soon discovered that her hard work with the juice stand took its toll on her clothing. She went home every evening with a myriad of blended fruit stains on her expensive clothing. Being the creative flower that is Lilly, she soon came up with a solution. She had her dressmaker make up several simple sleeveless dresses in prints that echoed the fruit she was selling. Voila ! The Lilly signature line was born. Shifts in Florida hues such as aqua blue, pink, green and lemon yellow soon became the have to have item for prepsters everywhere. The rest, as they say is history.

As stated earlier I will not expound on the success of Lilly’s clothing line. I will however draw ask you to reflect on this remarkable woman and how the world would be much less colorful had she chosen to just recline in the lap of luxury rather than paint the world around her.