Lilly Pulitzer is a clothing brand known for its colorful and bright-colored dresses. It was founded in 1959 by Lillian Pulitzer Rousseau, an American fashion designer, entrepreneur, and socialite born on November 10, 1931.
The journey started after the 21-year-old newlywed and new mom checked herself into a mental institution after feeling that she was going to have a mental breakdown. Her daughter, however, said it was probably undiagnosed postpartum depression.
During that time, Lillian Pulitzer and her husband, Herbert Pulitzer, had settled in Palm Beach, Florida where he owned several orange orchids. After spending months in the mental health facility, Lilly was told she was fine but needed something to keep her busy.
After seeing how well the oranges in her husband's orchids were growing, she decided the best thing would be to start a fruit stand. She opened the stand on Via Mizner, where she sold the oranges and squeezed their juice.
Over time, however, she noticed that squeezing the juice stained her dress, so she requested that her dressmaker make her a dress that would help hide the stains. This is how the brand's well-known floral pattern and light clothes came to life.
Over time, she noticed that most of her customers liked her dresses when they came to buy oranges. She decided to order more for sale, and before long, she was selling more dresses than oranges and orange juice.
She then decided to leave the orange stand business and concentrate on selling clothes. In 1959, she founded Lilly Pulitzer and became its president. Lilly said she bought the fabrics for her first dresses in dime stores around West Palm Beach to be more cost-effective.
She added that many people expected the brand to last only two years, but her and her team's resilience made it one of the most preferred in the 1960s. She said more people started buying dresses from the brand in 1962 after a socialite was spotted and photographed in one of their dresses.
Their popularity allowed them to open a factory in Miami, Florida and get fabrics from Key West Hand Print Fabrics, a company in Key West. Suzie Zuzek, one of Key West Hand Print's designers, designed most of the brand's fabrics, increasing their sales.
Pulitzer's former classmate, Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, also played a massive role in the brand's success after she appeared in Life magazine wearing a Lilly Pulitzer dress. Other notable people who wore the dresses included members of the Vanderbilt, Whitney, and Rockefeller families.
By the late '60s, the brand had expanded to include teen's, children's, and men's clothing, plus bathing suits. The company's success, however, started slowing down as people's tastes shifted to more minimalistic and muted clothes. This forced Pulitzer to file for bankruptcy in 1984.
Sugartown Worldwide, Inc. purchased the brand's rights in 1993 to revive the brand. They brought in Lillian Pulitzer as a creative consultant, a position she held until she passed in 2013.
In 2010, the brand added accessories, bedding, jewelry, shoes, and stationery to its products. On December 21 of the same year, Oxford Industries, Inc. purchased Sugartown Worldwide, Inc., making them the new owners.
In 2015, Target collaborated with the brand, and the collection sold out within hours. Today, the brand still has 75 Lilly Pulitzer Signature stores, sells to major department stores and independently owned shops, and is in 23 company-owned stores.