Lilly Pulitzer - Business

Business

Lilly and Peter Pulitzer settled in Palm Beach, Florida, shortly after their marriage. Peter owned several Florida citrus orange grove, and with produce from the groves Lilly opened a juice stand on Via Mizner, just off Worth Avenue in Palm Beach.

In the course of working at the juice stand, Lilly found that squeezing juice made a mess of her clothes. Seeking to camouflage the juice stains, she designed a sleeveless shift dress made of bright, colorful printed cotton. Lilly found that customers loved her dress, so she produced more in order to sell them at her juice stand. Eventually, she was selling more dresses than juice, and decided to focus on designing and selling what had become known as her "Lillys".

In 1959, Lilly became president of her own company, Lilly Pulitzer, Inc. The company's main factory was located in Miami, Florida and the fabrics were produced by the Key West Hand Print Fabrics company in Key West.

From the 1960s to the early 1980s, Pulitzer's bright, colorful clothes were very popular, worn by elites such as Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis and her daughter Caroline Kennedy, and members of the Rockefeller, Vanderbilt and Whitney families. However, by 1984 Pulitzer felt she was not having as much fun as she used to and retired, closing down her entire clothing operation.

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