Lilly Pulitzer Rousseau passes away at age 81. From Juice Stand to Fashion Mogul, a tribute to Lilly Pulitzer and Memorial Photos

On April 7, 2013, fashion icon Lilly Pulitzer Rousseau passed away at age 81 in Palm Beach, Florida.  Lilly inspired the famed namesake fashion brand that merged pink and green colors into bursts of floral prints.

 

From 2010 to 2012, the non-profit Museum of Lifestyle & Fashion History presented in Boynton Beach, Florida the exhibit The Queen of Prep: Lilly Pulitzer Rousseau.  The anthropological exhibit focused on the family history and origins of the Lilly Pulitzer fashion brand.  Collectors from throughout the USA loaned or donated Lilly Pulitzer fashions for the display. The Museum also hosted an 80th birthday brunch for Lilly in November 2011. Click here to view photos. Lilly Pulitzer Rousseau visited the exhibit and with great delight met many of her fans.  Due to popular demand, other museums have requested that MLFH organize a traveling version of The Queen of Prep exhibit.  A re-designed and expanded version of the exhibit will be displayed.

Lori J. Durante with Lilly Pulitzer Rousseau at her 80th birthday brunch hosted at the Museum of Lifestyle & Fashion History. Photo by Lucein Capehart Photography

Place setting for the 80th birthday brunch hosted in 2011 for Lilly Pulitzer Rousseau's 80th birthday brunch at the Musem of Lifestyle & Fashion History. Photo by Lucein Capehart Photography

 

Lilly Pulitzer Rousseau, Chuch West and Mary Lane a tthe 80th birthday brunch hosted for Lilly Pulitzer Rousseau's 80th at the Museum of Lifestyle & Fashion History. Photo by Lucien Capehart Photography

 

(Left) Abbey & Katie Kerl, Willow Moffett (center-front), Lilly Pulitzer Rousseau and Lori J. Durante at the 80th birthday brunch for Lilly hosted at the Museum of  Lifestyle & Fashion History. Photo by Lucien Capehart Photography

The Lilly Pulitzer Story

More than fifty years ago, a trend of bright, bold and unique prints in the form of pink monkeys, green elephants and flowers in rainbow colors hit the American fashion scene.  It all started when Lilly Pulitzer, a young, New York socialite, opened a juice stand in Palm Beach in the 1950s.  The citrus stains that splashed upon her clothing inspired her to create brightly colored designs to help camouflage those stains.  These designs ultimately became the unofficial uniform for the affluent, and Lilly’s signature pink and green colors emerged as the symbol of the authentic Palm Beach lifestyle.  In 1959, Lilly became president of her own fashion company Lilly Pulitzer, Inc.

1970s Lilly Pulitzer maxi-dress from Kristina Krieger of California was displayed at the Museum of Lifestyle & Fashion History

Born Lillian McKim in Roslyn, New York in 1931, she married Peter Pulitzer of the famous Pulitzer Prize family in 1952.  The family settled in Palm Beach where a free-spirited Lilly Pulitzer operated a juice stand using produce from a citrus grove in Fort Pierce, Florida that was owned by Peter Pulitzer.  The juice stand was located in a tiny shop in Via Mizner located right off Worth Avenue in the Town of Palm Beach, FL.

Lilly Pulitzer Rousseau at The Queen of Prep exhibit at the Museum of Lifestyle & Fashion History.

Lilly Pulitzer tells the story like this in her Essentially Living book “there was this little juice and fruit bar in the back right here.  I would slice the oranges and squeeze the fruit to make the juice.  My friends would stop in and we would just talk and laugh and have fun.  The twist (a citrus garnishment for cocktails) had just hit Palm Beach, so the Lilly shop was where it was all happening.  But, boy, was it messy.  At the end of the day I was covered in pulp and dribbles of orange juice. I had to do something.  I used to have this wonderful Swiss lady make shifts for me.  I found this bright, bright fabric, the same colors as the fruit, so that the splashes and mess wouldn’t show. People would say, ‘Oh, they’re great. Why don’t you have them in the shop?’ So I went down to Woolworth’s, got some fabric and had twelve dresses made for me, and I had just hung them haphazardly around the store.  This was the early sixties.  The Kennedy’s were down here; Jack had just been elected President.  The eyes of the whole world were on Palm Beach. Jackie wore one of my dresses – it was made from kitchen curtain material – and people went crazy. They took off like zingo. Everybody loved them, and I went into the dress business.”



Billie Anne Hartl, Lori J. Durante, Lilly Pultizer Rousseau and Lisa Birnbach, author of the Official Preppy Handbook and True Prep, at the Museum of Lifestyle & Fashion History

The initial style of the Lilly clothing designs were simple Shift dresses that appealed to a wealthy client base who included Lilly’s boarding school friend Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy. Kennedy and Pulitzer had attended together the prestigious college preparatory boarding school Miss Porter’s School located in Farmington, Connecticut. And, others who wore the Lilly designs were various descendants of the Gilded-age titans who included the Rockefellers, Vanderbilts and Whitneys.  Because the Lilly-style was so strongly associated with wealthy people who attended and/or sent their children to preparatory schools and vacationed in affluent resort locales, Lilly Pulitzer became known as the “Queen of Prep.”

Lilly Pulitzer once described her iconic Shift dress as a “cross between a chemise and mumu.”

The Official Preppy Handbook author Lisa Birnbach (left) with Skyler Carosella and her mother Vanessa Carosella at the Lilly exhibit at the Meum of Lifestyle & Fahsion History

Lilly Pulitzer, Inc. thrived with more than 30 stores eventually offering wares for children, men and the home until the company closed its doors in 1984.  Lilly’s original business partner was Laura Robbins who started with Lilly at the juice stand in Palm Beach, Florida. During the company's operation in 1959 to 1984, it had a factory located in Miami, Florida on 29th Avenue between 34th Street.  And, the majority of the fabrics were designed and manufactured by the Key West Hand Print Fabrics company that was located in Key West, Florida.  Key West Hand Print Fabrics was established by Bill Johnson, Peter Pell and Jimmy Russell who are all now deceased.  Lilly provided the company with substantial business with her custom fabric orders.  The fabrics company grew to more than 200 employees and was one of the largest employers in Key West, Florida.  They had a team of skilled artisans lead by Suzie dePoo (aka Suzie Zuzek) who developed licensed print designs exclusively for the Lilly Pulitzer fashion line.  The fabrics were hand printed via a silk-screen process and the yardage was sold to the Lilly company, and then shipped to her factory in Miami where Lilly provided more directive on the types of clothes styles to be made for her clients of old-money stock and the upper-class.

Lilly Pulitzer Rousseau, Mary Lane, Lori J. Durante and Vanessa Carosella at the Museum of Lifestyle & Fashion History. Photo by Janis Bucher

Both Lilly’s company and Key West Hand Print Fabrics started around the same time and attributed to each others success. Moreover, Peter Pell was from the same socially acceptable pedigree as Lilly Pulitzer.  Peter Pell is a descendant of the politically important Claiborne-Pell family whose family tree includes Congressman, Senators and Ambassadors who served office as far back as the late 1700s. And, the Pell of Key West was related to the Pell of the same last name who sponsored the US Pell Grant.  And, Bill Johnson was from coal-money in Knoxville, Tennessee.  His father was George Washington Johnson who owned the GW Johnson Coal company.  The coal industry provided Bill Johnson with the financial means to fund the establishment of the fabrics company in Key West where he was the CEO and became a prominent businessman in the Keys.

Lori J. Durante with Lilly Pulitzer Rousseau at the Museum of Lifestyle & Fashion History. The Palm Beach mural was designed Skyler Carosella

Jay Steinhardt of Steinhardt Textiles fondly remembered “my company represented Crisali Fabrics based in Los Angeles, CA and we sold fabrics to Lilly in the mid-1960s. About 2% of the fabrics that Lilly used came from Crisali but about 98% came from Key West Hand Print Fabrics in Key West.”  “At my business meetings with Lilly she was always barefoot.”

Lilly Pulitzer dress from the Jubilee Collection from Siv Lam of San Francisco, California was displayed at the Museum of Lifestyle & Fashion History

Lilly’s company became a legendary business headquartered in the Town of Palm Beach, Florida in Palm Beach County.  The business offices were at 400 Royal Palm Way in Palm Beach, FL and eventually re-located their headquarters to 336 South County Road in the Town of Palm Beach.  At its zenith, Lilly’s business grew to an estimated $10 million in revenue that had an economic impact in the Town of Palm Beach, Palm Beach County and the State of Florida that helped to create jobs along with defining an American Preppy look and imbedding the combination of pink and green as official colors of Palm Beach and Preppies.

The Colgate-Palmolive Company awarded to Lilly Pulitzer in 1973 the Colgate Winners Circle in the category of Sportswear Designer. In 1979, The Palm Beach Daily News awarded Lilly the Leadership Award of the year.

1960s Lilly Pulitzer cocktail tray and napkins from Molly McKeown of Saratoga, New York was displayed at the Museum of Lifestyle & Fashion History

 

One of the first major department stores to carry the brightly colored fashion line was Lord & Taylor at their flagship store located on Fifth Avenue in New York City.  This was a major coup because Lord & Taylor is one of the oldest major department stores in the USA.  Lilly said of her initial experience in merchandising in those early days: “it took a little explaining that there would never be any wools and heavy knits in the Lilly collection – so it was either buy the line then or never.”

Students from the Fashion Camp at Lynn University of Boca Raton toured the Queen of Prep exhibit in Summer 2011 at the Museum of Lifestyle & Fashion History.

In 1984, Lilly Pulitzer, Inc. filed for bankruptcy and closed its doors. During the 1980s the preppy-look had lost its popular image and preppy retailers were at cross-roads about how to change their image and appeal to a new audience and style of fashion.



Board members of the Boca Raton Museum of Art Auxiliary toured the Queen of Prep exhibit at the Museum of Lifestyle & Fashion History.

The "Lilly Chair." Board members of the Auxiliary of the Boca Raton Museum of Art toured the Queen of Prep exhibit at the Museum of Lifestyle & Fashion History

The fashion line re-emerged again in 1992 when the rights were purchased by Sugartown Worldwide, Inc. The owners of Sugartown Worldwide were Harvard-grads turned business partners Scott Beaumont, James Bradbeer and Nancy Gary. The company was founded for the purpose of reintroducing the Lilly line and is based in King of Prussia, Pennsylvania.

The Boca Raton Antiques Club (in front of the Lilly Palm Tree Mural) was hosted on a guided tour of the Queen of Prep exhibit at the Museum of Lifestyle & Fashion History

The Boca Raton Antiques Club was hosted on a guided tour of the Queen of Prep exhibit at the Museum of Lifestyle & Fashion History

When Sugartown reintroduced the Lilly Pulitzer fashion line in the 1990s, they established a partnership with C.Orricostores located in the Town Palm Beach to sell the Lilly clothes and to also operate what is known as Lilly Pulitzer Signature Shops or Lilly Pulitzer via Palm Beach.

 

Vintage Lilly Shift dress from the personal collection of Elinor Stephens was displayed at the Museum of Lifestyle & Fashon History.  Stephens purchased many of her Lillys in the 1960s and 1970s from Lord & Taylor in New York.

 

Lilly Pulitzer Rousseau with her dearest friend Ann Fraser at the Museum of Lifestyle & Fashion History.

 

Janine Picone of Artfully Baked created the pink and green cupcakes for the 80th birthday brunch for Lilly Pulitzer Rousseau hosted in November 2011 at the Museum of Lifestyle & Fashion History.

 

American Red Cross Beach Bash 2013. Bobby Leidy with his fiancé Ivey Day and Lori J. Durante

Minnie Pulitzer with Lori J. Durante at the 2013 American Red Cross Beach Bash.

Lilly Pulitzer's grandson Bobby Leidy (right) with Ashley Cherowitzo at the 2012 American Red Cross Beach Bash in Palm Beach, Florida

A memorial service was hosted for Lillian Lee McKim Pulitzer Rousseau on April 11, 2013 at the Episcopal Church of Bethesda-By-The-Sea in Palm Beach, Florida. 

 

The following are photos from the Memorial service. The memorial service was serene sprinkled with ladies wearing Lilly dresses and men wearing Lilly neckties.

 

The Episcopal Church of Bethesda-By-The-Sea hosted the memorial service for Lilly Pulitzer Rousseau on April 11, 2013. 

The Episcopal Church of Bethesda By-The-Sea is a historic institution established in 1889.  It's current building was constructed in 1926.

Hundreds of people lined-up at the Episcopal Church of Bethesda-By-The-Sea to pay tribute to Lilly Pulitzer Rousseau.

Men honored Lilly at the memorial by wearing her neckties

Vintage Lilly necktie. Men honored Lilly at the memorial by wearing her neckties

Men honored Lilly at the memorial by wearing her neckties

Wearing Lilly, Colleen Orrico at the memorial service for Lilly Pultizer Rousseau

The historic Episcopal Church of Bethesda-By-The-Sea in Palm Beach was host for the memorial service for Lilly Pulitzer Rousseau

Mary Lane at the memorial service for Lilly Pulitzer Rousseau

Vanessa Carosella with her daughter Skyler Carosella at memorial service for Lilly Pulitzer Rousseau.

On the great lawn of the Episcopal Church of Bethesda-By-The-Sea in Palm Beach. Hundreds of people donned Lilly Pulitzer fashions and accessories for the memorial service for Lilly Pulitzer Rousseau. 

On the great lawn of the Episcopal Church of Bethesda-By-The-Sea in Palm Beach. Hundreds of people donned Lilly Pulitzer fashions and accessories for the memorial service for Lilly Pulitzer Rousseau.

 

On the great lawn of the Episcopal Church of Bethesda-By-The-Sea in Palm Beach. Hundreds of people donned Lilly Pulitzer fashions and accessories for the memorial service for Lilly Pulitzer Rousseau.

Lori J. Durante wearing Lilly Pulitzer at the memorial service for Lilly Pulitzer Rousseau

The Queen of Prep exhibit was displayed from 2010 to 2012 at the Museum of Lifestyle & Fashion History. Due to popular demand, the exhibit has been invited to travel to another major museum.

Click here for Sun-Sentinel (Delray Forum/Boynton Forum) tribute to Lilly Pulitzer

Go here for St. Regis Hotel Bespoke Magazine 2014 profile about Lilly Pulitzer Rousseau.  See page 34.

Go here to read Sun-Sentinel editorial about Palm Tree Mural created in honor of Lilly Pulitzer Rousseau.

Click here for FACEBOOK

Click here for YouTube Video Lilly Pulitzer Retrospective

E-mail: exhibits@mlfhmuseum.org
Call: 561-243-2662

Click here for the Taste History Culinary Tours

http://tastehistoryculinarytours.blogspot.com/

Bibliography:

 

Essentially Lilly – A guide to colorful entertaining. By Lilly Pulitzer and Jay Mulvaney. 2004. HarperResource. New York

 

The Official Preppy Handbook. Edited by Lisa Birnbach. 1983. Workman Publishing. New York.

 Lilly’s Successes Are Profits and Dresses. August 1973. Florida Trend

 
Lilly Pulitzer Captures Initial Colgate Winners Circle Award. By Judith Clemence. April 11, 1978. The Palm Beach Post
 
Lilly of PB is Businesslike Winner. By Ellen Koteff. April 5, 1979
 

Richard McClellan. Phone interview conducted by Lori J. Durante. July 10, 2010

Joanne Chidron. Phone interview conducted by Lori J. Durante. April 20, 2010
Suzy dePoo/Suzy Zuzek, former head designer at Key West Hand Print Fabrics. In-person interview conducted by Lori J. Durante. May 30 & 31, 2010. Key West, FL
Martha dePoo, former designer at Key West Hand Print Fabrics. In-person interview conducted by Lori J. Durante. May 30 & 31, 2010. Key West, FL
Robert (Bobby) McKenzie, former employee at Key West Hand Print Fabrics. In-person interview conducted by Lori J. Durante. May 31, 2010. Key West, FL
Leigh Ann Martin Hooten, former designer at Key West Hand Print Fabrics.In -person interview conducted by Lori J. Durante. May 31, 2010. Key West, FL
Lilly Pulitzer Rousseau. Phone and in-person interview conducted by Lori J. Durante. August 2010 - February 2012