Lilly Pulitzer Dies in Florida

Lilly Pulitzer, whose print dresses were part of the look of the 1960s, died over the weekend in Florida. She was 81.

The clothing featured bright prints and raucous designs, which seemed to fit perfectly with the irreverent, look-at-me sensibilities of the decade.

“I designed collections around whatever struck my fancy – fruits, vegetables or peacocks,” Pulitzer told The Associated Press in 2009. “It made people happy.”

At its height in the 1960s and ’70s, Lilly Pulitzer had sales of more than $15 million, a store on Jobs Lane in Southampton, N.Y., and clients like Jacqueline Kennedy. Pulitzer retired in 1984, when changing tastes preferred more minimal designs, and the company sought bankruptcy protection. The label was revived in the 1990s by Sugartown Worldwide, which was acquired in 2010 by Oxford Industries in a deal valued at about $80 million.

As the story goes, a bored heiress housewife opened a juice stand in Palm Beach in 1959. As orange and grapefruit spills stained her clothing, she created a dress of bright color spots and shapes that would camouflage the stains. Her vividly flowered housedresses became known in her circle as Lillys.

Lillian Lee McKim, herself an heiress to the Standard Oil fortune, met and eloped with publishing heir Herbert Pulitzer Jr. (known as Peter) during a vacation in Palm Beach, Fla., in 1952. The couple became known for their wild parties and anti-socialite behavior.

She opened her juice stand on Palm Beach’s fashionable Worth Avenue with Laura Robbins, a former editor at Harper’s Bazaar. After striking on the idea of the patterned dress, they began selling the dresses at the juice stand for $22.

“The line wasn’t very extensive,” Pulitzer told Vanity Fair in 2003. “The bodies, one was sleeveless and one had a sleeve. I mean everybody, they had to have them. Whether they fit or not, who cared? Just get one, I want it, I have to wear it to dinner.”