Lilly Pulitzer's Journey Home

"It all started with a juice stand and a simple shift dress that showcased a colorful print intended to hide fruit juice stains while looking fabulous..." So begins the story of Lilly Pulitzer, the iconic, preppy fashion brand of bright prints and simple shift dresses.

The dress that a young Lilly Pulitzer designed to be worn at her Palm Beach juice stand resonated with her customers so well that Lilly almost immediately stopped selling juice -- and started selling dresses. Fifty years later, Lilly Pulitzer is finally coming home -- to the home goods market, that is.

As we reported earlier this fall on ShelterPop, the team behind Lilly Pulitzer has teamed up with Garnet Hill, the catalog retailer of whimsical sheets, home furnishings and apparel. The new bedding collection will be both instantly recognizable to Lilly fans with its bold prints and brighter than bright color schemes.
"In response to overwhelming demand from our customers, we've forged a great partnership with Garnet Hill, says Janie Schoenborn, design director of Lilly Pulitzer. "We know that Lilly customers love to decorate their home, and they love to do it in Lilly. We've developed decorative yet fun, playful prints for bedding and towels made for multi-generational appeal. It's Lilly's way of saying 'goodnight'!"

We checked in with the folks at Lilly Pulitzer to learn more about how Lilly Pulitzer made its journey from a small juice stand in Palm Beach to its impending home goods line with Garnet Hill. Here's a timeline of Lilly Pulitzer's progress:

1931 Lilly McKim is born in Roslyn, NY.
1949 Lilly graduates from Miss Porter's School, where she rooms with Jacky Bouvier (the future Mrs. John F. Kennedy).
1950 Lilly elopes with Peter Pulitzer and the couple moves to Palm Beach. In the late 1950s, she'll open a juice stand in Palm Beach.
1959 The 'Classic Shift Dress' makes its debut at the juice stand. In the early 1960s, Jacqueline Kennedy is photographed wearing a "Lilly" and it appears in LIFE magazine.
1960s to 1970s Lilly Pulitzer becomes the unofficial uniform of the affluent at play.
1980 The Official Preppy Handbook labels Lilly Pulitzer dresses and skirts as preppy must-haves.
1984 Lilly retires and closes the business.
1993 The Lilly Pulitzer brand is revived by two Pennsylvania businessmen.
2005 Lilly pens her first book Essentially Lilly: A Guide to Colorful Entertaining.
2008 Parsons the New School for Design opens a retrospective of her work.
2010 Lilly Pulitzer Home for Garnet Hill debuts.