Please stop being nervous. Lilly Pulitzer is dipping its pastel-painted toes into the world of menswear as part of its 65th anniversary celebration. For more than 60 years, we’ve been bringing our signature bubble prints to a loyal female fan base across a variety of categories, from women’s clothing and swimwear to home and gifts, but Palm Beach’s most iconic lifestyle… The brand is finally offering men its own full-fledged collection.
The new men’s range debuted at the VIP Fashion Show in Palm Beach last week and is expected to hit stores in February for the Spring 2025 season. Technically, this isn’t Lilly Pulitzer’s first foray into menswear, but Craig Reynolds, the company’s senior vice president of merchandising, said the new effort marks a “resurrection” of sorts. ” is said to mean.
“Lily’s family, and especially her husband, were the inspiration for many of her ideas,” Reynolds said. “This business was born in Palm Beach, and as Lily grew up, there were a lot of men in her life who wanted to be a part of that moment.”
Lilly Pulitzer Spring 2025 Fashion Show Design.
Original sketches of styles for the new Men’s Stuff collection.
Drawing on her personal experiences and relationships, Pulitzer pioneered the meaning of a lifestyle brand. Using fruit from an orange grove she and her husband, Herbert Pulitzer, owned in Florida, she opened a juice stand on Mizner Avenue in Palm Beach. She quickly designed a lightweight, tropical-friendly, colorfully printed dress that could camouflage juice stains. Push all day long. These punchy dresses began to outsell Juice, and her company was born in 1959.
A socialite and hostess, Pulitzer’s lifestyle embodied her brand. Her pool parties were legendary, and her connections to iconic women of the era, including Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis and Whitney Vanderbilt, propelled her dresses into a new stratosphere of success. Her brightly colored shifts became the de facto uniform of Palm Beach in the 1960s and ’70s, and the name Lilly Pulitzer quickly became synonymous with sunny life in gregarious South Florida. Ta.
1968 Lilly Pulitzer Boutique Juice Bar. Featuring the original Men’s Stuff line signage.
It was during this early period in the company’s history that Pulitzer made its debut.
She created a collection of “Men’s Stuff” (as she called it) so the men in her life could join in the fun, but once her womenswear signature became a commercial success, the category expanded. dwindled and eventually declined. The brand ventured back into menswear in 2008 with printed blazers and pants, which were eventually phased out after a few seasons.
“Since then, we occasionally make pocket squares, ties and gifts for men during the holiday season,” Reynolds said. “Our philosophy is to be fun, quirky and make people smile, and we think men should be able to enjoy that too.”
We became part of the Butler family in 1981. At the time, the Butlers were one of the leading families in American polo.
This collection differs from previous forays into the men’s realm, not only in scope but also in fit and manufacturing. The pants have cropped hems and stretch throughout. “Stretch and comfort are what people expect from the clothing they buy today,” Reynolds said, adding that future expansion of the men’s line could also include performance materials. (Pickleball and golf outfits with Lily prints, anyone?)
“Our shifts also didn’t have stretch before, but now they have stretch. We focus on stretchy, cotton-based fabrics for that ease and comfort.” It’s all about evolving with the customer. That’s what happens when you’re 65.”
Lily’s close friend Wendy Vanderbilt appeared in some of the brand’s early ads.
As always, what customers can definitely expect is Lilly’s signature prints, all done exclusively in-house. And while they may be signatures, the prints in the new men’s collection aren’t actually new at all, many of them inspired by Slim Aarons’ photographs of Pulitzer and her Palm Beach circle in the 1960s. It was inspired by.
To celebrate the brand’s 65th anniversary and menswear launch, Lilly Pulitzer is proud to present a new collection of Slim Aarons’ photographs to be exhibited alongside several unique archival pieces at Palm Beach’s Ann Norton Sculpture Garden. We also sponsored an exhibition. SLim Aarons: Gold Coastis on display until January 26, 2025, and features dozens of Aarons’ famous works and ephemera that have never been seen before.
seen in public. The photos also include never-before-seen shots of Pulitzer himself, including a framed photo of Aarons ostensibly placating a camera-timid woman during a pool party.
“We love photography,” Lisa Pulitzer said of the exhibition. “We consider them family heirlooms.”
The world has seen only 5,000 of the 750,000 works in Aarons’ archive at Getty, said Getty Images curator Sean Waldron, who organized the exhibition. Much of the archive still exists at the Getty’s storage facility in London, in the same boxes that Aarons used to store his photographs in his garage. So finding these intimate, candid glimpses into Pulitzer’s life is like sticking a needle in a haystack. And unearthing them in time for Lilly Pulitzer’s anniversary feels all the more important because they offer a voyeuristic glimpse into her world before social media.
“It all continues to work well in the Instagram era because it’s brightly colored and ambitious, yet very down-to-earth and authentic,” Waldron said. “Of course there are some celebrities, but you can see that these photos aren’t really styled… They feel fresh and vulnerable in a way that doesn’t really exist anymore.”
Slim Aarons photographed Lilly Pulitzer wearing her signature fabric outside her Palm Beach home in 1982.
While the Palm Beaches of humble juice stands and unsuspecting celebrity pool parties are long gone, Lilly Pulitzer’s designs have found lasting cultural resonance, appearing in closets from Palm Beach to Nantucket and beyond. and has a permanent place in country clubs. For more than 60 years, women have enjoyed the sunshine and unfettered optimism of Mr. Pulitzer’s designs, but now it’s men’s turn to walk on the bright side.
