The Lilly Story

It all started with one incredible woman who had the courage to find her joy & create her own sunshine. A true original with the confidence to stand out in a crowd and the humility to pull it off.

Lilly’s story began in the 1950s when her desire for love and adventure prompted a move to Palm Beach, Florida. She immediately embraced a bohemian, barefoot lifestyle filled with lots of friends and endless parties. Sounds fabulous, right? It turns out life wasn’t always as sunny as it seemed, so she sought help and the doctor’s orders were quite surprising. Lilly was told she needed a renewed sense of purpose. That’s when our spirited founder took a fortuitous leap and literally turned lemons into lemonade by starting a juice stand to occupy her time.

Soon the stand was thriving but she stained her clothes (occupational hazard) which led to a led to a “uniform.” The young entrepreneur worked with a dressmaker to create a colorful (hide the citrus splashes) easy dress, and the first Lilly shift was born. The more fun she had mixing vibrant prints with these dresses, the more they were coveted by the famed and fabulous around Palm Beach. When Lilly’s former school chum, Jackie Kennedy, came to town, she also donned the Palm Beach uniform: casual, comfortable, chic and pulled together. Jackie was regarded as one of the most stylish women in the world and when she appeared in a Lilly on the cover of Life Magazine in 1962, Lilly herself mused… “it just took off like ZINGO.”

The citrus business was swapped for a clothing business. This marked the beginning of American Resort Wear, turning our favorite trailblazer into a fashion icon and her trademark Shift Dress into a wardrobe classic. Word spread to sunny destinations worldwide…thus was born an iconic style and look, and the legacy of one of the most incredibly fun, female-led, entrepreneurial brands in history.

65 Years later and the ZEST is yet to come as we carry on the timeless tradition of making women feel as good as they look. Today’s Lilly woman isn’t sitting on the sideline waiting for fate to determine her future. She never stops squeezing the juice out of life just because it gets a little messy. She creates her own sunshine.