Yesterday was the first day of Summer which means, it’s time to get the Lillys out! The photos below represent just a small portion of my collection. I am a HUGE collector of vintage Lilly Pulitzer. You could say that I am obsessed with collecting it. I am always on the hunt for a vintage Lilly “find”. I can’t pinpoint exactly what it is about them that I am drawn to. It could be - the color combinations....
the whimsical prints....
looking for the hidden "Lilly in every print....
or the sumptuous guipure lace that so many of them used as trim....
Some of my favorite vintage Lillys are the atypical ones - the ones that are colored differently from the iconic ‘pink and green’ prints and the ones that have different subject matters. For example, I love the red and white print below of the ladies with long flowing locks of hair - so bizarre yet so great!
Or the print below from 1976 that was made to commemorate the Bicentennial. It comes from a ladies knit shirt and I actually also have a matching men’s tie. I keep trying to get my husband to wear the tie on the 4th of July when I wear my shirt but so far to no avail - maybe this is the year!
I also love this lemon print.
When collecting vintage Lillys it is also interesting to look at the different labels that were used. The labels that have “The Lilly” written in orange lettering are some of the oldest. They were used in the early 1960s until the mid 1970s.
Starting in the mid 1970s “The Lilly” started to be written in green.
In 1968 a Men’s line called “Men’s Stuff” was added.
In the early 1970’s Lilly Pulitzer began to make printed cotton and polyester knits. The knits had their own labels. The earliest were written in orange.
and later in green.
There was a line called “The Minnie” for little girls named after Lilly’s daughter, Minnie.
There was also a line called “Liza” for Juniors that was named after Lilly’s other daughter, Liza.
While I’m thrilled to be getting out the Lillys and I’ll be sad in a few months when they all have to go back into storage, I’ll be comforted by the fact that I have an amazing wide wale corduroy printed Lilly caftan with brightly colored yarn trim to wear throughout the cold months.
And as Lilly is famous for saying, “It’s always summer somewhere!”
