A decade in the past, Lilly Pulitzer’s brilliant prints had been omnipresent on school campuses, and a pop-up for its 2015 collaboration with Goal in New York’s Bryant Park drew crowds of Millennial consumers on the top of their fashionable preppy obsession. That very same 12 months, gross sales grew 22 %.
Trend has moved on from that aesthetic, however Lilly Pulitzer hasn’t: in an period of quiet luxurious, inexpensive facsimiles of the loud colors and patterns favoured by the rich denizens of Palm Seashore, the place the model was based 65 years in the past, look misplaced. Gross sales replicate that stagnation, rising 1 % final 12 months to $343.5 million.
Trying to usher within the model’s subsequent period, on Thursday, Lilly Pulitzer unveiled a brand new emblem that retains its signature brilliant pink hue, however now with a typeface that appears straight out of the Fifties, the last decade the model was based.
Connecting with a brand new technology will take greater than a brand new font, nevertheless.
Gen-Z tastes reign supreme now, and so they have a really completely different concept of what preppy seems like. They’re large on impartial outsized blazers and saggy denims, quite than shift clothes. Palm Seashore has turn out to be a subject of political dialog because of its affiliation with Donald Trump and his Mar-a-Lago membership.
Reasonably than totally capitulate to Gen Z’s tastes, Lilly Pulitzer is focusing on clients who “love the model that possibly hadn’t shopped shortly,” mentioned chief govt Michelle Kelly. That features occasionwear, the place brilliant and daring nonetheless flies, even in in the present day’s quiet luxurious second. In March, it launched a collaboration with Badgley Mischka, with items working from $400 to $700, versus a $100 to $300 normal value level.
“There are undoubtedly moments within the tradition the place tendencies are going to be in our favour or much less,” Kelly mentioned. “Our strategy … is to do what we do. That stability of staying grounded to who we’re, however being conscious of modifications.”
The cultural tides may be handing over Lilly Pulitzer’s favour as soon as once more. Regardless of the Trump ties — or on some stage, maybe, due to them — Palm Seashore has been on the rise as a style vacation spot in recent times, with manufacturers together with Hill Home House, Nili Lotan and MyTheresa internet hosting occasions and opening shops there. Plus, Nineteen Sixties Palm Seashore model has been within the highlight this spring on Apple TV’s sequence “Palm Royale.”
Greater than that, it’s a model that loads of ladies — from those that had been contemporaries of Pulitzer herself to their granddaughters who’re sharing their Lilly hauls on TikTok — have a smooth spot for.
“Lilly is likely one of the few manufacturers that clients of all ages can come to an occasion, store and never be alarmed that somebody three a long time older or youthful is buying the identical model,” mentioned Kelly. “It’s simply actually particular that each one ages can have an affinity [for the brand.]”
Lilly’s New Look
Based in 1959, the model was born out of a conundrum confronted by its eponymous founder: Palm Seashore residents Pulitzer and her husband owned a number of orange groves, and Pulitzer operated a juice stand. Continuously discovering juice stains on her garments, she requested her dressmaker to make a gown with colors brilliant sufficient to cover the marks. They had been so fashionable she started promoting them on the juice stand, too.
By the Nineteen Sixties, they’d turn out to be one thing of an icon of American attire, and had been significantly a favorite amongst well-heeled ladies together with Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis and socialite Wendy Vanderbilt.
In 2010, the corporate was acquired by Oxford Industries, which additionally owns Tommy Bahama and Johnny Was, amongst different manufacturers, and is now headquartered in Philadelphia. But it surely maintains agency roots in Palm Seashore.
“Nothing is extra rooted in a resort Americana aesthetic than Lilly Pulitzer,” mentioned Robert Burke, chief govt of retail consultancy Robert Burke Associates. “It’s all the time stayed very grounded in that Palm Seashore mentality.”
Kelly sees the model’s historical past as a bonus in connecting with a youthful viewers.
“Gen-Z desires that authenticity, and we’ve an genuine model story that we lean into, and that I feel differentiates us within the crowded market proper now,” she mentioned.
Nonetheless, she’s conscious that the model must push ahead in addition to look to the previous. The brand change up is only one factor in a “journey of name refreshment” that Lilly is at the moment present process, Kelly mentioned. The objective, she added, is to strike the precise stability between honouring the model’s historical past — and its loyal clients — whereas pushing it ahead sufficient that it resonates with younger customers.
“We simply noticed the chance to have our visible id and our general branding match our wants a bit higher,” she mentioned. The brand new emblem, created by designer Robin Kramer, she mentioned felt like a “nice stability of look backward, however an enormous step ahead” with a extra fashionable tackle a retro-inspired typeface.
Regardless of the model’s fame for promoting a steady of unchanging classics — shift clothes in brightly-hued prints — Kelly mentioned 50 % or extra of their drops function contemporary silhouettes and merchandise, comparable to on-trend nylon belted luggage or tiered mini and midi clothes, meant to attraction to a brand new shopper.
As nicely, the model is popping up in new areas. Collaborations have lengthy been part of the model’s technique; since Goal, it inked a partnership with Pottery Barn that’s nonetheless ongoing. This 12 months, along with the Badgley Mischka collaboration, it rolled out a team-up with Natalie’s Juice, promoting bottles of orange juice that includes a customized Lilly Pulitzer sticker. The nod to the model’s origin story made it a pure match for its diehard customers, Kelly mentioned.
The model is predominantly a direct-to-consumer enterprise, with 85 % of its gross sales coming from its personal channels. Which means it’s extra insulated from wholesale troubles, however extra reliant on its direct reference to customers. With about 66 % of its direct gross sales coming on-line, Lilly Pulitzer desires to develop its brick-and-mortar presence and plans to open six shops in 2024, together with a brand new location in Cranston, Rhode Island that opened its doorways in April. To succeed in new customers — and reconnect with older ones — it’s additionally constructing its presence on TikTok, creating extra cuts of its advertisements to run throughout numerous platforms.
The hope is all these elements will maintain the model’s longtime loyalists pleased, however intrigue new clients, too.
“Typically manufacturers simply have durations the place they’ve reputation once more as a result of they take a more energizing course,” mentioned Burke. “There’s no written script for it, but it surely definitely has extremely good bones.”
