For nearly 70 years, Lilly Pulitzer has been synonymous with a certain kind of Palm Beach lifestyle; one spent enjoying long afternoons in the sun, barefoot in the grass, possibly a cocktail in hand. But for Lilly’s daughter Liza, the name, understandably, stands for so much more. Here, as the brand celebrates a banner year of store openings and the reissue of some of its most iconic prints, Liza, who lives and works in Palm Beach as a real estate agent, reflects on how one colorful little shift dress transformed her late mother.
Mom eloped with my father in New York. She came down to Palm Beach and had the three of us very quickly. It was a lot of pressure on her. She went through postpartum depression after my birth. She sought treatment for a period of time, possibly six months, and then came back. While she was there, they wanted her to do something for herself, to express herself. She started painting. I have the most beautiful self-portrait of mom from that time [pictured, here].
Dad had the orange groves, and he encouraged her to do something that made her happy, and to get out of the house. “Come do something with me,” he said. “We’ll work together.”
Meanwhile, she found a wonderful seamstress, who worked with her making A-line shifts out of dime-store fabrics. When we were kids, she’d throw us in the car and we’d go to Grandview Heights. It was a wonderful creative outlet for her.
Mom was never going to follow the norm. She had zero social aspirations. She was more excited about surrounding herself with artistic, free-spirited people. I can’t remember who introduced Mom to Peter [Pell] and Jimmy [Russell]. Those guys had a theatrical background, and had recently purchased Key West Hand Print Fabrics. Suzie [Zuzek] de Poo was the head textile designer. Suzie was the creative force, alongside my mother. The combination between the two of them was what was so exciting. This craziness, big florals, mod, pop.
When Mom started her business, she had absolutely zero business background. She would make a few things with no understanding of sizing, delivery, any of it. But it just snowballed: Life magazine featured Jackie Kennedy wearing Mom’s dress, and it took off from there. Palm Beach was such a strategic location. Here were these incredibly wealthy women in Palm Beach and, suddenly, they’re putting on a shift with a flower power print. Or putting a man in a blazer with a print on the inside, which seemed very irreverent—that they could go to a country club and flash their blazer.
It wasn’t about being invited to parties; we grew up with a mother who loved to entertain. It could be anyone from some powerful businessman to the person who delivered the clothes to people’s houses. If they added something, they could be young, old… Minnie [Liza’s older sister] and I were the waitresses in our little muumuus, passing hors d’oeuvres; nobody was wearing any shoes. Mom would tell us to get some flowers, so we’d run down the street and pick some out of everybody’s gardens.
Mom was a phenomenal cook. We were always in the kitchen. We’d be cooking, people would be flying in the door, the house would be filled with guests. People were chopping, things were burning, others were making cocktails. Music would be blasting. They would pour champagne on the floor to make it slippery so we could all do the twist. It was just magical.
We had very little structure, but we did have parents that were devoted to us and adored us. I was 11 or 12 when my parents divorced. My mother married very quickly to a very good friend of my father’s, who we all adored: Enrique Rousseau, who was Cuban. That brought a whole other dimension to our lives. All of a sudden, our house was filled with Cubans. We’d have 30 people for lunch every Sunday, playing Gin Rummy. We loved that period of our lives, too.
My father raised us out on the land and in the water. Every summer we were diving, and in the winter, we were shooting. But Mom brought to the table this amazing design aesthetic that all three of us have. My sister is an artist; she loves to paint, and has this phenomenal line, Tropical Tortuga. Peter loves to buy properties; he would buy them, take down the walls, blow out this and that, and create these incredible gardens. He did that for years in California and is now retired in Oregon. For myself, I live with color. If you came to my house, you would see amazing color, whimsy, and design.
What made Mom happy was freedom. Freedom to not be stuck in any type of a perceived rut. That’s why it’s so amazing that she is so associated with Palm Beach, with its pretty rigorous social pecking order. She played into all of that, but it absolutely did not define her.
She was so much more than a dress designer; she was the first person to say she just lucked into it. She was the most welcoming and generous with everything: her wisdom, her money, her time, anything she had to give. She would say, “Show up at the table, bring some fun to it, and let’s go.”
