A decade in the past, Lilly Pulitzer’s vivid prints have 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 buyers on the peak of their fashionable preppy obsession. That very same 12 months, gross sales grew 22 p.c.
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 mirror that stagnation, rising 1 p.c final 12 months to $343.5 million.
Seeking to usher within the model’s subsequent period, on Thursday, Lilly Pulitzer unveiled a brand new brand that retains its signature vivid pink hue, however now with a typeface that appears straight out of the Nineteen 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, they usually have a really completely different thought of what preppy seems to be like. They’re huge on impartial outsized blazers and dishevelled denims, relatively than shift attire. Palm Seashore has grow to be a subject of political dialog as a consequence 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 vivid and daring nonetheless flies, even in right this moment’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 customary worth level.
“There are positively moments within the tradition the place traits are going to be in our favour or much less,” Kelly mentioned. “Our strategy … is to do what we do. That steadiness of staying grounded to who we’re, however being conscious of modifications.”
The cultural tides can also be delivering 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 Residence, 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 girls — from those that have been contemporaries of Pulitzer herself to their granddaughters who’re sharing their Lilly hauls on TikTok — have a gentle spot for.
“Lilly is among 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 procuring the identical model,” mentioned Kelly. “It’s simply actually particular that every 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. Always discovering juice stains on her garments, she requested her dressmaker to make a costume with colors vivid sufficient to cover the marks. They have been so widespread she started promoting them on the juice stand, too.
By the Nineteen Sixties, they’d grow to be one thing of an icon of American attire, and have been notably a favorite amongst well-heeled girls 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. However it 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 at all times 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 needs that authenticity, and we have now an genuine model story that we lean into, and that I believe 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 swap up is only one aspect in a “journey of name refreshment” that Lilly is presently present process, Kelly mentioned. The objective, she added, is to strike the fitting steadiness between honouring the model’s historical past — and its loyal clients — whereas pushing it ahead sufficient that it resonates with younger shoppers.
“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 brand, created by designer Robin Kramer, she mentioned felt like a “nice steadiness of look backward, however an enormous step ahead” with a extra fashionable tackle a retro-inspired typeface.
Regardless of the model’s status for promoting a secure of unchanging classics — shift attire in brightly-hued prints — Kelly mentioned 50 p.c or extra of their drops characteristic recent silhouettes and merchandise, reminiscent of on-trend nylon belted luggage or tiered mini and midi attire, meant to attraction to a brand new shopper.
As properly, 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 shoppers, Kelly mentioned.
The model is predominantly a direct-to-consumer enterprise, with 85 p.c 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 shoppers. With about 66 p.c of its direct gross sales coming on-line, Lilly Pulitzer needs 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 achieve new shoppers — and reconnect with older ones — it’s additionally constructing its presence on TikTok, creating extra cuts of its adverts to run throughout varied platforms.
The hope is all these components will preserve the model’s longtime loyalists completely happy, however intrigue new clients, too.
“Typically manufacturers simply have durations the place they’ve recognition once more as a result of they take a brisker course,” mentioned Burke. “There’s no written script for it, however it definitely has extremely good bones.”
