Researching Lilly Pulitzer: Dating Vintage Fashion

When trying to date or locate resources for vintage fashion, seeking out originals of the same style from actual vintage documents can be difficult. One great resource for dating 20th century fashion are the many home sewing patterns published through out the century.

The photo of Lilly Pulitzer above shows her wearing a cotton long muu muu dress with matching cotton print 'babushka' head scarf. It is a style that shows up also in sewing pattern Simplicity 6445 from 1966. The original photo is dated about 1963, so we know that any dress will probably be withing this range, especially considering how home sewing patterns can stay in print for a few years. Lilly's own style tends to not fluctuate, so it is easily possible that 1966 is a good date for a dress with this style of sleeve.

This photo of Lilly jumping from a plane is great because we can clearly see how the banding on her shift is placed along the side slit with a bow at the top. The sewing pattern Simplicity 7091 from 1966 has this same side slit silhouette. Simplicity 5455 dates from 1964, so we can see that a side slit shift is a strong look during this era.

This is a Lilly catalog illustration without a date. The patterns shown above show similar silhouette shapes and handkerchief head scarfs that were often part of Lilly's ensembles. Sewing pattern Simplicity 7529 (1968) has this look.

With the popularity of caftans during most of the 1970's, we can find quite a few caftan sewing patterns. This by Simplicity 6390 (1974) is a great example of how closely Lilly's own caftans kept this classic style during this time. We can expect her caftans to have this same look.

Locating vintage patterns can be easy to do, with Pinterest, Etsy, and Google images showing many examples to choose from. The images here come from the online site: Wikipedia, -- http://vintagepatterns.wikia.com where you will find many pattern covers archived.

Lilly Pulitzer & Her Dresses

The Lilly Pulitzer revival continued this year with a small but punched up exhibition of her dresses and other designs for both men and women. It was a good opportunity to view the diversity of her work over the span of her career, with many examples of silhouette and style all created from her textile designs.

Lilly dresses from the 1960s and 1970s are like those from other well know textile designers such as Pucci, Vera, and Marimekko designs: the fabric is first and foremost, while the garment structure is often the vehicle for the textile, rather than the other way around.

The photos here show some of the garments that were in the exhibition, and I offer them as an example of her diversity as a designer of fabric who found a way to marry those splashes of color with simple garment silhouettes. In a second post I'll share more detail photos and textiles close-up.

One important fact that is seldom emphasized about Lilly Pulitzer (1931 - 2013) is that she wasn't a homely Florida orange grove owner's wife selling juice, as the myth is often told. She was a socialite married to a Pulitzer publishing heir, living in Palm Beach, Florida. She was socially connected and knew the major characters who resided in Palm Beach as well as most of the east coast as well. That Jackie O was a former room mate at boarding school who owned and wore her dresses for a magazine cover photo attests to how easy it was for Lilly's company to gain popularity and success. The design business that she began in 1959 included a partner who had been a fashion editor, so she was given great advice along with expert assistance. Her brand is also a story of how a creative individual with drive can become a success especially if they are part of the established upper class system where their work is easily accepted and promoted.

Sadly, I can't give you the dates or descriptions for the garments in the exhibition because nothing was labeled. More to the point, this show appeared to be mounted for entertainment, rather than education, with odd and inappropriate accessories and pairing of garments. All of this aside, it was great to see her diversity when it came to textile design.

These photos were taken at the southern California exhibition "Loving Lilly: Lilly Pulitzer From the Keni Valenti Collection" on view late this summer. All garments shown are from the collection of Keni Valenti, a Miami-based vintage clothing collector.