Lilly Pulitzer: Close-up

Lilly Pulitzer fabrics and fashions made a transition during the later half of the 1960's to include white trimmings that were heavy and textured. She used the popular caftan shapes that were constructed with vertical seam lines and slash necklines to create 'outlines' and seam accents.

She had been using cotton fabric around edges, and expanded on that with shirred trims, ruffles and ruched panels cut from the dress fabric for texture.

These close-up view of her trims and textiles show how she used contrast and texture to create additional new looks and add a fresh face to her well known shift dresses in the late 1960s and early 1970s.

Her textile design color palette was based on citrus and tropical brights. She continued to make that her brand identification, rarely including other hues. During the 1970's she did work with deeper brights along the lines of then popular Pucci prints, as shown above.

The themes and images that she used in her designs tended to have a sea and surf motif. Usually there are identifiable images within each design, rarely using all abstract shapes. Floral are dominate, along with fish, frogs and other water creatures.

When trying to date her dresses, it is important to find examples that 'match up' to what you have found. With Lilly designs, due to her use of classic silhouettes and prints, this can be difficult to do, since some styles span a decade or more. In her early career, it is possible to find photos of her wearing her designs that date to the early and mid-1960s. Often she is shown wearing a triangle scarf to match the dress.

The 1960's dresses have a simple cut with popular details such as patch pockets and a deep side slit with contrast white banding and a bow. Contrast rick-rack or banding is also seen around the necklines and armholes. This might be due to the garment construction where under-lining or flat-lining is used to support the thin cottons she printed on. This technique requires that the seam allowances are pressed open and are not hidden behind a lining 'shell'. Rather than loose facings she seems to have chosen contrast binding, rick-rack or piping around the edges, most often in white as you can see in the photos.

Some primary sources are her advertisements (often in "Vogue"), catalogs, press photos, and magazine editorials. Because well known personalities such as Jackie Kennedy wore her dresses, photos are available with dates (note that Jackie favored simple gingham shifts, rather than bold prints).

I have found quite a few examples and have saved them in a Pinterest board "Lilly Pulitzer" for research reference. Feel free to let me know if you locate additional images.

Biography

the New York Times

Palm Beach Daily News

Huffington Post

This post is part of a three-part series. Part one: "Lilly Pulitzer and Her Dresses" can be seen HERE. Pinterest photo album can be found HERE

1963 Swimsuit Design: Rose Marie Reid advertisement

Super cool 1963 swimsuit design with a flirty Flapper look by California designer Rose Marie Reid, whose fabrics and designs forged new silhouettes in traditional swim wear fashions. Her innovative approach for this blouson swim suit pre-dated the bra-less era by nearly 5 years. Her style parallels that of Rudi Gernreich who worked in the same locale at the same time.

Magazine ad reads:
New minimum of maillot that blousons into a stained glass print of Helanca nylon knit! Rose Marie Reid does the look without a bra. Wear it with your own if you still want to after the delight of wearing it au naturel. "Glissando" $25.95. The glowing print by Soptra

Rudi Gernreich: On Exhibit

"The TOTAL LOOK" is a collection of 1960's fashions by L.A. designer Rudi Gernreich. Billed as the creative collaboration between Rudi Gernreich, his model Peggy Moffitt and her husband William Claxton, his photographer.  This exhibit displays her personal collection of fashions, photos and movies. This is on display at the Los Angeles Museum of Contemporary Art's annex at the Pacific Design Center.  The gallery site is a small two story building where the entry is into a dark gallery.

The opening gallery showcases tunics and full ensembles with matching leggings in animal prints. Ongoing is a large screen showing a short film with music from the 1960's featuring the clothes on Moffitt and other models.

Upstairs, a larger gallery packs a wide range of fashions into one space. His iconic topless swimsuit is there, of course, along with the famous photo of Moffitt wearing it. Grouped by style trends, his work during this decade is featured.

Many of his best know fashions are there to be seen up close and personal. The greatest impact might be  color and pattern worn head to toe, a style that Gernreich made famous. Bright, bold colors are paired with graphic black and whites for emphasis and drama.  Tunics and legs are usually color and texture coordinated, making for a 'Total Look' as the name implies.

These aren't fashions for the faint at heart, but they certainly capture a sense of fun and play that his fashions were known for. Beyond the bold and outrageous, there are many outfits that are wearable today (needless to say, often copied as well).

 The Total Look is on now at the MOCA site at the Pacific Design Center through May 27, 2012.

Want to know more?
You can see close-up photos of the KABUKI  dress shown here from my collection,
and pictures of some early Gernreich fashions, HERE.

Vintage Details: Rudi Gernreich: 2 Kabuki Dresses, Autumn 1963

It's not often that we get a chance to see two vintage dresses that are from the same collection: similar in design, but different in fabrication.

Rudi Gernreich produced a wide range of innovative designs during his career, but the Kabuki dress remains one of the most recognizable. Designed in 1963 for his Autumn collection, it is a wool double knit with body drape. What made it so unique was the eye popping textile colors and the innovative bodice 'obi' belting across the bustline.

As early as 1954, when in his early 30’s, Gernreich was noted for his colorful, geometric, and unique styling. His styles are highly influenced by the flapper silhouette of the 1920’s, which was a departure from the hourglass look being designed in Paris by Dior. In 1951 he began working for Walter Bass, a California manufacturer. There he became well known for contemporary clothing design.

He created boxy jackets and tight pants and other clothing styles that would become more commonplace in the early 1960’s but were considered bold, sophisticated, and shocking 10 years earlier.

Like Claire McCardell and Bonnie Cashin, he was influenced by Asian garment styles. As a designer he felt that he was a practicing artist, where aesthetics were important. He also believed that a good design need not be discarded after only one season.



Wool knit textiles were produced by Harmon knitwear. In the early 1960's his color sense and ability to manipulate textile graphics were becoming popular. The bold colors and patterns here predict the trend in fashion that would become mainstream by the late 1960's and early 1970's.



And finally, a quick look at the inside construction. The obi section is backed by cotton broadcloth to prevent it from stretching out of shape.


(click on the photos so see enlargements)
Please contact me if you wish to use these photos, thank you