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LILLY PULITZER AT FIFTYBRIGHTENING CLOSETS AND SPIRITS FOR HALF A CENTURY

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2 WWD, TUESDAY, DECEMBER 2, 2008

In the Land of Pink and GreenLilly Pulitzer’s team brings a modern touch to a venerable niche.

By Julee Kaplan

IT WAS JUST ANOTHER DAY IN 1993 FOR Scott Beaumont and James Bradbeer Jr. The two Pennsylvania businessmen were working a trade show representing Eagle’s Eye, a preppy sportswear label run by venture capitalist Christopher Burch. It was there, where Bradbeer said, he experienced an “a-ha! moment.”

“We were at this trade show and saw that the Lilly Pulitzer brand was for sale and that Lilly wanted someone to resurrect it,” Bradbeer said. “For me, it seemed like a no-brainer. I grew up with Lilly since my mom was such a big fan. She wore it — she even worked in a Lilly store — and I remem-ber how sad she was when the brand was retired back in the Eighties.”

So, Beaumont and Bradbeer took the idea of pur-chasing the brand to Burch. He wasn’t interested.

“We decided pretty much right away that we were going to do this ourselves,” Bradbeer said. “So we did. We spun off.”

Both men lived in King of Prussia, Pa., so they decided to set up shop there — Beaumont would be chief executive and Bradbeer, president. While it was far from sunny Palm Beach, Fla., where the brand was founded and Lilly Pulitzer Rousseau still lives, Beaumont said that she was all for the idea of head-quartering in King of Prussia and encouraged them to open outside of a major city — in a more low-key, suburban area.

“She thought it would be better for us to stay fo-cused without the distractions of a city,” Beaumont said. “After all, she started the brand in a small town, so it made sense for us to follow that path.”

Today, the brand does operate a showroom in New York on the 21st fl oor of 550 Seventh Avenue, but it is still headquartered in a 100,000-square-foot pink stucco building in King of Prussia. Surrounded by traditional white and gray offi ce buildings, the pink and white Lilly Pulitzer headquarters is a beacon of

the tropical lifestyle.And inside is no different — Beaumont and

Bradbeer have created a little piece of Palm Beach, complete with sand-colored carpeting, wicker fur-niture with Lilly-printed pillows, photos of models wearing the brand on the beach and a canoe an-chored in the entrance way.

Upon entering the building, visitors are whisked into a world where everyone who passes is all smiles — dressed head-to-toe in Lilly, from the ceo on down. Employees are the best walking advertisements for the brand. They — and, by extension, their families — live the Lilly lifestyle to the fullest. Pictures of their children decked out in Lilly hang in sun-drenched cubicles (10 percent of the staff happens to be ex-pecting soon-to-be-Lilly-wearing babies), and design-ers anticipate a new fabric shipment like kids look forward to Christmas morning.

Central to the headquarters is a huge glassed-in courtyard, made to look like Palm Beach’s iconic Vias shopping area. In this courtyard are fully grown palm trees, cozy bright pink couches and chairs uphol-stered in Lilly prints, an array of dining tables with pink and green chairs and even a giant juice stand (which doubles as a fully stocked bar for events). The atrium serves as the main gathering point for meet-ings, lunch and a place where anyone in the company can go to relax before heading back to work.

In addition, there’s a tremendous warehouse, fi lled with product ready to ship to retail — part-nered and company-owned stores, as well as to a ros-ter of wholesale accounts including Bloomingdale’s, Saks Fifth Avenue, Nordstrom, Bergdorf Goodman and Harrods in London. In a nod to customer care, a team of people in the warehouse steam and iron the clothes, in assembly line fashion, before packing them into boxes.

This is also the place where legions of Lilly Lovers from around the country fl ock to for the brand’s bi-annual warehouse sale. It’s then and there that they

Continued on page 4

The headquarters in King of Prussia, Pa.

Scott Beaumont and James Bradbeer Jr.

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get the best deals on new merchandise, but it’s also the perfect time for these devotees to gather and catch up with each other.

“They literally spend the night in the parking lot,” Bradbeer said. “They love it, they look at pictures of each other’s kids, catch up on each others’ lives and then we open the doors and they clean us out.”

It’s these dedicated fans of the brand (hundreds of thousands of them worldwide, according to Bradbeer) who keep the company growing. Today, industry sources estimate the Lilly Pulitzer brand brings in about $75 mil-lion in wholesale volume annually. That’s quite a feat for a company that had a sluggish start — the second time around — back in 1994.

“We had our best year in business in 2001, especially in the months fol-lowing Sept. 11,” Bradbeer said, noting that it’s the brightly colored printed clothing that brings its wearers to a “much happier place.”

“I don’t know whether to be happy or sad about the downturn in the econ-omy,” Bradbeer said. “Traditionally for us, it’s times like these when our busi-ness is quite good.”

So, Bradbeer said, as the company celebrates the 50th year since Pulitzer opened her juice stand in Palm Beach, he is planning for growth next year of about 20 percent. And while he admits that the brand always want to serve those dedicated Lilly Lovers (who reg-ularly send him letters offering their own ideas of what the company should do), now is a time to “celebrate our past, but concentrate on moving the company forward.”

As brands such as Tory Burch, Milly, Tibi and Trina Turk leapfrog Pulitzer in terms of growth, the company’s own-ers are planning an aggressive expan-sion to stay in the game.

(Burch, incidentally, is the ex-wife of Christopher Burch. Her business, a direct competitor of Lilly Pulitzer, started in 2004.)

“There are brands out there that are just eating our lunch,” Bradbeer admit-ted during the company’s Jubilee cel-ebration at the famous Breakers hotel in Palm Beach last May. “But we are ready to compete with them head-on.”

To create some big buzz, the brand has partnered with several other “great American companies,” including Jeep Wrangler, which last month launched a fl oral-print, limited edition Lilly Pulitzer

model. About 70 of the Jeeps were pre-ordered and, at $25,000 a pop, some of the Signature store owners will not only be driving one, but they are also able to sell them to their customers. (The Jeep dealer nearest to the store will provide all proper paperwork and support).

Also in the works are a pink-and-green printed Steinway & Sons piano, a Hasbro Monopoly “Lilly-opoly” game (where a player can buy property in Palm Beach before “shifting” to the next space) and a Florida’s Natural or-ange juice carton decked in Pulitzer’s famous prints. One million of the lim-ited edition cartons will be distributed to grocery stores nationwide.

The idea, Bradbeer said, is to contin-ue to be a leader in their arena and to keep creating new things that honor the heritage begun by its founder, but still excite a new group of shoppers as well.

“Lilly was an innovator, a great American designer who made her way by being who she is,” he said. “Our job is to keep doing just that, but in a mod-ern way.”

Bradbeer acknowledges that the brand will never be for everyone, but the firm is finding new ways to ex-tend the brand, including its licensed categories. Currently, there are four: Eyewear with Kenmark, Sleepwear

with Carol Hochman, a new stationery deal with Lifeguard Press, and three fragrances, with PulsePoints LLC, that are ready to hit the market. (See relat-ed story, page 14).

Its shoes and handbags, two prod-ucts that are often licensed, are pro-duced in-house.

That’s just a fraction of what the company has in the pipeline. Now hit-ting retail for resort, which is tradition-ally the brand’s strongest season, the apparel has undergone a transforma-tion. To help with this, Bradbeer has brought in several seasoned designers as consultants.

Gordon Thompson, former corporate vice president of design and global cre-ative director at Nike Inc. and former executive vice president and creative di-rector at Cole Haan, has joined Pulitzer as a creative consultant, and Jeffrey Chow has signed on as a women’s wear design consultant. Besides designing his own ready-to-wear line, Chow was a de-signer at Pucci and Perry Ellis.

The result is a collection segmented into three categories — Jubilee, Day Lilly and resort collections. Jubilee com-prises high-end product for women, men and children, including beaded and em-broidered silk gowns and dresses, cash-mere sweaters and tunics, with some sig-

nature Pulitzer prints throughout. This collection, wholesaling between $24 and $425, is offered in limited edition runs. Jubilee infl uences the less-expensive merchandise meant for more everyday wearing in the Day Lilly group.

Day Lilly represents the biggest change for the brand. There are many prints seen throughout, but overall, they are not as busy as traditional Lilly designs — for example, there are tan and brown giraffe-print safari dresses, elephant-print tops, a blue and coral medallion-print silk dress and cotton tops in solid navy, white and pink. This collection, Bradbeer noted, was made to become the “modern Lilly collection.”

The resort line, which will be sold year-round, focuses on traditional and iconic Lilly prints — mostly in pink and green, but some blue and yellow manages to slip in as well. It includes sportswear, swimwear and dresses.

As time goes on, Bradbeer said he plans to continue to carry on Lilly’s leg-acy, and he looks forward to providing Lilly nation with new ideas. Now a fa-ther of four sons, it seems ironic that he is president of all things pink and green and girly.

“I have four boys at home, but Lilly was my fi rst child,” he said. “Lilly’s my fi rst girl.”

Steinway & Sons’ colorful piano.

Shoes and bags are produced in-house.The atrium at the headquarters.

The fl oral-print, limited edition Lilly Pulitzer jeep.

Life in Lilly LandContinued from page 2

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Congratulations on 50 Years of Colorful Life!Exclusive Licensee of Lilly Pulitzer Sunwear and Eyewear.

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By Sarah Haight

LONG BEFORE “LIFESTYLE DRESSING” WAS DE rigueur, before Ralph and before Tory, there was an eyeliner-loving, toga-wearing lady named Lilly Pulitzer Rousseau. Today, she lives in a sprawling bungalow in her beloved Palm Beach, her raucous entertaining days over — in the Sixties and Seventies, the Pulitzer family’s kitchen sat 26 for dinner — but her trademark nonchalant wit intact.

Perched on a chinoiserie-covered bench awaiting guests, the 77-year-old designer wears white slacks and a vintage Lilly shirt printed with white and yellow daisies, her feet bare but for the bright coral polish on her toes. (Rousseau never wears shoes unless she abso-lutely must, which means, begrudgingly, to restaurants and public functions.) “Time means nothing to me,” she said cheerfully by way of introduction. “Ten years, 15 years — I can’t believe that 50 years have gone by. I am what age I am, and it’s scary as hell!”

Whether Rousseau can believe it or not, a half cen-tury has indeed passed since she launched the preppy girl’s warm-weather wardrobe — simple shifts, capri pants and tennis skirts in splashy pastel patterns — out of a little juice stand on Palm Beach’s Via Mizner.

She sold the label in 1993 but continues to serve as a consultant to the company. The brand is now celebrating its Jubilee, complete with capsule collec-tions for resort, spring and summer featuring bejew-eled silk dresses and embroidered blouses, as well as a retrospective of vintage pieces and photographs that this spring will tour major department stores and the company’s 20 boutiques (one stop will be its fi rst Manhattan outpost, which opened on the Upper East Side in May).

“I can’t believe people are still interested in this story,” Rousseau said with a sigh. Never one to play by the rules (she considers underwear as much a nui-sance as shoes and lined her Lilly shifts with muslin to encourage women to go au naturel), she would much rather talk about her three children and seven grand-children, “pretty linen” or her overgrown landscaping and the family of raccoons lurking in it than the busi-ness that made her name iconic. Nevertheless, with a bit of coaxing, she jumps right in.

“It was a total change of life for me,” Rousseau said of starting her line. “I entered it with no business sense….It was just something that I all of a sudden took over.”

Rousseau’s story has been often told over the years: Born the middle of three daughters into a so-cially prominent family in Roslyn, N.Y., Lilly McKim attended all the right schools (Chapin, Miss Porter’s) with all the right people (Jacqueline Bouvier was a schoolmate at Miss Porter’s) before eloping in 1952, at age 21, with newspaper scion Peter Pulitzer. The pair moved to Palm Beach, where Pulitzer operated a successful citrus grove business, and they quickly had three children: Peter Jr., Liza and Minnie. The couple threw fabulous parties, famously tossing water on the tiled kitchen fl oor of their great big house overlooking Lake Worth so that everyone could do the twist after dinner. Lilly herself became known for “not giving a whit,” according to her longtime friend Susannah Cutts, accruing a menagerie of dogs, cats, monkeys and even a calf (“Those awful animals,” Rousseau now refl ected). But then, in 1958, Lilly’s sunniness began to fade. “I had terrible anxiety attacks,” she says, “so I went to the nuthouse.” The nuthouse was a psychiatric hospital in Westchester County, N.Y. — “I can’t really remember how long I was there, but my cousin was there too, so that was nice” — and she returned home armed with but one piece of medical advice: Get a hobby.

“Peter said, ‘Well, why don’t you sell my oranges?’” recalled Rousseau, who promptly started pulling her station wagon up her tony neighbors’ driveways, de-livering fruit. The stand quickly followed, though Lilly discovered her crisp white shirts and shorts were be-coming ruined with juice stains.

“So I went to the fi ve-and-dime, bought some fabric, took it to the seamstress, and she did it up,” Rousseau said, noting that she wanted dresses that were “col-

orful and cotton and cool,” with slits up the sides for bending over. The bright pattern hid the juice stains. She even hung a few in the stand, selling them for $22.50 apiece.

The town went wild. “I couldn’t keep up with all the orders!” she marveled. Soon Lilly was fl ying regularly to Key West, where she created the prints along with a “gay as your hat” designing couple who ran a tex-tile business called Key West Fabrics. Together they dreamed up lime green palm trees, bursting sunfl ow-ers and sky blue shells, all whimsical motifs plucked from Lilly’s sun-dappled life.

Within a year, she was shipping orders to retail-ers from Lord & Taylor and Saks Fifth Avenue to now-defunct specialty stores like Nan Duskin and I. Magnin. In 1961, a Lilly Pulitzer shop opened off Worth Avenue. The unlikely designer’s fame was all but cemented a year later, when Lilly’s school pal, fi rst lady Jackie Kennedy, appeared in Life magazine wear-ing the Lilly Pulitzer Classic Shift. (While most of the dresses cost about $25, Lilly charged Kennedy $75 for hers, “because that was made out of very expensive curtain fabric.”)

The Palm Beach social swirl that Rousseau recalls — in which counts sat next to carpenters at her dinner parties and, as she relishes telling, Kennedy spoon-fed John-John on her kitchen fl oor — has an almost mythic quality, one she laments no longer exists.

“It was just a cozy bunch of people. It was a smaller town,” said Rousseau, who divorced Pulitzer in 1969 and later married Cuban lawyer Enrique Rousseau. Though Rousseau credits a confl uence of timing and luck for her success — with the Kennedy clan vaca-tioning in Palm Beach those days, “the light was shin-ing in this spot” — an unfl inching stubbornness clearly served her label well.

Told by one retailer that she had to start making fall clothes, Rousseau replied, “Oh, but you don’t under-stand, it’s always summer somewhere.”

Thus she introduced what just may have been one of the fi rst resort collections, a year-round sum-mery lineup that grew to include men’s, children’s and swimwear, with sales peaking at $15 million.

Ever mindful of her own days as an idle stay-at-home mother, Rousseau shrewdly opened Lilly Pulitzer boutiques in towns that her friends had moved to, moneyed locales like Philadelphia’s Main Line and La Jolla, Calif.: “Their husbands would be shipped out to some city or town for their jobs, and then what is the poor girl gonna do? She needs a job! She needs a Lilly shop!”

By the early Eighties, however, the working-girl wardrobe and a neutral palette had taken over fash-ion; sales were fl agging, and Rousseau shut the whole thing down in 1984.

“I just thought it would be nice to take a long snooze,” she said, shrugging. “Before, I never con-centrated much on my kids — I mean, I was always very much a part of their lives, but that kind of turned around [when the business closed].”

And then in 1993, the year her husband died, Rousseau was visited by Philadelphia businessmen James Bradbeer Jr. and Scott Beaumont. There had been a generational shift, said Bradbeer, and the daughters and granddaughters of Lilly lovers were eager for those snappy prints and fl atter-every-shape frocks.

“I think the customer wanted it to wake up,” said Rousseau with a laugh; she sold the Lilly Pulitzer li-cense to the pair’s fi rm, Sugartown Worldwide Inc. After a slow start, the revived label found its foot-ing, surprisingly, in the months after 9/11. “It was our best year,” claimed Bradbeer, “because people want-ed something happy, and the Lilly attitude is always ‘We’re pressing on.’”

As for the original Lilly, these days she is most happy at home, where she still hosts Thanksgiving for nearly 50 on picnic tables near the pool (exes and strangers welcome). Asked if she misses the business, Rousseau shakes her head. “No one could tell me what to do or what not to do, because it was all up here,” she said, pointing to her temple. “And I don’t know if you could do what I did today, because it’s more competi-tive, and obviously you need a lot more education than I had.” She smiled mischievously: “But, oh my God, I had a terrifi c time.”

Lilly Pulitzer Rousseau’s accidental business was as much about a resort spirit as about clothes.

‘It’s Always Summer Somewhere’

Lilly Pulitzer at her shop in the Seventies.

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7WWD, TUESDAY, DECEMBER 2, 2008

At home in Palm Beach in October.

“I entered it with no business sense….It was just something that I all of a sudden took over. ”

— Lilly Pulitzer Rousseau

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Color My WorldLilly Pulitzer surrounded by prints, circa the Seventies.

No matter the year or season, Lilly Pulitzer’s calling card is cheerful designs.

Spring 2007

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Spring 2008

The Jubilee collection.

Lilly in a seashell dress.

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Spring 2005

Resort 2006

Spring 2004

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Spring 2007

Spring 2005

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Swimwear and cover-ups from 2004.

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The fall 2008 Day Lilly collection.

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The Design RoomIT’S FRIDAY AFTERNOON AT THE LILLY Pulitzer headquarters in King of Prussia, Pa., and a group of five young designers is gathered around a table with piles of photos from magazines, blank white canvases and every shade of watercolor paint imaginable. It looks a little like summer camp, but this is no typical arts-and-crafts session — this is just one of the many ways the design team experiments and finds new ways to translate vintage Lilly prints into fresh, modern designs.

“Aren’t they amazing?” asked Janie Schoenborn, design director for print, pattern, accessories and footwear and creative advisor at the company. “Our biggest challenge is always to take something famil-iar and make it look new. But that’s what we do — we add just enough newness, whether it’s by tweaking a fabric or adding a new style with a classic print.”

Another challenge, she said, is coming up with ideas for fall seasons. Typically, fall isn’t the best sea-son for the brand, especially since it’s known for its beachy pink and green sundresses, tunics and biki-nis. Schoenborn, who also works closely with Linda Bradbury, senior vice president of product, fi nds a way to get around that with her bright pink cable-knit sweaters and animal-print winter boots — lined in bright pink, of course.

To recharge and stay inspired, Schoenborn said she and her team like to visit Lilly Pulitzer Rousseau’s home in Palm Beach, Fla., as much as pos-sible. Her home is fi lled to the brim with kitschy tchotchkes — from a giant fish-shaped soup tureen to a giggling mon-key statue, and even her own Statue of Liberty in her back-yard. Any of these items can easily inspire a new pattern — a

swaying palm tree on a plate in her kitchen, for example, inspired the embroidered palm trees on a pair of cor-

duroy pants.Schoenborn also stays in-

spired by working in her print room at the headquarters — a

space fi lled with thousands of vin-tage Lilly dresses and print swatches

from years past. Each print, Schoenborn pointed out, has Lilly’s signature hidden

somewhere in them.“People love to fi nd the name in the prints,” she

said. “Some of them are hidden really well.” Schoenborn, a seasoned designer and self-pro-

claimed Lilly Lover, joined the fi rm about three years ago. She used to own and run her own handbag com-pany called Buzz by Jane Fox but decided to close it when James Bradbeer Jr., president of Lilly Pulitzer, came knocking.

“Lilly didn’t have handbags,” Schoenborn recalled. “I am such a fan of the brand, so I made my own bags

to go with my Lilly wardrobe.“I thought I would never leave my own company,

and I certainly never thought I would move away from New York, but it’s the best decision I’ve made. I’m really in my dream job.”

But with the dream job comes a bit of pressure from the hundreds of thousands of Lilly Lovers who keep in touch with Schoenborn.

“When we make something they don’t like, we hear about it,” she said. “They complain about the fi t, or that we cut the style in the wrong print — they are a very vocal group of women.”

On the fl ip side, Schoenborn said it can also be re-warding, since she hears a lot of positive feedback as well. Schoenborn said she often hears stories of women who wear a Lilly dress for their wedding, dress their babies in the brand to go home from the hospital or simply do not go a day without sporting something Lilly.

“It’s crazy to think that we can change people’s lives, make them happier, with these clothes,” she said. “But we really do.”

— Julee Kaplan

Coming up with new riffs on the famous prints.

Do the Bright ThingLILLY PULITZER HAS TEAMED UP WITH A SERIES OF CELEBRITIES TO LAUNCH A Colorful Cause: Celebrity Designer Program. Lilly-supporting celebrity moms — Gwyneth Paltrow, Brooke Shields, Debra Messing, Marcia Cross, Angie Harmon, Bridget Moynahan, Catherine Bell, Elisabeth Hasselbeck and Garcelle Beauvais-Nilon — have come together in honor of the brand’s milestone to create limited edition, one-of-a-kind pieces to raise funds and awareness for epidermolysis bullosa, a rare inherited skin disease that affects young children.

These celebrities each worked with the company’s design team to create limited edition mother-daughter/son looks using iconic Lilly Pulitzer prints. From dresses and tunics to swimsuits and cover-ups, the coordinating ensembles are meant to capture the spirit of the brand. The exclusive designs created for A Colorful Cause are part of the brand’s summer 2009 Jubilee collection and a percentage of proceeds from sales of the designs will support the Epidermolysis Bullosa Medical Research Foundation.

“Lilly Pulitzer’s support, as well as the participation of all the moms, will go a long way in our continued efforts to fi nd a cure for EB,” said Andrea Pett-Joseph, executive vice president of EBMRF.

“Through this program and the designs these women have created, we’re able to give Lilly Lovers a look toward our next 50 years,” Bradbeer said. “We are honored to have these infl uential celebrities as partners in our Jubilee, but we are more humbled by their efforts to help raise funds through A Colorful Cause for our friends at EBMRF.”

— J.K.

An inspiration board.

Designers at play: experimenting with color, pattern and design in the atrium; Linda Bradbury, and Janie Schoenborn (inset).

Debra Messing’s designs.

Looks created by Gwyneth Paltrow for the EBMRF.

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The Whole PackageStaying on-message in Lilly Pulitzer stores.

By Cecily Hall

THERE’S NO SUCH THING AS A CRISIS in Lilly Pulitzer’s world.

With a brand as bright and colorful as this, what could possibly shake things up? A global fi nancial meltdown? Nope. Sept. 11? Nice try. In fact, the period following 9/11 was a successful time for Lilly, according to company president James Bradbeer Jr., who noted that con-sumers were perhaps turning to Lilly’s bright colors subconsciously in an effort to turn their own moods around. Those very colors are what have defi ned this brand since its inception 50 years ago.

The retail story of Lilly Pulitzer, now based in King of Prussia, Pa., began in 1958 in Palm Beach, Fla., when social-ite Lilly Pulitzer started selling orange juice from her husband’s groves at a little stand. She created her own line of colorful dresses to hide the juice stains that inevitably splattered her clothes, and they were noticed by such fashion icons as Jackie Kennedy. To this day, they are considered timeless, and their devout consumer following is as large as ever.

Fast-forward to 1994, a decade after Pulitzer shuttered the business and re-tired, when two friends and entrepre-neurs (and longtime fans of the brand)

James Bradbeer Jr. and Scott Beaumont bought and reintroduced the brand under parent company Sugartown Worldwide Inc. One of the fi rst steps? Figuring out an effective retail strategy, since neither executive had an exten-sive retail background.

“Brad and I no way pretend to be great retail experts,” said Beaumont, chief executive officer. “When we formed the business, we knew we were going to need help with our retail side, because one of the things we found early on was that this customer likes to shop in a specialty environment, where she gets good service and sees a high assort-ment of Lilly [merchandise].”

There are a couple of reasons for that, he noted. Lilly is a specialty brand in terms of distribution, the products of-fered and how consumers think about it. But the customer likes to see Lilly with a lot of assortment because it gives her confi dence that her party dress will be unique — even if she’s in a place where many other people may be donning Lilly attire. “A lot of people who wear Lilly congregate with others who wear Lilly,” Beaumont said. “And Lilly her-self always told us that, when you assort the line, think in terms of people going to a party where every person wants to be in Lilly.”

He also pointed out that Lilly consum-ers often will want a skirt in six different patterns — or they’ll want the same pat-tern on six different pieces of apparel.

After opening its first company-owned retail shop in Key West, Fla., in 1996, Beaumont and Bradbeer made a decision to begin introducing “signature stores” — now called “Via Shops” — to enhance the focus of its retail presence. Via shops are run by independent re-tailers who apply and submit business

plans to open up their own store, much like a franchise. Pulitzer management has an evaluation process to determine which retailers and plans are best suit-ed for the job.

“The people we chose had to really know this brand, have retail experience and they’d have to know their communi-ty,” explained Beaumont. “Lilly is very much a social-networking community. People who seek this brand out to do a signature Lilly store in their town are

The store at the King of Prussia Mall in Pennsylvania.

© 2008 KPMG LLP, a U.S. limited liability partnership and a member firm of the KPMG network of independent member firms affiliated with KPMG International, a Swiss cooperative. All rights reserved. 20680PHL

Your noteworthy performance

deserves one word:

Bravo!

Here’s to 50 MORE years of Colorful Life

Happy 50th Anniversary Lilly Pulitzer®

us.kpmg.com

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probably at the epicenter of their com-munity of Lilly Lovers.”

Beaumont and Bradbeer chose to open Via Shops in locations, such as Palm Beach, Fla., Nantucket, Mass., and Westport, Conn., where competition was light and the brand was in demand.

Today, the company boasts 75 signa-ture stores nationwide.

In 2004, Pulitzer launched a two-pronged approach to retail that includes company-owned and -operated units.

Beaumont said the idea behind the company-run stores was to give the fi rm the tools necessary to know their customers better. And they also real-ized that their newfound knowledge

and skill set led them to assist the sig-nature stores.

“We could put out a great catalogue, get customers to our Web site, and help our independent retailers with signage,” he said. “These successes within our own stores helped our independent re-tailers to do a better business, too.”

He added that they wanted some stores to have flagship characteris-tics — larger square footage, different merchandise and higher foot traffi c — like the current store at the King of Prussia Mall.

In May, Lilly opened its first Manhattan store at 1020 Madison Avenue (3,600 square feet) along with

a shop in East Hampton, N.Y. Most re-cently, a Boca Raton, Fla., location was unveiled. The total company-operated store count now sits at 21 locations in nine states. Average square footage of these stores is 3,800 square feet, with an employee count of about 10.

In general, retail prices average $150, but merchandise ranges from fragrance bottles at $48 to cocktail dresses for $428.

And their performance? “Most cor-porate stores do well in excess of $1 million per door, and overall growth in the retail channel will be 9 percent this year,” said Beaumont.

Besides its Via and company-operated shops, the collection also can be found at

stores, including Neiman Marcus, Saks Fifth Avenue and Lord & Taylor. WWD reported in March that the brand has made a push internationally: Bradbeer said at the time that the brand had launched at Harrods in London, marking its foray into Europe. The Lilly Pulitzer collection at Harrods includes women’s and children’s apparel.

While Lilly does have a couple of re-tail spaces under consideration for 2009, at this point the brand is staying mum as to potential locations. But lillypulitzer.com has gone fully transactional. As of last month, Lilly Lovers from anywhere can purchase their favorite items from the brand’s Web site.

Lilly Pulitzer’s Madison Avenue store

opened in May. Totes and boots on display.

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HERE’S TO FIFTY MORE YEARS OF COLORFUL LIFE.

HAPPY 50TH ANNIVERSARY

CONGRATULATIONS FROM OBLON, SPIVAK

INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY LAW

www.oblon.com | 703-413-3000

By Julie Naughton

BRAND EXTENSION IS A SIGNIFICANT PART OF THE GROWTH STRATEGY for Lilly Pulitzer as it begins its second half-century.

Pulitzer offers a wide array of accessories, from shoes and boots to all sizes and shapes of handbags, totes and wallets, scarves and some home products like pillows and holiday ornaments. These, however, are all produced in-house.

“We have a great design team internally who really understands our consumer and her needs, so we feel completely comfortable keeping certain categories, which are usually licensed out, in-house. By designing for these categories in-house, we are able to be consistent with our resort chic brand image,” said James Bradbeer Jr., president of Lilly Pulitzer.

The brand’s licensing program is an intimate group: Sleepwear with Carole Hochman, eyewear with Kenmark and the two latest, custom stationery and gifts with Lifeguard Press and fragrances with PulsePoints LLC.

In September, Pulitzer licensed Lifeguard for invitations and stationery, party goods and gifts, from wrapping paper and bags to partyware, cocktail napkins and drink umbrellas, offi ce accessories like desk sets, diaries, notebooks, frames and calendars, among others.

“We’re introducing an entirely new category for our consumer…[and] telling her we understand her lifestyle needs,” said Bradbeer.

Todd Ferrier, founder and ceo of Lifeguard, added, “We believe this line ex-presses Lilly Pulitzer’s innate sense of style and fun.”

Pulitzer leapt into the fragrance business just this fall with a trio of scents — and the company is juicing the market for all it’s worth.

Dubbed Beachy, Squeeze and Wink, the fragrances began rolling into about 800

department and specialty stores in the U.S., including Bloomingdale’s and Lilly Pulitzer Via Shops, in early November and will be in about 1,200 doors, including selected Macy’s, by this spring.

Certainly it’s not business as usual to launch three scents at once — particularly when the company has never even done one — but that’s fi ne with Bradbeer.

“This launch is very specifi cally not like everyone else’s,” Bradbeer said. “We’re not in the basics business — patterns and bright colors are part of our DNA. Over the years, we’ve met a lot of people who think they know Lilly as a brand, that come to us say-ing, ‘This type of fragrance is trendy now, this is what will sell.’ But Alison Farn understood the brand, and like us, had a clear vision of what could fi ll a gap in the market.”

Farn is president of PulsePoints LLC, which makes the scents, and a longtime Lilly Lover. “This brand is so much about Lilly her-self,” said Farn. “She was never doing it as a commercial enter-prise, and this business is not as commercially driven as others. This company has a real spirit and it is true to its roots. This wasn’t about Lilly or us going out and looking for a license. It just became the right time to do fragrances.

“Lilly makes people smile — especially in a tough economy — and we think we’ve captured that in a bottle,” Farn continued. “We see this as a very long-term and healthy relationship between PulsePoints and Lilly Pulitzer. Signature fragrances are just the beginning.”

The scents are named for iconic Pulitzer moments. Wink is a fl irty fl oral named for one of Pulitzer’s favorite sayings — “Wear pink and make the boys wink.” Squeeze, a reference to the juice stands at which Pulitzer began selling her fi rst shifts to friends like Jackie Kennedy, is a citrus scent. And Beachy, inspired by Pulitzer’s Palm Beach, Fla., residence, is intended to be reminiscent of the beach. Wink has top notes of pear nectar, pink freesia and lush gardens; a heart of rose bouquet, white lily and violet fi elds, and a drydown of amber crystals and sensual musk. Squeeze’s top notes are of exotic lychee, pink grapefruit and red currant; its heart is of lotus blossom and wild rose petals, and its drydown is of sun-drenched woods and water musk. Beachy opens with sliced watermelon, sunny citrus and marine air accord; has a heart of jasmine blossom, tiare fl ower and lush frangipani, and a drydown of salt crystals, golden amber and sweet vanilla. Wink was concocted by Cecile Krakower, Squeeze by Mathilde Bijaoul and Beachy by Karine Dubreil.

Each scent has eaux de parfum in two sizes, 1.7 oz. for $48 and 3.4 oz. for $68; a body lotion, $38, and a candle, $34. Packaging is signature Lilly: for the line’s debut, Janie Schoenborn, design direc-tor for print and pattern, brand presentation, and accessories and footwear for Lilly Pulitzer, created six patterns in signature colors

SECTION II

WWD SPECIAL REPORT


Lots of categories keep building the Lilly lifestyle.

All the Details

“Lilly makes people smile — especially in a tough economy — and we think we’ve captured that in a bottle.”

— Alison Farn, PulsePoints LLC

Eyewear with

Kenmark.

Sleepwear with Carole Hochman.

Stationery with Lifeguard Press.

Stationery with Lifeguard Press.

Fragrance with PulsePoints.

WWD.COM


specifi cally for the fragrance collection. The bottles themselves were inspired by architecture on Palm Beach’s Via Mizner, the site of Pulitzer’s original juice stand, said Theresa Plavoukos, vice president of marketing for PulsePoints.

In store, Pulitzer-clad salespeople sample the scents via scented ribbons and vials on cards, said Farn. At coun-ter, the brand serves juice — a play on the industry jargon for scent, and also a key reference to Lilly Pulitzer’s juice-stand roots.

Industry sources estimated that the collection could do at least $5 million at retail in its fi rst year on counter. While it’s still early, Farn noted that the three scents seem to be selling equally.

Lilly Pulitzer manufactures cosmet-ics bags — a business which the compa-ny entered in late 2006 — and Bradbeer has said that he has his eye on other categories. “We have additional [beau-ty] categories on our long-term list,” he said in August, “but for now, we’re going to concentrate on our fragrances and making that business as strong as it can be.” Such additions would be at least 12 to 24 months out, he said.

Farn agreed. “We want this business to be healthy 10 years from now,” she added. “It’s not about coming out with another fl anker next year. We’ve en-tered the category with a strong state-ment, and we plan for these scents to be classics.”

— With contributions from Dianne M. Pogoda

IT’S OFTEN SAID THAT THERE’S VERY LITTLE THAT’S TRULY original in fashion these days. But when Lilly Pulitzer fi rst offered her sunny prints, there wasn’t much like them anywhere, and they turned into a fashion and lifestyle brand. Here, in honor of its jubilee, the company collected thoughts from some designers and fashion-world observers about the Lilly phenomenon.

“Lilly Pulitzer created a very distinct look — her personal style of bright colors and prints has an important place in fashion.”

— Ralph Lauren

“Lilly Pulitzer had the fantastic idea to do her collection all in fl oral cottons, which became timeless and classic for the summer.”

— Carolina Herrera

“Lilly Pulitzer is one of the few designers worthy of copying. You can’t be an American designer without a little nod to Lilly.”

— Isaac Mizrahi

“Lilly Pulitzer was one of the fi rst to take a personal look and lifestyle and turn it into a brand. Her cheery and colorful prints are much imitated, but she is a true original.”

— Kate Spade

“With her bold prints and sunny colors, Lilly taught the world about Palm Beach style. Like a Levi’s 501, a Lilly shift can work on everyone from age seven to 70. A true American classic.”

— Michael Kors

“Lilly understood her client and her lifestyle because she was an inherent part of that world. Her enduring love for Palm Beach and that society celebrated casual dressing and brought resort clothing to ‘all’ of America.”

— Vera Wang

“Lilly Pulitzer…Palm Beach at its best — a timeless American style!”—Diane von Furstenberg

“One of my earliest memories of fashion is my mom wearing a lime green printed shift dress at our country club in Weston, Connecticut. Lilly Pulitzer was a summer uniform and always defi ned summer style.”

— Reed Krakoff

“Wearing Lilly Pulitzer turns everyone into a bunch of fl owers: What could be more optimistic and fabulous than that?”

— Simon Doonan

“Lilly is an American original. She created a look that captured the essence of a particular place, time and lifestyle. When you think of classic American resortwear, you cannot help but think of Lilly Pulitzer. Her embrace of color, print and pared-down silhouettes are always an inspiration.”

— Trina Turk

“Lilly is an inspiration as a designer and business leader because she managed to create an amazing lifestyle brand based on her own life in Palm Beach and turned it into a success that still stands out as unique and relevant. There are few brands today that are as authentic as Lilly Pulitzer.”

— Holly Dunlap

“Talk about turning lemons into lemonade! From citrus libations to the prettiest preppy creations, she created a sunny — and status-y — world we all aspired to. Lilly is the true Pulitzer Prize.”

— Jeffrey Banks

“Lilly Pulitzer makes everyone look happier, richer and more fun-loving than they probably are. Lilly equals sunshine.”

— Jonathan Adler

They Are Saying: ‘Lilly’s the Real Deal’

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