Lilly Pulitzer's daughters launch new collection for brand's 65th anniversary

The latest capsule collection from Lilly Pulitzer has a genealogical influence, just in time for the brand's 65th anniversary being celebrated this year.

The Barefoot in Paradise collection is the result of the brand's collaboration with Minnie and Liza Pulitzer, the iconic designer's daughters who still live and work in Palm Beach and raised their families here.

The collection features 14 pieces in various shades of blue with white that hit the market May 1.

"We were both completely happy that Mom had reached that milestone," Liza Pulitzer said of the brand's landmark anniversary. She and her sister each had a Lilly Pulitzer collection named after them in the clothing line's early days: The Liza for juniors; the Minnie for girls.

"We were really sort of flattered and excited about it," Liza Pulitzer said of the capsule collection. "We thought it would be such a fun thing to do to celebrate Mom."

Lilly Pulitzer founded her brand of now-iconic resort wear while running a juice stand at her family's fruit shop off Worth Avenue in the 1960s. She created the first dress, a simple shift, in a variety of patterns that were brightly colored to hide juice stains.

Soon, her dresses were more popular than her juice. The shifts' popularity skyrocketed after First Lady Jackie Kennedy in 1962 wore a Lilly dress on the cover of Life Magazine.

After a resurgence in the 1990s when Sugartown Worldwide Inc. bought the rights to the brand, Lilly Pulitzer became a global fashion force, always with its roots in Palm Beach.

Lilly Pulitzer died in 2013 at age 81.

The sisters said the vibrant blue hues of the Barefoot in Paradise collection were inspired by their childhood growing up between the lake and the ocean in Palm Beach.

"When we were looking at different prints and different options on what to build the line around, it resonated with us," Liza Pulitzer said.

They also loved the oversized feel of the shells and chrysanthemums used in the prints.

"I think when you think about Mom, when she was starting this company, it was in the '60s and that was all about joy and flower power and everything being sort of free and liberating and oversized," Liza said. "I think when Minnie and I saw those prints, we were like, 'This is exactly the direction we feel comfortable going in for this little capsule of the line.'"

The collection's name also carries significance for the family: Lilly Pulitzer famously loved to go barefoot, so much so that she was called "the barefoot princess."

She never wore shoes, the sisters recalled, and when she did, they were "fake shoes" that just barely met the definition of footwear.

The family home was paradise, Minnie Pulitzer said. "Everywhere we grew up, it was always a jungle," she said.

The children ran barefoot through the thick green grass and abundant trees that grew wild around their home, the first of which was lakeside at 15 S. Lake Trail.

The home Lilly Pulitzer and her second husband Enrique Rousseau built in 1983 at 710 S. County Road carried on the jungle feeling, with Lilly Pulitzer in 2012 describing the property to Palm Beach Daily News as "a tropical oasis, really beautiful — specimen trees, huge banyans, orange trees and a little stream. There were a Chinese garden and an orchard — and a service road coming through to the ocean — unbelievable.”

The pieces in the collection all draw on that relaxed type of colorful elegance that was exemplified by the early Lilly Pulitzer line.

"I think the line has evolved tremendously over the years," Liza Pulitzer said. "When you go through the decades of fashion and you get to where we are today, there is a very loose feeling of comfort."

Minnie Pulitzer recalled growing up, jumping out of the pool or the ocean and wrapping a sarong around her bathing suit, then throwing on a dress or a T-shirt.

"If you went out at night, you put it (the sarong) down on the beach as your towel," she said.

Both Liza and Minnie are fans of the Barefoot in Paradise collection's white jeans, which have a subtle chrysanthemum print on them. Liza said the idea was to have white-on-white, but still be able to see the flowers.

"I am wearing mom's prints in the most serene way, on white jeans, and what they did is off-white, on white," Liza Pulitzer said. "They are fabulous."

Minnie also loves the collection's bathing suits. As a swimmer herself — she does at least a mile every day — she said she knows the importance of having a great suit that works for children and adults.

For the Pulitzer sisters, the line is about more than just celebrating the brand's 65th anniversary.

"What we were really designing, it paid a lot of homage to Mom, to the line that she created, that look, that vibe," Liza Pulitzer said. "But it was brought to a very current day."

The vintage Lilly Pulitzer fit was loose and designed to look good on every type of body, they said.

And pockets!

"Mom loved pockets," Minnie Pulitzer said, adding that her mom would have loved the looser-fit pants in the collection for that reason. "Mom walked everywhere with her hands in her pockets."

"We've turned into our mother," Liza Pulitzer said, laughing.

Liza and Minnie Pulitzer continue their mother's barefoot tradition: They ground every day, a practice where a person connects with the earth by standing with bare feet on the bare ground or grass.

"We watch the sunrise every morning, and then we come back to Liza's garden and we ground," Minnie said.

Their mother's legacy through the brand's continued success has been incredible to watch, they said.

"It fills my heart with joy, because it still resonates," Minnie Pulitzer said. "Mom was all about open doors and love and life and family and joy and laughter, and I just love it because I see that carried on."

It feels, she said, like they have a little bit of their mom with them every day.

"We are beyond proud of our mom, but we're also kind of in shock that her creative mind, all that whimsy and all of those over-the-top ideas, both in the design and in the prints, that it would resonate so much with the world of fashion," Liza Pulitzer said. "So to be part of it this year for the 65th anniversary, in our opinion, it's such an honor."

For more information about the Barefoot in Paradise Lilly Pulitzer capsule collection, go to lillypulitzer.com or visit the Lilly Pulitzer store at 240 Worth Ave., Palm Beach.

Kristina Webb is a reporter for Palm Beach Daily News, part of the USA TODAY Florida Network. You can reach her at [email protected]. Subscribe today to support our journalism.

This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Daily News: Lilly Pulitzer's daughters launch new capsule collection with brand