Relaxing with Lilly: Pulitzer-branded suite a first for Eau Palm Beach Resort

Animated by color-bursts of “hydra” blue and spearmint green and prints intended to inspire guests to “shine bright and stand out,” a luxe oceanfront suite at Eau Palm Beach Resort & Spa now stars an iconic Palm Beach resort-wear brand’s vibrant hues and whimsical designs.

One look at the 1,000-square-foot suite with its roaringly peppy floral-and-animal Dandy Lions print and anyone familiar with a decades-long famous Palm Beach fashion style knows this must be a Lilly suite.

Available to reserve through Sept. 8, the one-bedroom Lilly Pulitzer Suite with a living room and oceanfront balcony is part of a collaboration between the amenity-filled 7-acre Manalapan hotel and the resort-wear brand celebrating its 65th anniversary.

The “one-of-a-kind retreat,” which even includes a couple of framed photographs of the late Lilly Pulitzer herself, is where guests “can immerse themselves” in the spirited colors and cheery patterns for which the Pulitzer brand has been associated, Eau’s marketing director Michelle Phillips said.

“I have always described our guest rooms as something that will make you smile, even on a rainy summer day,” Phillips told the Daily News. “With this collaboration, guests are immediately approached with bursts of color and energy that are sure to bring a smile to your face.”

In addition to the Dandy Lions print with bright-green palm leaves and friendly-looking wild felines, the suite features home-décor accessories, including pillows, light fixtures and rattan mirrors — some with a monochromatic look — from the Lilly Pulitzer Pottery Barn Brands collection.

Colorful Lilly Pulitzer beach towels, beach bags and water bottles also are provided to guests during their suite stay.

While the newly designed suite at Eau is unmistakably Lilly, it’s also anchored by a few elements that came before it when Eau’s 309 rooms and suites were redone in 2014 by acclaimed designer Jonathan Adler. His redo garnered extra attention thanks to an Eau advertising campaign starring the late fashion maven Iris Apfel.

Maintaining part of Adler’s blue-accented footprint in the Lilly Pulitzer Suite was part of the plan, Phillips said, to create a new look celebrating “coastal living and iconic style” with details “carefully curated to help tell the story of both Lilly Pulitzer and Eau,” she said.

Lilly Pulitzer CEO Michelle Kelly concurred.

“Lilly Pulitzer designs speak to generations of resort-minded consumers (and) Eau Palm Beach Resort & Spa felt like the perfect location to collaborate on an oceanfront suite featuring our newest bedding and home décor collection during our 65th anniversary year,” she told the Daily News in an email.

“The resort offers guests the perfect balance of beach and pool, shares our love for color, and blends Jonathan Adler’s mid-century modern aesthetic with a beachy whimsy that made it the perfect canvas for our prints and décor enhancements…”

A page on Eau Palm Beach’s website about the Lilly Pulitzer Suite indicates the accommodation is the “first stop” in a “summer travel series” by the Lilly Pulitzer brand.

Depending on the date, rates for the Lilly Pulitzer Suite, which includes a king bed and living-room pullout sofa, start at $1,689 a night at the resort, which has been top-rated for years with five stars by Forbes Travel Guide.

At check-in at Eau, which in 2022 completed a multimillion-dollar renovation with new recreation facilities and restaurants, guests are treated to a complimentary glass of Champagne and/or juice by Natalie’s Orchid Island Juice Company with a Lilly Pulitzer-designed label.

Transforming a suite with a theme celebrating one particular brand — Lilly — is “a first for us and we are eager to watch it succeed,” Phillips said.

For its part, the Lilly Pulitzer brand has made extra waves this year as its 65th anniversary has been marked by various business partnerships, collaborations and debuts, including the release of an anniversary toile print and a limited-edition collection in shades of pink, green and yellow.

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

The brand, now owned by Atlanta-based Oxford Industries, got its start in 1959 in Palm Beach, when late resident Lilly Pulitzer began operating a juice stand on Worth Avenue.

Before long, she asked her dressmaker to make her a shift that would camouflage stains wrought from countless grapefruit and orange spills her juicing work entailed. Soon, colorful Lilly designs were being worn by the likes of Palm Beach winter visitor Jacqueline Kennedy and others.

This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: Eau Palm Beach Resort launches Lilly Pulitzer Suite