Tuesday Topics: Let's talk Lilly

In honor of my win of some lovely Lilly stickers from the Preppy Paper Girl's giveaway, this Tuesday we shall talk Lilly. My Lilly lovin' (like most of you) started at a very young age. My mother was the owner of a children's shop in my hometown. Lilly & Lacoste was a practical uniform for we children of the early 80s. (the price tags were not nearly as high end as they are today)

The anti-preppy grunge movement of the early 90's saw these companies fade. I don't know if you remember, but Lilly was a near memory and sold at very few places during this time. (very rare outside of second hand shops and Florida) The classic shifts were mearly hanging in the backs of peoples closet, waiting for the re-emergence of prepdom.

In the year that all of my friends turned 16 (late 90s), our mothers decided to surprise us on the last day of school. 5 mothers and 5 daughters were whisked away to New York City for 5 days! It was a lovely surprise seeing as most of us had never ventured to the city before. In the airport awaiting our plane my mom bought me a copy of Vogue. On the plane ride I re-discovered Lilly in a lovely article about her juice stand and the ups and downs of her company. Mom explained to me that my great-grandmother was a Lilly lover from the beginning in Palm Beach. Almost immediately I felt a connection and just had to have a grown up version of what I'd seen in the photos of my childhood. The teeny tiny print below the article stated that Lilly was exclusively available at Saks Fifth Avenue stores. Now it may sound crazy, but I think fate brought us back together.

After a few days of sightseeing, mom and I split from the group to find my birthday dress. Up the escalators in Saks we went as I would stop for nothing until I found the teeny tiny pocket of pink & green in the city of grey. The Lilly comeback featured simply classic shifts in just a few patterns. While I loved all of the lovely piqued pink and green, I settled on this:

Pink grapefruit, green limes, & yellow lemons. The shift had 2 pockets on the front and the detail I loved the most: a thin piece of lace at the bottom of the hem that simply said "Lilly."

While the shift has been slightly altered to fit over the decade it has followed me through 2 high schools, college, and beyond ... it still remains a go-to in my spring wardrobe.

Do you have a story like mine with a particular item of clothing still in your closet or an interesting Lilly story readers might enjoy? Please share!