When it comes to American fashion, there are surprisingly few household names. Lilly Pulitzer is one of them.
The brand, whose eponymous founder was an eccentric heiress with a pet monkey living in Palm Beach, has continued to evolve over the past nearly 70 years. Now, it is under the creative vision of Mira Fain, who first discovered Lilly Pulitzer when searching for “happy dresses” online in 2004.
Fain recognized early on that, in order to introduce a new generation to the brand, she would need to retell the story of Lilly Pulitzer not as nostalgia, but as a living narrative rooted in color, optimism, and artistry.
For the Spring/Summer 2026 collection, that story begins in the studio. Lilly Pulitzer’s signature prints emerge through a distinctly human process, shaped by instinct and revisions from the brand’s team of artists. “For me, the magic is in the imperfection,” Fain says. “When you stand next to an artist and watch her mix a color, adjust a line, or change her mind halfway through, that is where the life happens.”
In an era when A.I.-generated imagery has become an increasingly ubiquitous shortcut, Lilly Pulitzer continues to center the artist’s hand as a way to stay connected to its origins. The brand was born in the late 1950s, when its founder opened a juice stand in Palm Beach and needed a lightweight, patterned dress that would obscure the orange stains on her clothes. Before long, she was selling more dresses than juices.
“A hand-painted pattern carries instinct and emotion,” Fain explains. “A.I. can generate something beautiful in seconds, but it does not have memory or feelings.”
That sense of authenticity extends to how the brand navigates its connections to Palm Beach mythology. In recent years, pop culture has reignited its fascination with the glamorous Florida enclave through the Kristin Wiig-fronted Apple TV series Palm Royale. Meanwhile, the real Palm Beach has risen as a hub for arts and culture, with art collector Beth DeWoody’s famed Bunker exhibition space and the arts nonprofit New Wave Art Wknd.
For her part, Fain remains focused on the eccentric freedom that defined the place and Lilly herself. “The real Palm Beach has always had personality—beautiful and polished, but also eccentric,” she says. “If we protect that feeling of freedom, we can enjoy the Hollywood version without losing what makes us real.”
The spring/summer collection also reflects lessons from the brand’s 1990s revival, when a new generation embraced Lilly Pulitzer on its own terms. It started on university campuses with students styling vibrantly bright shift dresses with sneakers and tropical shorts with oversized band shirts rather than strings of pearls. “Every generation wants to feel like they discovered something themselves,” Fain notes. That philosophy appears in silhouettes tailored to the current penchant for matching sets and sundresses, as well as pieces that can be cheekily recombined.
For those encountering Lilly Pulitzer for the first time, Fain believes the connection to the brand needs to be immediate—almost guttural. “Maybe it is the color that winks at her, maybe it is the confidence she feels when she enters a room,” she says.
Catering to this generation’s penchant for storytelling and introspection, the archive remains a source of momentum rather than limitation, with classic motifs reimagined through new scales, recolored palettes, and unexpected fabrications. Looking ahead, more expansive collaborations feel like a natural evolution.
“Lilly was built by artists,” Fain says. “Inviting contemporary artists into our archive creates a dialogue between generations.”
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