About the graphic

This is one of my favorite Edie Melson graphics. The woman is such a gifted author, blogger and speaker. Her photos inspire. My dogwood hasn’t blossomed yet, but her picture of this one reminds what mine will look like.

About the quote

Lilly Pulitzer (1931-2013) was a socialite who worked for a time as an assistant midwife and volunteer at  a Veteran’s hospital in The Bronx before moving to Florida where she owned orange groves.

There, she opened a fruit juice stand. Squeezing juice made a mess of her clothes and, to camouflage the juice stains, she designed a sleeveless shift dress  of bright, colorful printed cotton. Customers loved her dress, and she started making them to sell at her juice stand.

Eventually, she was selling more dresses than juice and decided to focus on designing and selling the dresses. Jackie Kennedy wore one of Lilly’s designs in a Life magazine spread made from kitchen curtains. Their popularity exploded so much that Lilly closed the fruit juice stand and focused on designing and selling dresses.

In 1984 she sold her Lilly’s clothing line designs and in 2019 Target stores started carrying Lilly Pulitzer revived designs.

Fascinating woman, wasn’t she?

At this moment in our world with such a dismal coronavirus forecast let her quote inspire hope.