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Ladies who lunch with Lilly Pulitzer
May 27, 2005
By Caitlin Kiernan
Times Herald-Record
ckiernan@th-record.com
Nestled on the sloped back yard of The Manse - one of Warwick's most spectacular homes - the most talked-about, invite-only event this season took place.
It was the Lilly Luncheon League, a trunk show to preview - and order - the fall Lilly Pulitzer clothing line.
Scoring an invite was a coup: The average shopper won't see the fall 2005 Lilly line for another five months.
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Rachel Phillips, a sales associate for Lilly Pulitzer,
models The Dreamy PJs from the Lilly 2005 Fall Collection.
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The guest list: the fashion-forward "who's who" of Orange County, including Pam van der Lee of Tuxedo Park, vice president of the National Down Syndrome Society; Jane Gyulavary, former fashion and beauty editor at Working Woman magazine; Nadine Desiderio of Warwick, a freelance editor for (among other publications) Town and Country magazine; and Erin Mills, wife of State Insurance Commissioner Howard Mills.
The 30 guests gathered on the lush lawn and began inspecting racks of clothes. The yard looked like an English tea party. The round tables were dressed in colors synonymous with the iconic Lilly Pulitzer line - bubblegum pink and kelly green. The fine china featured coordinated hues, which lay side by side with sterling silver flatware and elegant stemware.
After a gourmet lunch of quiche, mesclun-greens salad and white wine (served up by Warwick's premiere caterer Jean-Claude's), models sashayed between the tables, showing off the collection, inspired by the life and style of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis.
"We've done trunk shows before," says Rachel Phillips, sales associate for Lilly Pulitzer. "But we've never done it like this - on this social level - with a private showing in a client's home."
The trunk show was the brainchild of Brooke Martis-Sarmiento, co-owner of Warwick Valley Racquet Sports on Railroad Avenue.
Before Martis-Sarmiento and her family moved to Pine Island, she was a knitwear designer who worked alongside Carolina Herrera, Adrienne Vittadini and Douglas Hannant. Her creations have draped the famous figures of Katie Couric, Cindy Crawford and Lara Flynn Boyle and have appeared on the glossy pages of Vogue, Elle, InStyle and Harper's Bazaar.
Today, Martis-Sarmiento's boutique - which she describes as "a lifestyle store catering to golf, tennis, life and leisure" - carries Ralph Lauren Tennis, Prana cq and Adidas. She also sells two brands that won't be found anywhere else in our area: Fred Perry and Lilly Pulitzer.
"In the lower Hudson Valley, we are the destination for Lilly," says Martis-Sarmiento.
When the line generated more and more foot traffic into WVRS, Martis-Sarmiento knew it was time for something special.
She put together a client list and asked Marina Alario, interior designer and co-owner of Red Shutters design firm in Warwick, to host the trunk show.
"I have always been a fan of Lilly," says Alario, smiling wide under a straw hat and wearing a green dress and pink wrap sweater. "It's so cheerful. I've been wearing her for eight to 10 years, so I was glad to do it."
Those who attended also came dressed in the spirit of the event.
"This is my Grandmother Bell'scq dress," Catherine Glaser of Franklin Lakes, N.J., says of the turquoise shift dress with lime green and white floral print and scalloped edging. "It's vintage Lilly."
As she placed her orders, Glaser looked more like a woman at a Derby party than on a shopping mission.
"This setting is so inspiring," she says. "It's so representative of Lilly: social, festive, outdoors, happy. This is the way women like to shop - in a relaxed and supportive environment."
A few feet away, the only gentleman in attendance, Scott Elkins, was shopping for school clothes for his eldest daughter, 3 1/2-year-old Olivia. Elkins, who attended with a few moms from Tuxedo Park School, compared orders to avoid the fashion faux pas of duplicate dressing.
"It's a team operation," says Elkins, the former fund-raiser for the Whitney Museum. "I had Michelle (Wu) and Jill (Siegel) helping me."
Elkins took care to order pieces that would wear well and complement his daughter's slender build. And he admitted to some pressure in ordering, since next year marks the last school year before Olivia is required to wear a uniform.
"This is it, so she has to look good," he says. "I ordered the pink dog dress and the matching Bermuda bag."
He adds:
"She likes the dresses. Even though she has gym three times a week, they work so well on her."
While many of the guests were shopping for their children, a few treated themselves to new Lilly pieces for autumn.
"I'm not a Lilly girl but today fashion is all about the dress-up, dress-down," says Michelle Wu of Tuxedo Park, a former cheerleader for the Cincinnati Bengals. She ordered the denim jeans embroidered with hot pink whales. "I'll wear them with a white shirt, big jewelry, definitely heels and a bandanna - with a touch of pink - on my head."
Three hours later, Martis-Sarmiento had more than $15,000 worth of orders in hand.
Guests walked away with the cache of new fall wardrobes from Lilly. And in their goody bags, another invite ...to host their own Lilly Luncheon.
What is Lilly Pulitzer?
It started with a juice stand in Palm Beach. Lilly, a young, sassy New York socialite, had eloped with Peter Pulitzer, grandson of the Joseph Pulitzer, creator of the Pulitzer Prize, and settled in Palm Beach to live the life of the rich and famous. Peter owned several Florida citrus groves, but Lilly needed a project of her own. So in 1960, with Peter's produce, she opened a juice stand on Via Mizner, just off Worth Avenue.
Lilly Pulitzer's business was a hit, but squeezing oranges, lemons, limes and pink grapefruit made a mess of her clothes. Realizing that she needed a juice stand uniform, Lilly asked her dressmaker to design a dress that would camouflage the stains. The result? A comfortable sleeveless shift made of bright, colorful printed cotton - pink, green, yellow and orange. The dress even had custom dressmaker details like lining and lace seam bindings. It was perfect for the job and became Lilly's first Classic Shift.
Although her customers liked Lilly's juice, they loved her dress. When people began to ask if they could buy it, Lilly had a few more made up to sell in the stand. Soon Lilly was selling more dresses than juice, so she decided to stop squeezing and to focus on designing and selling her "Lillys."
Before long, Jackie Kennedy, an old school chum, began wearing Lilly's designs and as first lady was featured in Life magazine wearing a classic shift. Then, of course, everyone wanted one and Lilly Pulitzer became a fashion sensation.
Through the '60s and '70s, the Lilly Pulitzer line was the unofficial uniform of the affluent at play. Lilly Pulitzer stores sprang up in the favorite resorts of the jet set and Lilly's pink and green colors became the banner of the preppy lifestyle.
In 1984, however, Lilly closed her doors to settle into retirement with her second husband, Enrique Rousseau (her marriage to Peter had ended in 1969) and to enjoy her grandchildren. For the rest of the decade, Lilly devotees were left to scour flea markets and resale shops to find their beloved vintage Lillys.
In January 1993, the Lilly Pulitzer line was revived. Now, her designs are more popular than ever, available in 77 Lilly Pulitzer signature shops and retail stores.
Source: www.lillypulitzer.com
What's a trunk show?
It's like opening the door to a designer studio. It provides an exclusive preview of a designer's upcoming collection. And sometimes, if you're lucky, there are slash-tag prices.
Most trunk shows are held at such high-end "boutique" department stores as Barney's, Neiman Marcus or Bergdorf's. However, more and more mainstream brands are realizing the benefits of private showings and are getting in on the action.
The hardest trunk show invites to score are for couture collections. Only a small number of devoted clients get to see and feel the clothes months before the average consumer will.
But if you get in, it's better than a front row seat at Fashion Week.
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