Anna Sui’s gewgaw-encrusted shift dress, left, retails for about $400, while the vintage Lilly Pulitzer version was picked up at an estate sale in Toronto for $40.
The heat that has gripped much of Canada of late makes me yearn for the crisp pool-blue pages of my favourite coffee table book: Once Upon a Time, a collection of portraits (plus mansion-and-pool porn) of the old-school eccentric rich by Slim Aarons.
Aarons's spiritual home was the Palm Beach of Babe Paley and C.Z. Guest and Lilly Pulitzer. Think high-end housewives in trim capris with big photogenic dogs, sprawling Richard Neutra modernist concrete wonders peopled by babes in bright pool wear.
Ah, the rarefied world of the ultra-wealthy, including Golden Era movie stars and obscure European royals. The grimier elements of the 1960s lifestyle and fashion revolution dealt this echelon barely a glancing blow. An upshot of the period was the addition of zesty colour to the posh neutrals of the 1950s.
One story goes that Pulitzer, who opened an unlikely orange-juice stand at the time, caught the wave of the counterculture zeitgeist with her shift dresses patterned with fruitful prints (to hide the citrus stains, natch).
Fancy patrons like Jackie Kennedy ended up liking the dresses more than the juice, making the roadside schmatte stand the go-to for the printed shifts.
Even before the Pulitzer revival of the nineties, Palm Beach bright became synonymous with crisp summer style.
I'm being a tad cheeky with this knockoff, as the runway original here is by Anna Sui and retails for about $400. Fresh and bright and encrusted with white gewgaws, it's the perfect shift to slip on for day-through-night elegance. Zip it up with metallic or bejewelled shoes, add some fun chunky plastic cuffs. This dress offers timeless socialite style.
The "knockoff" is by Lilly Pulitzer and I am certain was reverse-osmosis inspiration for the runway version.
I found this vintage Lilly Pulitzer (actually not more than a few years old) at a garage sale just down the street from Paperbag Princess, a consignment shop on Toronto's idyllic Davenport Avenue. I mention PP because it has a lively selection of vintage Lillys, ranging in price from about $15 to $320 for a special maxi skirt. But I get to brag that this little number was plucked on a recent morning jog past an estate sale for - get this - $40.
Talk about gilding the Lilly.