Lilly and husband Herbert Pulitzer settled in Palm Beach, Florida, shortly after their marriage. They owned several Florida orange groves and, with produce from these, she opened a fruit juice stand on Via Mizner in Palm Beach. While working at the stand, Pulitzer found that squeezing juice made a mess of her clothes, and asked her dressmaker to design a dress that would camouflage the stains. She discovered that customers loved it, so she produced more to sell at her juice stand. Eventually, she was selling more dresses than juice, and decided to focus on designing and selling what had become known as her "Lillys".
In 1959, Pulitzer became president of her own company, Lilly Pulitzer, Inc. The company's main factory was in Miami, Florida, and the fabrics were produced by the Key West Hand Print Fabrics company in Key West. By 1984, Lilly closed down the entire clothing operation; in 1993, the rights to the brand were purchased by Sugartown Worldwide, Inc.
