So as most of you have figured out by today and others months ago, Lilly Pulitzer has collabed with Target. For those of you who don’t know about the brand just think of preppy, vibrant, classy resort wear. Just a little history lesson for you, Lilly lived in Palm Springs and opened an orange juice stand In her 20s. Cutting, peeling and juicing oranges can be messy, so she started to design printed shift dresses to hide the juice stains (legend has it) and thus the brand was born. (Neat huh?)
For some the brand collaborating with Target is a hit, for others..eh not so much. The naysayers are completely against it saying that Lilly is turning over in her grave. Hateful tweets have swarmed the Twitter world and it is NOT pretty. From reading all the tweets you can come to the conclusion that her customers (pre collab), are worried it will “cheapen” the brand, and lower price points mean that “basics” have access to the line now. Me personally, I do not own a single garment from Lilly Pulitzer because it’s just not in my price point. People in my target market or demographical region aren’t very familiar with the brand at all. I’m excited to see the line come to Target! Over 200 pieces from apparel to home decor, will range from $2 to $150. Plus with the weather breaking, it’s here just in time to spruce up your closet and your home for the Spring and Summer months to come.
I love when popular, well known, brand names extend their lines, it’s always a success. Alexander Wang with H&M, Prabal Gurung with MAC, and even Barbie with Forever 21. Come on now, you know you had to do a double take when you saw the Barbie tank top that said “I woke up like this” with her two friends next to her looking fierce. Ha! But my point is that brand extensions aren’t always a bad thing, some designers just want to dabble in a different target market sometimes to see how well it’ll do. Yes it’s very risky because if it all goes left it can ruin or dilute the image of the company. However majority of the time it’s a hit, resulting in and the website crashing, then everything is sold out. So what does that tell you?
I’m all for Lilly Pulitzer x Target and you should be too. Visit Refinery29.com for more deets on the tweets.
DeAnn Harte 