The Untold Truth Of Lilly Pulitzer

When Pulitzer began selling her cotton shift dresses, it's doubtful that she imagined they would one day save her life. 

Lilly told Sun Sentinel, "I followed the doctor's advice [to get a hobby] and came out a lot stronger, and I haven't stopped since. After I got out of the nuthouse I became much more assertive." It seems Pulitzer's hobby pulled her out from under the grips of (speculated) postpartum depression brought back her sunny disposition. 

In addition, her fashion also quite literally saved her life.

While Pulitzer and Laura Clark were flying to Key West, the pilot failed to remember to refuel the aircraft. Vanity Fair details the event, "[T]heir cowl plane went down into shark-infested waters off Marathon. It was almost dusk, and they were stranded on a submerged plane." But all hope was not lost.

The article continues, "Clark took off her bright-orange Lilly and flagged a passing helicopter." While Pulitzer was too humble to give credit to her line of brightly colored dresses, she instead attributed their rescue to the female anatomy... Vanity Fair wrote that even though her head was bleeding at the time, she can look back at that time with humor. She told the magazine: "T*ts will get 'em every time."

At the time of her interview with Vanity Fair, Lilly was 71 years old and, apparently, still hilarious.