Lilly

Palm Beach, Tropical Exuberance, and the Birth of a Fashion Legend

By: Kathryn Livingston

Narrated by: Casey Holloway

Length: 5 hrs and 50 mins

Publisher's summary

The real story behind a very private American fashion icon - Lilly Pulitzer

Today, Lilly Pulitzer's iconic brand of clean-cut, vibrantly printed clothes called "Lillys" can be spotted everywhere. What began decades ago as a snob uniform in Palm Beach became a general fashion craze and, later, an American classic. In contrast to the high visibility of her brand, Lilly Pulitzer has largely kept her tumultuous personal story to herself. Bursting forth into glossy fame from a protected low-key world of great wealth and high society - through heartbreaks, treacheries, scandals, and losses - her life, told in detail here for the first time, is every bit as colorful and exciting as her designs.

©2013 Kathryn Livingston (P)2013 Audible, Inc.

Great story, bad narator

This is a good story. Very interesting bits about historical Palm Beach. Unfortunately, the narrator misprounces many words (and multiple times). I find this very distracting! As the key words were misprounced, it would take me out of the story and distract me. Some examples include: Bouvier (as in Jackie Bouvier Kennedy), designer Lanvin, couture, Bugatti, Mar a Lago, etc.

In addition, the story is about wealthy, educated people. The narrator sounds like a valley girl, so she doesn't lend herself to enhance the story.

narration is AWFUL

What could have made this a 4 or 5-star listening experience for you?

The narrator sounds like a robot which makes the story very hard to follow. I am just going to read the book.

A reclusive protagonist

Although Lilly was a public persona and widely known name, she was an extremely private person who gave interviewers little fodder for juicy stories. Though understandable, this provides very little for an interesting biography, and the writing is much more about the history of the company and the much more flamboyant personalities of her peers. Interesting bits of palm beach and brand history, but very dry.

The author must be cringing ...

What did you love best about Lilly?

I found this story of Lilly Pulitzer very interesting, but then this is a topic that I can't get enough of ... biographies of women involved in fashion, design, the arts. But the narration is so amateurish I can hardly believe this person could ever pass an Audible audition. Her mispronunciation of "Bouvier" being one of the most egregious but it goes beyond mispronunciations to tone -- she has no affect. A Metro North conductor announcing station stops has more emotion in his voice. So it is a credit to the author that I have stuck through this disastrous rendering of her story because I am intrigued by the content. And yes I love the context of where Lilly is from, who she's related to, where she grew up, went to school, how she was raised. I am intrigued by Lilly and how she held on to her individual style come hell or high water.

Not my style

I enjoyed learning about Lilly's life but found all the name dropping and "who's who" areas boring and redundant. I wish I learned more about what made Lilly tick vs. who around her had money from what source. The narrator sounded almost fake which made my mind wonder.

Not what I was expecting

I didn't really care for the story but could have been the narrator. I LOVE Lilly and was very interested in her story. I found myself not listening many times and I would need to rewind. The narrator sounded almost robotic and did not keep my attention. There were too many side stories about people who somehow are tied into Lilly's life but I couldn't tell you how. Wouldn't recommend listening to this book but reading it yourself may be different.