Suzie Zuzek for Lilly Pulitzer: The Prints That Made the Fashion Brand

EXHIBITION CELEBRATES THE DESIGNER BEHIND THE ICONIC PRINTS USED BY LILLY PULITZER, 1962–1985

When socialite-turned-designer Lilly Pulitzer’s simple shift dresses hit the fashion scene in the early 1960s, their eye-catching, whimsical prints made them instantly recognizable. Yet few people know that most of those prints were designed by Key West artist Suzie Zuzek (Agnes Helen Zuzek de Poo, American, 1920–2011). Zuzek was a staff designer for Key West Hand Print Fabrics, where Pulitzer sourced most of her fabrics—and all of her prints—between 1962 and 1985, the period during which Pulitzer owned and oversaw the company that bears her name. Zuzek’s prolific imagination fueled Pulitzer’s runaway success. The unexpected combination of classic sportswear styling with playful, eclectic patterns defined a uniquely American style, often spotted on fashion icons such as First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy.

Suzie Zuzek for Lilly Pulitzer: The Prints That Made the Fashion Brand is the first museum exhibition to reveal the nature and scope of Zuzek’s artistic contribution to the quintessential Pulitzer style. Included in the exhibition are more than 35 original watercolor and gouache design drawings by Zuzek, alongside finished screen-printed textiles and some of the fashions that made them famous. The works on view include ten drawings recently acquired for the museum’s collection through a gift from the Key West Hand Print Fabrics archive, now privately owned.

Zuzek’s designs showcase her creative treatment of subjects ranging from mythical creatures to cosmology to the flora and fauna of the Florida Keys. Her palette was typically naturalistic, employing both the brilliant hues of the tropical flowers and the subtle browns, ochres, and grays used in her renderings of animals. When used as fabrics for the Pulitzer collections, Zuzek’s designs were printed in the beyond-bright, vivid colors the brand is famous for. The exhibition demonstrates the process of translating an artist’s rendering to fabric, and ultimately fashion, through silkscreen printing.

collection highlights

Drawn textile design consisting of white, patterned rhinoceroses outlined in black from a variety of positions and angles against a forest green ground. — Drawing, Rhino, © January 21, 1977. Designed by Suzie Zuzek (Agnes Helen Zuzek de Poo, American, 1920–2011) for Key West Hand Print Fabrics, Inc. (Key West, Florida). Used by Lilly Pulitzer, Inc., before 1985 (Palm Beach, Florida). Brush and green watercolor, white gouache, pen and black ink, graphite on paper. 38.1 × 28.4 cm (15 × 11 3/16 in.). Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum. Gift of The Original I.P. LLC, 2019-11-2. Photo: Matt Flynn © The Original I.P. LLC.

Drawn, watercolor textile design consisting of white and pastel pink striped flowers with honey-colored centers, and orange and black spotted cheetahs against a blush pink background with terracotta orange spots. — Drawing, Wildness, © September 11, 1972. Designed by Suzie Zuzek (Agnes Helen Zuzek de Poo, American, 1920–2011) for Key West Hand Print Fabrics, Inc. (Key West, Florida). Used by Lilly Pulitzer, Inc., before 1985 (Palm Beach, Florida). Brush and watercolor, pen and black ink, graphite on paper. 38.1 × 56.2 cm (15 × 22 1/8 in.). Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum. Gift of The Original I.P. LLC, 2019-11-6. Photo: Matt Flynn © The Original I.P. LLC.

Drawn, watercolor textile design made up of several varieties of flowers in crimson, pale fuchsia pink, sky-blue, white and violet, with gold and forest-green leaves against a white background. — Drawing, Grace’s Garden, © March 10, 1972. Designed by Suzie Zuzek (Agnes Helen Zuzek de Poo, American, 1920–2011) for Key West Hand Print Fabrics, Inc. (Key West, Florida). Brush and watercolor, graphite on cream paper. 38.2 × 56.2 cm (15 1/16 × 22 1/8 in.). Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum. Gift of The Original I.P. LLC, 2019-11-5. Photo: Matt Flynn © The Original I.P. LLC.

Watercolor and ink textile design on white paper, with a mix of large white shells finely outlined in black against a seafoam green background swirling with currents of various pale blue tropical fishes. — Drawing, The Reef, © June 12, 1979. Designed by Suzie Zuzek (Agnes Helen Zuzek de Poo, American, 1920–2011) for Key West Hand Print Fabrics, Inc. (Key West, Florida). Used by Lilly Pulitzer, Inc., before 1985 (Palm Beach, Florida). Brush and watercolor, pen and black ink, graphite on white paper. 38.1 × 34.3 cm (15 × 13 1/2 in.). Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum. Gift of The Original I.P. LLC, 2019-11-1. Photo: Matt Flynn © The Original I.P. LLC.

Floral textile design with large white flowers blooming amid curling yellow-green watercolored foliage, with fine black outlines and a black inked background — Drawing, Nocturne, © October 12, 1969. Designed by Suzie Zuzek (Agnes Helen Zuzek de Poo, American, 1920–2011) for Key West Hand Print Fabrics, Inc. (Key West, Florida). Brush and green watercolor, pen and black ink, graphite on cream paper. 38.1 × 56.1 cm (15 × 22 1/16 in.). Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum. Gift of The Original I.P. LLC, 2019-11-7. Photo: Matt Flynn © The Original I.P. LLC.

Drawn textile design composed of magenta-pink, canary-yellow and terracotta-orange leaves of varying sizes surrounded by small, daisy-like flowers against a black ground. — Drawing, Tropical Harvest, © November 5, 1973. Designed by Suzie Zuzek (Agnes Helen Zuzek de Poo, American, 1920–2011) for Key West Hand Print Fabrics, Inc. (Key West, Florida). Used by Lilly Pulitzer, Inc., before 1985 (Palm Beach, Florida). Brush and watercolor, pen and black ink, graphite on cream paper. 38.3 × 28.2 cm (15 1/16 × 11 1/8 in.). Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum. Gift of The Original I.P. LLC, 2019-11-3. Photo: Matt Flynn © The Original I.P. LLC.

Patchwork-style design of differently-sized black and white puffin heads and bodies. The red-orange and yellow colors of their triangular beaks repeat as solid color background patches, mixed with black and grey patterned patches. — Drawing, Puffins, © January 22, 1981. Designed by Suzie Zuzek (Agnes Helen Zuzek de Poo, American, 1920–2011) for Key West Hand Print Fabrics, Inc. (Key West, Florida). Used by Lilly Pulitzer, Inc., before 1985 (Palm Beach, Florida). Brush and watercolor, pen and black ink, graphite on paper. 24.4 × 19.1 cm (10 × 7 1/2 in.). Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum. Gift of The Original I.P. LLC, 2019-11-4. Photo: Matt Flynn © The Original I.P. LLC.

Watercolor textile design with full yellow-orange and pink blossoms outlined in black, alternating with cream flowers outlined in the same colors. Black-outlined leaves, colorful small florals, and black patches fill in the design. — Drawing, Tennessee’s Hibiscus, © June 4, 1973. Designed by Suzie Zuzek (Agnes Helen Zuzek de Poo, American, 1920–2011) for Key West Hand Print Fabrics, Inc. (Key West, Florida). Brush and watercolor, white gouache, pen and black ink, graphite on paper. 38.2 × 56.2 cm (15 1/16 × 22 1/8 in.). Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum. Gift of The Original I.P. LLC, 2019-11-8. Photo: Matt Flynn © The Original I.P. LLC.

Black ink textile design of closely-grouped suns with expressive human faces, oriented up and down and in a variety of sizes — Drawing, Suzie’s Sons, © May 1, 1965. Designed by Suzie Zuzek (Agnes Helen Zuzek de Poo, American, 1920–2011) for Key West Hand Print Fabrics, Inc. (Key West, Florida). Pen and black ink, brush and white gouache, graphite on paper. 54.4 × 69.5 cm (21 7/16 × 27 3/8 in.). Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum. Gift of The Original I.P. LLC, 2019-11-9. Photo: Matt Flynn © The Original I.P. LLC.

Watercolor and ink textile design of a swirling, complex floral paisley pattern in red, olive greens, and pale pink, with black outlines — Drawing, Garden Paisley, © January 6, 1975. Designed by Suzie Zuzek (Agnes Helen Zuzek de Poo, American, 1920–2011) for Key West Hand Print Fabrics, Inc. (Key West, Florida). Brush and watercolor, pen and black ink, graphite on cream paper. 76.2 × 68.6 cm (30 × 27 in.). Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum. Gift of The Original I.P. LLC, 2019-11-10. Photo: Matt Flynn © The Original I.P. LLC.

About suzie zuzek

Zuzek grew up on a farm near Buffalo, New York. After serving in the Women’s Army Auxiliary Corps (WAACs) during World War II, she attended Pratt Institute on the G.I. Bill. After graduating in 1949, she quickly found work in New York designing prints for both fashion and decorator fabrics, but marriage took her to Key West, Florida, in 1955. When former New Yorkers Jim Russell and Peter Pell opened their screen print factory there in 1961, she eagerly accepted a position as designer, working part-time while raising three daughters.

Over the next 23 years, Zuzek created over 1,550 designs for Key West Hand Print Fabrics, most of which were used by Pulitzer’s women’s, men’s, children’s, and home furnishings lines. It was common then and remains so today for textile designers’ contributions to fashion to remain anonymous. But the “Lilly Look” was synonymous with wild, wonderful prints, and those prints were overwhelmingly the product of one woman’s boundless imagination—Suzie Zuzek.

This exhibition celebrates her artistry and enduring impact on American fashion.

Publication

Suzie Zuzek for Lilly Pulitzer: The Artist Behind an Iconic American Fashion Brand, 1962–1985 introduces for the first time the archive of drawings that were the basis for the whimsical and timeless prints featured in Pulitzer’s fashions. The book is a treasure trove of the iconic prints and contextualizes the purely American label.

Published by Rizzoli Electa, the book is authored by Susan Brown, associate curator of textiles at Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum, with a contribution by Caroline Rennolds Milbank, fashion historian, author, curator, and appraiser.

Purchase a copy at SHOP Cooper Hewitt.

Acknowledgments

The exhibition is organized by Susan Brown, Associate Curator, Textiles, Cooper Hewitt.

Graphic design by Kelly Sung.

Exhibition design by Field Guide Architecture and Design.