WESTLAND, Mass. Two residents of this western suburb of Boston will share the 2021 Lilly Pulitzer Prize, marking the eighth time in the last ten years that the honor has been awarded to a Bay State woman.
Available in sizes S, M, L, XL and “pup-tent.”
“I am honored and humbled,” said Mitzi Frobisher, 59, a retired “private banker.” “I know a lot of other gals worked just as hard as I did, so I hope no one’s feelings are hurt.”
The other winner is Heidi Allen, a mother of two and grandmother of four, who says she will use her share of the prize to make the world a better place by acquiring a new sweater-skirt combo at one of her favorite local stores. “When I walk down the street, I try to bring a little joy into other people’s lives by wearing something nice,” she says with a self-effacing smile. “I know shopping makes me happy, and I like to share that with people who admire my taste.”
“I like it, but haven’t you got something just a little more expensive?”
Lilly Pulitzer was a fashion designer and socialite who became known as the “Queen of Prep” for clothing featuring bright, colorful, floral prints that her company manufactured. “Wallis Simpson, the Duchess of Windsor, said a woman can never be too rich or too thin,” notes Alison Turney-Weld, a sales associate in a woman’s clothing store here that carries the Pulitzer line. “Lilly turned that on its head–or at least sideways–and said a woman can never be too pink or too green.” The Lilly Pulitzer Prizes are awarded annually for outstanding achievement in combining pink with green clothing, and green with pink clothing.
The Lilly Pulitzer Prize is awarded to one or more women each year who exhibit excruciatingly good taste with a sense of social “fun.” They are distinct from the Pulitzer Prizes, which are awarded annually in the words of critic and essayist Joseph Epstein to “people who don’t need them or don’t deserve them.” The Lilly Pulitzer Prize comes with a $1,000 shopping spree card that can be used at any fine women’s clothing store, and a charm that can be added to a nice bracelet. Critics of the award say it fosters an attitude of jejune consumerism, but Dottie Ebsward, last year’s honoree, disagrees. “I do a lot of crosswords,” she says with a skeptical upraised eyebrow. “I don’t think ‘jejune’ is a real word.”