Harvard Club of the Palm Beaches

Historical Society of Palm Beach County

Endless Summer: Palm Beach Resort Wear

Join the Club for a FREE docent-led tour of the Richard & Pat Johnson Palm Beach County History Museum.

Thursday, May 9 @ 10:00 AM

Interested participants also have the opportunity to join fellow Club members for the Endless Summer Exhibition.
Tickets to the Exhibition are Free for Museum members and $10.00 for non-members, Children under the age of 18 are also Free!

Guests may purchase tickets for the exhibition in person at the museum.

This season the Museum will present its first-ever Grand Exhibition. Endless Summer will explore the impact Palm Beach made on resort fashion over the last 129 years, as it solidified itself as one of America’s premier luxury destinations, where winter comes to summer. In this top fashion hub, brands such as Gucci, Chanel, Philip Hulitar, and St. John, as well as iconic fashion influencers such as Jacqueline Kennedy, Lilly Pulitzer, and others adopted fresh new looks, ingenuity, and a philanthropic spirit.

 

The Fashion Beaux Arts, a fashion and entertainment mecca in Palm Beach from 1916 to 1942, included the latest New York and Paris fashion houses, transforming Palm Beach into the winter fashion capital of the world. When the 1920s building boom that followed World War I caused a demand for accessible fashions from Europe, the rise of Worth Avenue began, and the Palm Beach look was born. After World War II, the Royal Poinciana Plaza was built, and the luxurious lifestyle in Palm Beach became synonymous with fashion, specifically resort wear.

A force in retail luxury fashion, Martha Phillips—joined by her daughter Lynn Manulis—brought leading couture designers to Martha’s Boutique on Worth Avenue. Martha’s legacy lives on in the fashion icons she encouraged and promoted in the North American marketplace, including Valentino and Zang Toi.

The Johnson History Museum invited Cameron Silver, King of Vintage, to share his perspective as guest curator of Endless Summer: Palm Beach Resort Wear. Curated artifacts from many private collections, as well as Kent State University, the Pucci Archives, and the Long Island Museum of American Art, History, and Carriages, join treasures from the Historical Society of Palm Beach County’s Collection to showcase the importance of Palm Beach in fashion history.

RSVP BELOW

After the tour and exhibition, attendees have the option of joining other club members at The Ben, Autograph Collection (251 N Narcissus Ave, West Palm Beach, FL 33401) for lunch*.
*The cost of food and beverages will be the responsibility of each guest.

Questions?

Please contact Club Administrator Tricia Wansor at HarvardClub.PB@gmail.com or 954-914-3148.