This past Sunday, Target released it’s hotly anticipated spring collaboration with the brightly colored Lilly Pulitzer brand. The brand best known for it’s shrill color schemes and prints reminiscent of lava lamp matter quickly became a trending hashtag (#LillyforTarget). Normal retail prices for Lilly Pulitzer range from $38 for a tee shirt (that from what I can tell, doesn’t do anything at all) to $298 for a shift dress that Betty Draper might wear next week on Mad Men. There’s also something called Luxletic, that seems to be athletic inspired wear that you put on when you want the clerks at Whole Foods to notice the tan you just paid for.
Now, I have nothing against the Lilly Pulitzer brand — if you want to go around looking like the physical manifestation of someone’s acid trip, so be it, but the connotation that I get from Lilly Pulitzer is “elitist”. If the garish prints don’t scare you away, the snide remarks from the people wearing it will. But, if you are still undeterred, then you were probably among the few many who stood outside of Target stores across the country, waiting for the trembling sales associates to unlock the door.
Or, maybe you were among the other crazy completely normal people who just stayed up until 3am to order items online. Want to know what I was doing at 3am Sunday morning? Well, I honestly don’t remember because I spent the day drinking watching horse racing at Pimlico. I took in enough Lilly Pulitzer to last a lifetime while I was there, thankyouverymuch.
Snark aside, I think it’s awesome that Target has these collections every year. There’s no way I could afford to buy anything from Templerly of London, Phillip Lim, Zac Posen, or Prabal Gurung any other way. But, dammit Target, get your shit together. When everything in the store is sold out within 5 minutes, there is a huge problem with the current system. When your website crashes, multiple times, within half an hour, there is a problem. You should know this by now. You’ve had years of practice at this. Like the wise Maya Angelou said, “Do the best you can until you know better. Then, when you know better, do better”. I’m fairly certain I saw that bedazzled on a crop top in the Juniors section there.
The simple fact that the plus size collection was only available online is enough to piss me off. It’s already hard enough for people to find plus sized clothing that doesn’t look like drapes Scarlett O’Hara sewed together. You couldn’t even make the items available in the store? And how many society girl tears have to be shed before some buying limits are put in place? People have already flocked to eBay with their Lilly for Target spoils and marked up prices. Miss out on the $60 beach chairs? You can get them for $500 here. This shift dress is now available for over double the price here. Need it in plus size? It’s over two and a half times the original price.
It’s not hard to say “Limit two per customer”. The grocery store says it all the time! For all you fashion masochists who are truly scarred, you can see all you missed out on here.
One good thing that has happened throughout this lurid, printed fiasco is that I have reignited my passion for lawn sports. Croquet anyone?
Mildred Lee Productions 