YOUR AD HERE »

Pretty in pink and green

May Eynon

Last Saturday night at Iguana’s Bar and Grill at Aspen Highlands, a birthday party was held in honor of five young women with the same zodiac sign.

With birthdays ranging from July 24 through August 23, all five Leos shared the spotlight. Virginia Betty, Kathy Fry, Jill Midthun, Kristi “K2” Kavanaugh and Valerie Alexander are all in the 20- to 30-something age range.

The dress code called for “preppy attire” and guests responded by donning pants and dresses with garish prints, tennis sweaters tied around the shoulders and an inordinate amount of pink and green.



The social coordinator of the affair, Racy Rogers, of Palm Beach pedigree, devised the theme and then invited one and all for lawn bowling and cocktailing.

As guests arrived at the party, Rogers dreamed up trendy monikers for them, which they wore on nametags for the evening. Rogers even labeled herself as “Muffy Vanderbilt.”




Most guests sported Lilly Pulitzer attire, a Palm Beach signature line. Lilly’s designs, featuring prints with images of palm trees, seashells and merry amphibians against bright backgrounds, were de rigueur from the late ’60s to the early ’80s from Palm Beach to the Hamptons.

“When we grew up, this is what everyone I knew wore up and down the East Coast,” explained Rogers. “Mothers and daughters had matching Lilly dresses and bathing suits; dads had Lilly swim trunks and ties.

“We’d wear our Lilly to the beach, at lunch at the Everglades Club, and just running around town.”

As a child model for Lilly’s little girls’ clothing, Rogers often posed with her mom for photo shoots. “Then, in the early ’80s, it all went away and in came Esprit, Guess and The Gap,” Rogers continued.

Shut down in the ’80s, the Lilly Pulitzer line was revitalized several years ago.

“Now it’s back in a big way and not just in Nantucket, the Vineyard and Cape Cod. There was even a Lilly trunk show here in Aspen last week,” Rogers said.

Some birthday party guests stocked up on attire at the trunk show, others raided their parents’ wardrobes for vintage wear and some resorted to Rogers’ closet for a loaner.

“I feel fabulous,” said a guest in a seersucker suit going by the name “Finn Cato.” “This is such a blast from the past.”