Suzie Zuzek

[3] Afterwards, she studied textile design at the Pratt Institute where she was top of her class, and after graduating in 1949, went on to work for a New York fabric company, Herman Blanc.

[3][5] In 1962 Lilly Pulitzer traveled to Key West to locate the source of some material she had found elsewhere, reportedly demanding "Is this your shit?"

[3] A few years later, Key West Hand Prints were supplying Pulitzer with over five thousand yards of custom Zuzek-designed textiles a week.

[6] In addition to her work for Pulitzer, Zuzek designed a motif for the Key West flag, and her prints were used for boat sails and the uniforms for the Florida Tourist Board.

[1] In 2007, a St. Louis lawyer called Becky Smith, while seeking vintage Lilly Pulitzer upholstery fabric, met Martha de Poo, and was introduced to Zuzek.

[3] The archive, numbering over 2500 original drawings, was bought by Smith with the assistance of investors, and properly stored, catalogued and conserved.

[2] The curator, Susan Brown, told W magazine that Zuzek's work was widely known and recognized, and had had a "major impact on the social history and the material culture of the 1960s and '70s", but that like many textile designers, her name had gone unheard and unknown, and this was a rare opportunity to give her due credit.

[3] Suzie Zuzek for Lilly Pulitzer: The Artist Behind an Iconic American Fashion Brand, 1962-1985 by Susan Brown and Caroline Rennolds Milbank was published by Rizzoli Electa in 2020.