Travel in Style this Summer

With an OILILY  Travel  Paisley suitcase or bag, excitement starts while packing. Shop our latest collection now and get ready for your summer holiday. Dutch fashion house Oilily has been a hallmark of creativity in the cupboard of children and women since 1963. In the early years the Dutch fashion house spent a long time fighting the establishment. Back then Oilily’s collections were simply too colorful and imaginative for the general public. Yet, despite the initial hesitancy, over the last 50 years Oilily has grown into a distinctive lifestyle brand with many fans worldwide.

Virtuoso use of color, spectacular combinations of materials, unique blend of cultural influences, humorous details and high quality has brought Oilily a multitude of fans around the world among which Michael Jackson, John Travolta, Lauren Hill, Uma Thurman, Julia Roberts, Madonna, and the Obama’s.

Oilily’s children’s clothing was a spectacular reaction to this plain style. The brand distinguished itself through amazing colour combinations, a mixture of influences from every corner of the world, humorous details, a combination of unlikely fabrics, and very high quality. These elements became its signature, and it came from placing the child¹s world and experiences at the centre of its creative process. It was not the wishes of the parents that were important, but those of the children themselves. This completely new vision generated Oilily a multitude of fans worldwide which included John Travolta, Madonna, Michael Jackson and Bill Cosby. They regularly dressed their children in Oilily.

The success of the children’s wear collection triggered the call for a women’s wear collection. It was launched in the eighties. The imaginative dessins, the high quality materials, and the unusual colour combinations found a hungry public among women in Asia, the Far East, the United States, and later in Europe. Famous ambassadors of Oilily’s women’s clothing are actresses such as Julia Roberts and Melanie Griffith.

However, one thing was still missing. A stage. A place where the brand could be experienced. The time was ripe for the Oilily Exclusive Store. A shop like Oilily itself: exclusive, surprising and untamed. It turned out to be an irresistible concept. In 15 years time, 300 Oilily Exclusive Stores were opened on every continent. The Oilily Exclusive Stores were located in the most exclusive shopping streets and in the world’s best visited shopping malls. Each of them was ideal locations to further develop the exclusive character of the brand.

The number of fans grew. Especially children. They besieged Oilily with letters asking for new products such as perfume, hair accessories, shoes, glasses, bags and bed linens. Oilily created a fan club for the letter writers and designed many of the accessories that they asked for. The first perfume for children was even created, helped by a panel of 50 children from different countries. Demand for Oilily– later reborn as Oilily Flowers – has remained high for more than 20 years.

In 2001, Oilily stepped into the home decoration segment. It introduced the ‘polka dot’ tableware line. This marked a new phase whereby Oilily was seen as more than fashion and fashion accessories. This turned out to be a golden step. Right up to today, the polka dot line is one of the best sold lines of tableware in the Netherlands.

At the end of 2008, Oilily went bankrupt. Seven years after Willem and Marieke had sold their shares to a bank and an investment company. As a consequence, all Oilily Exclusive Stores were also lost. In 2009 the Olsthoorn family bought back the brand. Simply because they couldn’t bear the thought the brand would disappear.

Today, Oilily is back on track. Most collections are being sold in more than 80 countries around the world. And the number of fans is again rapidly growing. We hope one day, you might be one of them.