Where Old-World Glamour Meets Tropical Exuberance
——— ✻ ———
There is nowhere else on earth quite like Palm Beach. This slender barrier island off the southeast coast of Florida has, for more than a century, served as the winter playground of America’s most storied families – and in doing so, has cultivated an aesthetic so distinctive, so unapologetically opulent yet cheerful, that it has become shorthand for a particular kind of aspirational living.
Palm Beach style is not merely a design vocabulary. It is a philosophy – one that insists beauty and joy are not mutually exclusive, that colour should be celebrated rather than restrained, and that a life well lived looks best framed by swaying palms and a turquoise sea.
We first fell in love with the region of the Palm Beaches when we stayed at The Breakers for our honeymoon. We have visited many times since then – most recently with a stay in Delray Beach, dubbed “The Village by the Sea”. Each trip reveals new layers to this extraordinary corner of Florida, and over the years we’ve come to understand that Palm Beach style is far more than a visual aesthetic. It is a way of seeing the world.
From the candy-pink facade of The Colony Hotel to the Venetian arches of Addison Mizner’s architectural masterpieces, from the splashy printed shifts of Lilly Pulitzer to the emerald lawns of The Breakers, Palm Beach style has infiltrated fashion, interior design, architecture, and popular culture in ways that continue to evolve.
Apple TV+’s Palm Royale, the deliciously camp series starring Kristen Wiig, brought the island’s mid-century glamour roaring back into the cultural conversation – and with it, a renewed fascination with everything that makes this stretch of coastline so visually intoxicating. Here is your guide to the elements that define Palm Beach style – and how to bring a touch of that sun-drenched grandeur into your own life.
Where Are The Palm Beaches?
When people talk about “the Palm Beaches,” they are referring not to a single town but to an entire collection of communities stretching along the southeast Florida coast within Palm Beach County. The star of the show is the Town of Palm Beach itself – the exclusive barrier island connected to the mainland by a handful of bridges.
The broader region encompasses West Palm Beach, the vibrant urban centre directly across the Intracoastal Waterway that has blossomed into a destination in its own right with world-class dining and cultural attractions. Head further along the coast and you’ll find the charming beach towns of Delray Beach, Boca Raton, Jupiter, Lake Worth Beach, Manalapan, and Palm Beach Gardens, each with its own distinct personality.
Inland, Wellington is renowned for its equestrian scene, while Palm Beach Shores and Singer Island offer quieter, beachfront living. Together, these communities form one of the wealthiest and most culturally rich corridors in America.
Whether you’re browsing the galleries of West Palm Beach, lunching on Atlantic Avenue in Delray Beach, or strolling Worth Avenue on the island itself, the Palm Beach aesthetic – that signature blend of tropical warmth and polished elegance – ties the entire region together.
Architecture – Addison Mizner and the Mediterranean Dream
Any conversation about Palm Beach style must begin with Addison Mizner. The self-taught architect arrived in Palm Beach in 1918, ailing and in search of warm weather, and proceeded to reshape the island’s physical identity entirely.
Drawing on the sun-baked villages of Spain, the terracotta rooftops of Tuscany, and the ornate courtyards of Moorish Andalusia, Mizner created a Mediterranean Revival vocabulary that felt both ancient and entirely new – perfectly suited to the subtropical climate and the grand ambitions of his wealthy clientele.
His masterwork, the Everglades Club, established the template: barrel-tile roofs in warm terracotta, arched loggias open to the breeze, ornamental ironwork, courtyards spilling with bougainvillea, and walls washed in shades of coral, cream, and ochre. Mizner understood instinctively that architecture in Palm Beach needed to breathe – to blur the boundaries between indoors and out.
Via Mizner, the charming alley of shops and restaurants on Worth Avenue, remains one of the most photographed spots on the island. Its winding staircases, hidden fountains, and Moorish tile details feel like stepping into a corner of Seville transplanted to the tropics.
The surrounding blocks of Worth Avenue itself are lined with Mizner-influenced facades that house the world’s most prestigious luxury brands, each one adapted to the island’s particular brand of relaxed elegance.
Beyond Mizner’s direct legacy, Palm Beach architecture embraces the Bermuda style – white or pastel-painted residences with louvred shutters, columned porticos, and lush tropical landscaping. The result is an island where every turn reveals a building that looks as though it was designed not merely to shelter its inhabitants, but to delight anyone passing by.
Landmark Hotels – The Breakers and The Colony
The Breakers
No single building captures the scale of Palm Beach ambition quite like The Breakers Palm Beach. Originally commissioned by Henry Flagler, the railroad magnate who essentially invented Palm Beach as a resort destination, the current Italianate palazzo was completed in 1926 after two earlier incarnations were destroyed by fire.
Modelled on the Villa Medici in Rome, its public spaces are a riot of hand-painted ceilings, Venetian chandeliers, and gilded detailing that would feel entirely at home in a Renaissance palace. We stayed at The Breakers for our honeymoon and it remains one of the most memorable hotel experiences of our lives – the sheer grandeur of that lobby is something you never quite forget.
Yet The Breakers is no museum piece. The resort has evolved gracefully over its near-century of operation, maintaining its grandeur while adding contemporary comforts. Its 140 acres of oceanfront grounds, championship golf courses, and world-class spa make it the anchor of Palm Beach society.
This is the place where charity galas unfold beneath frescoed ceilings and families return generation after generation for Christmas by the sea. To stay at The Breakers is to understand, viscerally, what old Palm Beach money looks and feels like.
The Colony Hotel
If The Breakers represents the patrician grandeur of Palm Beach, then The Colony Hotel is its vivacious, fun-loving counterpart. Painted in an unmistakable shade of bubblegum pink and draped in climbing bougainvillea, The Colony has been a fixture of the island’s social scene since 1947.
Its recent renovation under the ownership of the Wetenhall family transformed it into one of the most Instagrammed hotels in America – every corner a carefully curated explosion of colour, pattern, and Palm Beach wit.
The interiors, designed with a maximalist hand, layer bold botanical prints over rattan furniture, banana-leaf wallpaper, and statement lighting in shades of coral and turquoise. The poolside cabanas are studies in tropical chic, and the hotel’s restaurant serves as a gathering place for the island’s social set.
The Colony embodies a crucial aspect of Palm Beach style – the understanding that luxury need not be sombre, and that the most memorable spaces are those designed with personality and a sense of play.
The Royal Poinciana
While Henry Flagler’s original Royal Poinciana Hotel – once the largest wooden structure in the world and the resort that put Palm Beach on the map – was demolished in 1935, its spirit lives on in The Royal Poinciana Plaza.
This open-air shopping and dining destination on the island has become one of Palm Beach’s most stylish gathering spots, home to boutiques, galleries, and restaurants that embody the area’s relaxed luxury. Surrounded by manicured courtyards and tropical plantings, it is a perfect example of how Palm Beach continuously reinvents itself while honouring its heritage.
Amongst the many stylish stores here, we particularly like Hill House Home for kids and women’s cotton dresses and Roller Rabbit for cotton pajamas.
Gardens and Culture – The Society of the Four Arts
Palm Beach has always understood that true style extends beyond the private home and into public spaces. The Society of the Four Arts, founded in 1936, is a cultural gem that exemplifies this belief.
Its Philip Hulitar Sculpture Garden and the stunning Four Arts Garden – a formal botanical garden designed in a serene, Italianate style – are among the most peaceful spots on the island. Wander through sculpted hedges, tropical plantings, and tranquil water features, and you will find a distillation of everything that makes Palm Beach beautiful: meticulous attention to detail, a celebration of natural beauty, and a quiet, confident elegance.
The Society also hosts exhibitions, lectures, concerts, and films throughout the season, making it a hub for the island’s cultural life. It is a reminder that Palm Beach style is not only about how things look, but about cultivating a life rich in beauty and ideas.
The Palm Beach Palette – A Vocabulary of Colour
Colour is the thread that runs through every expression of Palm Beach style – architectural, sartorial, and decorative alike. The island’s palette is drawn directly from its natural surroundings: the turquoise and aquamarine of the Atlantic, the electric green of tropical foliage, the coral pinks and sunset oranges of the sky, and the crisp white of ocean spray and colonial facades.
To these nature-given hues, Palm Beach adds its own signature shades. There is the particular bubblegum pink of The Colony Hotel, now virtually synonymous with the island. There are the bold primaries of Lilly Pulitzer prints, the deep emerald greens that appear on shutters and front doors, and the sunny yellows that wash entire houses in optimism.
What distinguishes the Palm Beach approach to colour from other maximalist traditions is its commitment to joy. These are not colours chosen to shock or provoke. They are colours chosen because they make people happy – because they mirror the extraordinary natural beauty of the island and the exuberance of the life lived upon it.
Gold accents – in hardware, frames, lighting, and jewellery – provide the finishing touch, lending warmth and a sense of occasion to every setting. Pretty pastels like you’ll find on this hand-painted kettle are equally popular.
Palm Beach Fashion – Lilly Pulitzer and the Joy of Dressing
Palm Beach fashion is, at its heart, about colour. While the rest of the fashion world may oscillate between minimalist restraint and avant-garde provocation, Palm Beach has remained steadfastly committed to prints, brights, and an unshakeable belief that getting dressed should make you smile.
And no name is more synonymous with this philosophy than Lilly Pulitzer. As someone who covers American luxury brands regularly, I can say with confidence that Lilly Pulitzer occupies a unique place in the American fashion landscape.
The legend is irresistible: in 1959, socialite Lilly Pulitzer opened a juice stand on Via Mizner. The work was messy, and she commissioned a friend to design a dress in a bright print that would disguise the juice stains.
The shift dress she created – simple in silhouette, riotous in colour – proved so popular with her Palm Beach friends that a fashion empire was born. The Lilly Pulitzer brand, with its signature palette of hot pinks, lime greens, turquoises, and tangerine oranges rendered in swirling floral and tropical prints, became the unofficial uniform of Palm Beach and, eventually, of prep culture across America.
What Lilly Pulitzer captured so perfectly was the ease of Palm Beach dressing. These are clothes designed for a life lived outdoors – for strolling Worth Avenue, lunching at the pool, attending garden parties, and watching the sunset from the terrace. I love the lightweight fabrics, the flattering fits, and the exuberant prints – this UPF 50+ dress below gets so many compliments each time I wear it!
Beyond Lilly, Palm Beach fashion encompasses a broader vocabulary of resort elegance: caftans for poolside lounging, bold statement jewellery in coral, turquoise, and gold, woven straw bags and wide-brimmed sun hats, monogrammed everything, and a particular fondness for grosgrain ribbons and needlepoint belts. Ladies wear Palm Beach sandals, whilst Stubbs & Wooton slippers are de rigueur for men and women.
The look is polished but never stiff – designed for women and men who want to look impeccable while feeling entirely at ease. For those drawn to a more understated approach, our guide to quiet luxury brands offers an interesting counterpoint – though in Palm Beach, even quiet luxury tends to arrive in a punchy shade of coral.
Home Decor – Bringing the Sunshine Indoors
Step inside a Palm Beach home and you enter a world where colour, pattern, and personality reign supreme. This is not the world of Scandinavian restraint or industrial minimalism. Palm Beach interiors are layered, lush, and unafraid of excess – though the very best examples achieve their maximalism with an underlying discipline that keeps the look cohesive rather than chaotic. If you love this aesthetic, our tropical home decor ideas offer practical tips for bringing a taste of it into your own space.
The design vocabulary begins with the bones: floors of cool terrazzo or wide-plank whitewashed wood, walls lacquered in high-gloss white or a daring hue like emerald green or coral pink, and ceilings either tray-detailed or wrapped in grasscloth or bamboo. Architectural details lean Mediterranean or colonial – arched doorways, shuttered windows, and covered loggias that extend the living space outdoors.
Furniture draws heavily on tropical and British colonial influences. Rattan, bamboo, and wicker are the materials of choice, often painted in crisp white or left in natural tones. Upholstery tends toward bold prints – particularly the banana-leaf and palm-frond patterns that have become inseparable from the Palm Beach aesthetic.
The legendary Scalamandre Zebra wallpaper, chinoiserie panels, and Quadrille fabrics are fixtures of the most coveted interiors.
Colour palettes swing between two poles – the classic combination of bright white with pops of vibrant pink, green, and turquoise, or a warmer scheme built on coral, gold, and deep tropical greens. Either way, the guiding principle is the same: every room should feel like a celebration.
Key pieces include oversized coral specimens displayed on acrylic stands, pagoda-style mirrors and lanterns, blue-and-white Chinese porcelain, citrus-hued throw pillows, monogrammed linens, faux bamboo accent tables, and statement lighting in bamboo, rattan or shell.
Palm Beach decorating legend Dorothy Draper – known for her bold use of oversized florals, glossy black-and-white floors, and Hollywood Regency flair – remains a touchstone, as does the later work of designers like Mario Buatta, known as the “Prince of Chintz.” Today, firms like Kemble Interiors, Amanda Lindroth, and Miles Redd continue the tradition, proving that maximalist tropical glamour is as relevant as ever.
For anyone looking to furnish a home in true Palm Beach style, a visit to Perigold in West Palm Beach is essential. The luxury home furnishings destination – the high-end arm of Wayfair – offers a curated selection of designer furniture, lighting, rugs, and accessories that perfectly suit the Palm Beach aesthetic.
Palm Royale – Palm Beach Style on Screen
Palm Royale, Apple TV+’s deliciously camp series that premiered in 2024, did more to reignite mainstream fascination with Palm Beach style than perhaps anything in the past decade. Set in 1969, the series follows Maxine Simmons (Kristen Wiig) as she schemes her way into the exclusive social world of a fictional Palm Beach country club.
But as much as the show is a comedy of manners, it is also a visual feast – a meticulously styled love letter to the island’s mid-century golden age.
The production design is extraordinary. Every set piece brims with period-perfect detail: the tropical wallpapers, the lacquered furniture, the wicker peacock chairs, the poolside loungers in candy-coloured stripes.
Costumes are equally dazzling – the female characters sweep through scenes in Pucci-esque prints, jewel-toned caftans, oversized sunglasses, and perfectly coiffed hair. The show captures something essential about Palm Beach – the idea that appearance is performance, and that the island has always been a stage.
Palm Royale draws on real Palm Beach history, too. Its depiction of the rigid social hierarchies, the obsession with club membership, and the peculiar mixture of old money restraint and new money flamboyance reflects dynamics that have defined the island since Flagler’s day.
For viewers discovering Palm Beach style for the first time, the series serves as an irresistible visual primer – and for those already enchanted by the aesthetic, it is a joyful confirmation that this particular brand of glamour is timeless.
How Not to Do Palm Beach Style – Lessons from Members Only: Palm Beach
If Palm Royale is a love letter to Palm Beach glamour, then Netflix’s reality series Members Only: Palm Beach (2025) is a cautionary tale in how easily that glamour can tip into caricature.
The show, which follows a group of women navigating the social scene of Palm Beach County, was panned by critics and locals alike – and for good reason. It serves as a useful primer in what Palm Beach style is not.
True Palm Beach elegance has always been about an effortless confidence – looking polished without appearing to have tried too hard. The women of old Palm Beach understood that restraint was the ultimate luxury, that a Lilly shift and a good pair of flats said more than a sequinned gown ever could. The contrast with the reality show’s aesthetic could not be starker.
Palm Beach Style – Do’s
✔ Effortless elegance – looking polished without appearing to have tried
✔ Bold colour and print worn with confidence and simplicity
✔ Classic silhouettes – shift dresses, tailored resort wear, timeless pieces
✔ Subtle, high-quality jewellery in coral, turquoise, and gold
✔ Understated grooming – sun-kissed, natural, healthy
✔ Knowing when less is more – letting one statement piece do the work
✔ Dressing for the climate – lightweight fabrics that move and breathe like the Kahora Palm Beach dress below.
Palm Beach Style – Don’ts
✘ Too much makeup – heavy contouring and overdone lashes miss the mark entirely
✘ Excessive cleavage on display – old Palm Beach has a rule: never show your knees and your boobs at the same time
✘ Trying too hard – if it looks like you spent three hours getting ready, you have lost the plot
✘ Logo mania – plastering yourself in designer labels is the opposite of the Palm Beach ethos
✘ Over-the-top cosmetic procedures – subtle tweakments are the way to go
✘ Confusing wealth with taste – money cannot buy you style, as most of the Members Only cast proved
✘ Name-dropping and social climbing – real Palm Beach society finds it deeply vulgar
As one Palm Beach local memorably put it when reviewing the show, the casting was rather like ordering Coca-Cola and getting Fanta. The real lesson? Palm Beach style is aspirational precisely because it makes the extraordinary look effortless.
The moment effort becomes visible, the magic disappears. For a deeper exploration of understated elegance, our guide to quiet luxury trends covers the principles that genuine Palm Beach style has embodied for decades.
Living the Palm Beach Lifestyle
Palm Beach style extends well beyond aesthetics. It is a way of life – one built around outdoor entertaining, social ritual, and an unapologetic appreciation for the finer things.
Days revolve around tennis at the Bath & Tennis Club, lunch on Worth Avenue, an afternoon at the beach or by the pool, and evening cocktails on the terrace. The social calendar is anchored by charity galas, polo matches, and the seasonal migration of families who return to the same homes, the same clubs, and the same tables year after year. For broader inspiration on living well, our luxury lifestyle tips cover many of the principles that the Palm Beaches exemplify so beautifully.
Entertaining in the Palm Beach style means luncheons with monogrammed napkins and fresh flowers, sunset cocktail parties with pitchers of rum punch, and dinner parties where the table settings are as considered as the menu. We love the Molecot Palm Beach collection featured below.
Citrus motifs appear everywhere – on plates, cocktail napkins, garden urns – alongside palm fronds, coral, and seashell details. The atmosphere is polished but convivial, formal enough to honour the occasion but relaxed enough to reflect the warmth of the climate.
For those who cannot relocate to this sliver of paradise permanently, the beauty of Palm Beach style is its portability. A Lilly Pulitzer shift dress, a rattan tray stacked with blue-and-white porcelain, a room lacquered in a daring shade of green, a stylish coffee table book, a Palm Beach style towel – each of these carries a small piece of the island’s magic.
It is a reminder that life is brighter when you choose to surround yourself with beauty, colour, and unapologetic joy.
——— ✻ ———
Palm Beach style is not a trend. It is a tradition – one that proves the most enduring design is design that dares to bring joy.
For tips on other things to see in Florida, take a look at our full guide.
