A housewife expecting her first child, Lillian starts her mail order business in her small apartment using her kitchen table as her office. With $2,000 of wedding gift money, she designs a purse and belt and places a $495 ad in "Seventeen Magazine", offering a unique service - personalization with her customers' initials free of charge. The ad brings in $32,000 in orders and the business is launched.
Lillian's Company named after her home in Mount Vernon, New York, rents a storefront for a warehouse. She rents a building next door for her monogramming operation and a store across the street becomes the shipping department. Her Company soon begins manufacturing and wholesaling custom-designed products for other companies including Max Factor, Elizabeth Arden, Avon and Revlon.
Lillian Vernon is now one of America's most accomplished and well-known leaders in the catalog industry.
http://www.lillianvernon.com/custserv/about/about_us.jsp?sectionId=136