The Local Color Story

Jack Anderson, originally from Tacoma, Washington, and Liliane, from Chartres, France, first opened Local Color in 1986, having recently docked in Key West after an adventure on the family home – a 42 foot sailboat.

Four years prior, they had sold their thriving silver and leather crafts business in the French Alps, said goodbye to friends and family, and boarded the steel hulled Nividic with their 5 year old daughter and 2 year old son in tow. Setting sail for the Canary Islands, and then crossing the Atlantic, the family spent the next four and half years sailing in the Caribbean, eventually arriving, with $23 left, at Land’s End Marina, behind the Half Shell Raw Bar at the Key West Bight.

Always the sailor and leather craftsman, Jack started making leather jewelry and selling at the nightly sunset celebration on Mallory Square. Soon, Local Color opened next door to the historic Turtle Kraals, at the original location of Jimmy Buffet’s Margaritaville store.

As the businesses grew, Jack and Liliane, with children still in tow, would travel the world, buying jewelry, clothing, and accessories in far flung locales – Bali, Mexico City, the highlands of Guatemala, Ibiza, Vilnius, Paris, India, the Dominican Republic…

Always evolving, the Andersons designed their own clothing lines for the tropics and Key West jewelry collections.

Today, you can see all of these influences when you shop at Local Color and Commotion, and there’s always something new! And it is still very much a family affair.

Thank you to our loyal customers, and to our amazing staff!

The Anderson family