Tibi’s Amy Smilovic has been in business for 26 years by making the kind of clothes that women love.
Smilovic focuses on the notion of “effortless” to guide her work. It’s a term that is often employed by designers to describe their collections, but for Smilovic it’s applied in a way that makes working women feel both comfortable and a bit different.
“It’s all simple and easy, but it’s also interesting and pushed at the same time. That’s that holy grail that people are looking for,” Smilovic said.
For resort, the designer headed to Vienna and took an earthy, mushroom foraging-type color palette from Grace Kelly’s “Green Fire” film to make clothes that can be thoughtfully layered. Each had little quirks that make them unique, while remaining commercial.
There is a pair of stirrup leggings that can be worn in a multitude of ways; a run of sweater coats with billowing backs; slimming spaghetti-strap slips in either bright tomato or murky bluish green, and a cotton skirt coated in PVC for a patent-like effect.
For Smilovic, it was about bringing things into a practical, yet stylish arena. “Things have been really oversized for a while and I think having some of that come in was a nice change. With the strange weather that we’ve had it’s about creating things that, if it’s January, you could wear with leggings underneath. I’m making problem-solvers.”
