Tibi’s Amy Smilovic is nothing if not practical. Pre-fall is a summer collection, but she doesn’t make clothes for lounging around the Mediterranean (well, not just now therefore). “Our customer, she works. Summer isn’t just on a boat somewhere. There are still many things we need to do,” she says.
So she offers roomy suits, wide skirts, lightweight denim and knits. Nothing except a few bodices on empire-waist dresses sticks to the body; perfect when it’s so hot that you just don’t want anything to touch you. The color palette is filled with what Smilovic describes as “colors with -ish at the end”: greenish, reddish, brownish. Because so many outfits consist of one or two pieces, the unexpected colors aren’t daunting.
Tibi isn’t a print-forward brand, but Smilovic has revived a batik floral pattern she created in 1997 for her very first collection. At the time, she lived in Solo, Indonesia, and worked with a local family to create the large-scale print. The new version appears on semi-structured pieces like camp shirts and board shorts made from technical nylon.
The collection is designed to solve problems in your summer wardrobe, from oversized blazers for every occasion to knits so light you can roll them up with one hand. The latter can be worn over a bikini, in a cinema or in an air-conditioned office. That’s Smilovic, who deserves the name she gave herself in her self-published book The creative pragmatist.
