Tibi’s Amy Smilovic is nothing if not practical. Pre-fall is a summer collection, but she’s not making clothes for lounging around the Mediterranean (well, not just for that). “Our customer, she works. Summer is not just on a boat somewhere. We still have lots of stuff we have to get done,” she said.
So, she offers roomy suiting, full skirts, lightweight denim, and knits. Nothing except a few bodices on empire-waist dresses is clingy to the body; perfect when it’s so hot you just don’t want anything touching you. The color palette is filled with what Smilovic describes as “colors with -ish at the end”: greenish, reddish, brownish. Since so many of the outfits are made of one or two pieces, the unexpected colors are not daunting.
Tibi is not a print-forward brand, but Smilovic revived a batik floral she made for her very first collection in 1997. Back then, she lived in Solo, Indonesia, and worked with a local family to make the large-scale print. The new version appears on semi-structured pieces like camp shirts and board shorts made of a techy nylon.
The collection was designed to help solve problems in your summer wardrobe, from the any-occassion oversized blazers to knits so lightweight you can ball them up in one hand. The latter could be worn over a bikini, in a movie theater, or in an over air-conditioned office. That’s Smilovic, earning the name she gave herself in her self-published book The Creative Pragmatist.