Tibi Founder Amy Smilovic Talks The Business Of Fashion, Guiding Principles & More

What were some of the business decisions you made from there?

We immediately shut down our accounts with Bergdorf’s, Neiman Marcus, Saks Fifth Avenue and Nordstrom. We got rid of every single one. A lot of them tried to tell us what to make, what they hated from our collections and to convince me I was wrong about what the customer wanted. I knew these people weren’t our people and one of our principles was only working with people we liked. 

So where is Tibi now – what’s changed?

We’re close to $60m in gross sales again – but this time, we’re doing it completely on our own terms.  There’s a reason we’re not on any of those lists owing money to big department stores in the wake of these bankruptcies. We get to create cool stuff all the time and we're the deciders. 

What do you hope other entrepreneurs take away from your story? 

That when you are present and in the moment, you're collecting dots. In the book I describe it like a Seurat painting. You can't see the picture until you step back. But you have to be in the moment, living it, to be able to step back one day. When I traced my working life back to the waitressing jobs, the babysitting jobs, the newspaper routes, the first careers, the second careers, the third careers, I realised was collecting my dots. One of the things I tell a lot of people is don't bifurcate your life. Even if you’re waitressing now with the intention of becoming a designer later, think about the skills you’re learning: multitasking, customer service, problem solving. It’s how you get a dot. Don’t step out of the flow and forget to collect your dots. 

Do you have any other general career advice to share? 

Whatever you’re doing, be in it. I spent three years at American Express and was so passionate about convincing big companies to pay more to accept the American Express card. I was just as passionate about it as I was about my last runway look. It all comes back to the same things: honouring your principles, your work ethic and what you're going for in life. 

Has your idea of success has changed over time? 

I talk a lot about contentment as opposed to success, perfection or achievement. Contentment has to come from stepping back and thinking whether you like what it is you’re doing. But contentment is hard to achieve in a world of AI and social media – there’s so much ‘sameness’ and it’s hard for people to remember that what they have to offer is unique. Stop measuring things – including success – by the algorithm. Success and luck are also a case of perspective. For one person, a successful life looks one way and for someone else, it looks completely different – and that’s fine. 

What’s your view on data as a tool for business?

There’s continual proof that going against the data is a winning formula – for some. What you want to do is make sure you are part of the ‘some’. If you're Amazon or Microsoft, that's not the ‘some’. You're human and more often than not, going against the data is the path not taken. I would argue that anyone doing anything independent should always be questioning the data – sometimes it's just a data point and you have to assess to what degree your business is actually about human connection. 

Speaking of connection, Tibi is very much community focused now – would you agree?

It’s absolutely the heartbeat of the brand now but it wasn't before and that was one of the reasons I felt so unsettled. Before, when I was forced to do an event at Neiman Marcus or Bloomingdale's, a customer would tell me how sexy they felt in their dress and that their husband loved it or their friends were jealous. Well… I felt nothing. There was such a one dimensionality to those conversations and it made me feel like I wasn’t really part of this industry. That was probably when I started thinking about doing things my own way.

Is that when you came up with the term ‘creative pragmatist’?

Yes, the industry always wants to define you or your brand in one word but for me, three adjectives – chill, modern and classic – are what describe Tibi and who I am as a person. Again, there’s no bifurcation. Once we had these words, I knew we had to present this visually but I became so much more settled about it. We knew our customers were smart and wanted to think about fashion in a way that stimulated them intellectually. That when things like the Style Class and my first book, The Creative Pragmatist were born. 

Who have been some of the biggest mentors or influences in your life?

My parents because they absolutely live by their principles. I was born in the Midwest, I grew up in the south, then moved to New York, married an Eastern European from a different religion, we moved to Hong Kong… I took it for granted that when things felt right, you just did them. But when I think about how my parents lived their life, they did exactly the same thing. My dad was on track to be a successful psychologist at a practice in Chicago when I was in second grade. We lived in a tiny apartment, it was freezing and my dad always came home late. It was not the life my parents wanted, so they just made a decision to start living differently. They wanted to be able to spend time with their kids, see each other and live in the sunshine. My dad wanted to pursue his art and his psychology, so we moved to St. Simons Island, Georgia. We bought a little Jeep, a tiny house and started living the life we wanted there and then. For a long time, I thought they had settled but I realise now they had purposely chosen that life. It was a great example to have but of course, we weren’t measuring life by the great Instagram yardstick back then…

How would you advise people push back against comparison, especially online?

Of all the people you see and think “I want their shoes, their bag, their car…” ask yourself, do you want their home life? I guarantee the answer will probably be no. Or you’ll realise you have no idea what their home life is like because Instagram never shows you what the trade-offs are. 

Finally, what’s next for Tibi and yourself…

This November, we’re doing a workshop on Sea Island, Georgia. Many of the women I’ve created relationships with over the last four years are going to conduct workshops tied to chapters of the book. The thing about the book is, I like the tangibility of things that you can actually put in place to affect it for yourself. So that's what I'm keen for that workshop to do. We're also creating something like an Almost Reckless game that will take people through the book. Plus, there’s a whole Gen Z cohort in our office who have been doing an Almost Reckless podcast among themselves, where they go through the book discussing it. I have no idea what they've said but we’re going to be launching that shortly. I’m all about bringing the visuals, the actions and the words all together – and hopefully these things will do that. 

Almost Reckless: A Creative and Pragmatic Approach to Taking Risks is published by Penguin Random House and available now at AMAZON.CO.UK

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