The genius of Tibi's founder, Amy Smilovic
Brand building done right - learnings that transcend the fashion industry
In honor of New York Fashion Week (which officially starts tomorrow), my next few posts will be about…you guessed it…fashion! I wanted to kick off the series by highlighting a founder who I deeply respect because she builds in such an intentional, educational, and inspiring way - Amy Smilovic, the creator of Tibi. There are so many reasons to love her and Tibi and I personally believe that her enormous success is born directly out of her “creative pragmatist” (a phrase she didn’t coin for her approach until the pandemic) ethos. Amy is thoughtful and insightful, a visionary yet incredibly logical - she has a story about every piece she brings to market and seemingly endless ways in which it can be styled. Amy started Tibi back in 1997 when she was on her “third life” professionally and she had no prior experience in fashion or styling - I find all of this even more amazing.
In full disclosure before I get into the details, I personally don’t have a ton of Tibi pieces in my wardrobe - though the pieces I do have I absolutely adore for their unique yet timeless style and versatility - but that doesn’t mean I can’t be obsessed with the genius that is Amy Smilovic. There is so much to learn from her playbook.
Here’s what makes her great:
Her stylist-driven sales model: She has built a network of in-store stylists with solid social presence.
If you follow Tibi or Amy on social media, you’ll notice that they have a group of 11 stylists working for the brand with easy to identify handles - @name.tibi. These talented individuals post their outfits multiple times per week, breaking down the tailored details, sizing, and rationale behind their choices. I have found her stylists’ posts enormously helpful because I often do research on how a piece of clothing is likely to fit me before purchasing. Her team posts videos and stories showcasing bestselling items on different body types. And when I have been unsure about a fit, I have DM-ed one of her stylists who is my exact (short) height and she has given me great advice (special shout-out to @grace.tibi). Tibi gives their stylists codes so they can get credit for guiding online purchases - a win-win for all parties and Tibi can have a personalized, expanded reach far outside of its core geographies. To this day, I have not seen a brand that has rolled out a digitally-driven online styling model as thoughtful and impactful.
Her multi-channel investment in constant customer dialogue: Outside of her and her team’s social media presence, Amy hosts Wednesday 2PM style classes online and Tibi has a blog called “The Good Ick” with truly solid content.
Amy leverages her store stylists and corporate design and styling teams to teach online style classes that tackle subjects such as using the color wheel she has devised for making neutral outfits more interesting, how to layer in the summer, dressing for an event, dressing for work, winter style deep dive, etc. Without trying to figure out an exact count, she easily has over 100 episodes across 4 seasons that typically run from 30 to 50 minutes in length.
“The Good Ick” Tibi blog has well-thought-out, in-depth posts that both verbally and visually break down topics for the reader. Topics range from packing to choosing shoes that will “work their ass off” to defining a good fit. Either Amy or someone within her team creates detailed illustrations that discuss color and fabric combinations as well as outfit versatility, with product links included.
Her pragmatism: The way Amy designs, shops, packs…just everything she does makes so much sense.
Amy’s target consumers are not models and influencers, but instead doctors, corporate professionals, entrepreneurs, and those supporting the fashion industry behind the scenes. Therefore, her formula for designing considers how one will move in the clothing in their day-to-day, so polish combined with comfort and practicality are critical elements. For example, the rings she puts on the back of her jackets are intended to hold a scarf in place on the go, her summer fabrics are lightweight and bounce back from the inevitable suitcase wrinkles, the incorporation of snaps on dresses transform the way they can be worn in casual vs. more formal settings. Her and her team’s emphasis on functionality and optionality when she discusses Tibi clothing just makes sense. In some of my favorite posts from her instagram, she walks through packing for multi-day trips in different places across the globe and I feel like I always learn something new.
Amy also recognizes that consumers aren’t just going to buy Tibi and much of her national distribution comes from partnerships with local boutiques. This means that Tibi is being sold next to other brands. When she is on the road during store visits (and even when she’s at home in her own closet), she will highlight outfits from these boutiques that mix in-season Tibi options with other great names.
Her ability to trust her gut: Amy has made a number of “risky decisions” as she has scaled Tibi that came from trusting her gut and have ultimately paid off immensely.
When you’re a leader, and especially a female leader, there are so many people who will be adamant about the fact that you’re doing something wrong. There are two major moments for Amy where the naysayers have existed, but she has persisted by trusting her instincts.
In 2010, Amy decided to do something drastic in the face of Tibi’s success. Once a brand that was defined by bright patterns and prints she decided to instead have the company embody her 3 personal style words - chill, modern, and classic. This means that she changed the fabric, the tailoring, the styling…essentially she started over despite the fact that the brand was generating $22M in sales. This turned out to be a brilliant decision as the broader fashion market was slowly moving away from the print trend. She kept Tibi at the defining forefront of this shift.
As the Tibi brand has scaled, Amy has opted to keep as many operations in-house as possible, including owning their own warehouse. Though at times this could be considered more expensive, it yielded immense benefits during the pandemic. When much of the world’s supply chains were essentially frozen, Amy and her team had a much greater level of control on Tibi’s performance.
About Amy Smilovic
Amy Smilovic grew up in St. Simons Island, Georgia and attended the University of Georgia. Her early career was spent at the well-known advertising and creative agency Ogilvy and then 3 years later she went on to work full-time at one of her clients, American Express. While at AmEx, she met her future husband who was a leader in the company’s international division and was on a stint in NYC. His responsibilities ultimately led him to Hong Kong and Amy decided to join him there, but leave AmEx with the goal of starting her own company. Prior to moving abroad, she had a fashion company idea percolating in her mind after she was introduced to an entrepreneur who was building a custom clothing business but didn’t seem to be executing in the right ways. Her initial concept was to launch a 6-piece capsule collection with fine Italian fabrics, so one of the first actions she took was finding a factory that could create the samples.
At the time, bright, patterned fabrics were a huge trend and Lily Pulitzer was the hot brand, but it was hard to find in Asia. Amy met a woman named Octavia within an expat women’s group and the two decided to find bright, Indonesian batik fabrics to create their line, Tibi. The name Tibi came from Octavia’s grandmother. The line included a handful of skirt, dress, and pant styles and their initial sales were made to local expats. When the women would return to the US, they would wear the clothing items on their shopping trips and ultimately buyers would track down Amy and Octavia. Over time, they scaled the brand to Lane Crawford, Neiman Marcus, Coterie, and 10 other retailers and started getting coverage in major publications.
Octavia ultimately left Tibi (on good terms) and Amy returned to the US as the brand was scaling into a multi-million dollar enterprise. At that point, her husband joined the company. As mentioned above, in 2010 Amy made a huge pivot with Tibi on the style front. This has resulted in the creation of an enduring, luxe fashion brand that resonates with so many in the market.
I hope in reading this post you’re inspired by Amy as much as I am, regardless of your interest in fashion. She has given us a master class in brand building.
x jz
Images | 1 | Denizen | 2 - 3 | Instagram screenshots | 4 - 8 | Tibi | 9 - 10 | Instagram screenshots | 11 | WWD | 12 | @b.g.mckay, styled by me
Note: I do not get paid for nor make money off of this post. All opinions are my own.