KatieAmy Smilovic, the designer for Tibi, returned to her alma mater – University of Georgia (Go Dawgs!) – last week to discuss her life with Tibi and where she finds her inspiration for her colorful and fun designs.
Originally an advertising major, she took a very good job in New York City working in marketing for American Express. After deciding to follow her passion for fashion, she moved to Hong Kong in 1997 to start designing her line of contemporary dresses. Twelve years later, Tibi has expanded from for designs into offering ten collections per year as well as a line of shoes, swimwear and home accessories. Her collections match her own personal style which she showcases every season in the tents at Bryant Park.
Fresh off her trip from Paris following New York Fashion Week, Smilovic returns to the U.S. with a new creative vision and inspiration for her Fall 2010 line. Wearing rolled skinny jeans, grey suede booties and a purple top, Smilovic talks about where her inspiration comes from, starting Tibi and everything in between.
Where do you find inspiration?
Looking for inspiration is like looking for the Lock Ness monster. You are always looking for it and once you saw it, you are not sure if you found it or not. After every fashion show, I go to Paris to look for inspiration and find fabrics.
What was your inspiration for Spring 2010?
Spring 2010 inspirations was gardens, Great Expectations and floral. Every year I have an anthem for my shows and this season it was Guns ‘n Roses “Sweet Child ‘o Mine.” If I had saw a girl wearing a floral dress and listening to Axel Rose, that is a girl I would want to hang out with!
Spring 2010
What is your inspiration for Fall 2010?
In Paris, I liked the washed out, bold colors like cobalt blues, oranges and limes. Also, looking at the cobblestones on the streets, there were lots of grey and blush colors. Looking closer at the stones, you could see lines in them that were almost like fossils. I also was inspired by Peter Beard’s photography, with his blurred/dirty edges and animal and desert scenes.
My fall collection will feature colors from blush to cobalt, fossil-like prints and prints from photos on the clothes, child-like drawings and lines, introducing spooky, blurry images and making them beautiful and lots of contrast: like bird meets tiger, structure meets flowy and soft meets hard. Think about the Liger picture from Napoleon Dynamite – the fantasy design with the simple drawing.
Art by Peter Beard
How did you choose the name “Tibi” for your line?
When I first got to Hong Kong, I went to an American Women’s Association to meet some people and I met this woman named Octavia. I told her about my plans to create a clothing line and her and I designed some dress styles together. We went to the fabric makers and from there, the company grew. Octavia’s grandmother’s name was Tibi and my grandmother’s name was Bernice…so obviously we went with Tibi. She grew out of the company and now has a boutique (which carries Tibi dresses, of course) in New Orleans.
What kind of customer do you design for?
I think dressing should be fun and incredibly chic, so I dress for the kind of woman who likes to be seen. A Tibi girl is a trendy, stylish girl who loves color and likes clothes to look good on her. She is like a girl who is from Georgia that moves up to the Northeast and works in SoHo.
I don’t look at fashion forecasting. I will try and go out of my way not to look at the “season’s hot colors.” I want to be the opposite of what everyone else is doing.
I can’t afford to design high end and I don’t want to design for mass market consumption, so I file Tibi into the contemporary design category. Contemporary designs are still reasonably priced but still have a designer’s touch.
What is your advice to future designers or being trying to make it in fashion?
What matters is that you have your own designs and a creative vision. Stay with what you love when making collections. When it comes to me, if I love it, I know I will find other people that love it, too. To get your name out there and stay alive in the industry, you have to look and act bigger than you are. I was shipping out clothes stored in my tub from my house in St Simons, Georgia, but I made sure that no one knew that.
