piece each season. They are always the pieces I go to every time I don’t know what to wear but always feel my best and the most myself,” one viewer wrote in the comments about a “Style Class.”
“Pretty quickly, we were getting 30,000 or more views, and we realized people wanted to have a conversation about anything but COVID[-19],” Smilovic said of her style classes, and finally figuring out social media by just getting in the trenches and doing it herself. “I was able to really be so articulate about who we were and why we designed what we did.”
Restraint has certainly bred creativity at Tibi, which Smilovic founded in 1997 after moving from New York to Hong Kong with her husband. The brand already had one pivot, from feminine and print-heavy to minimalist in 2012. There are 55 employees.
Shoes, including the stretchy Leo bootie and fuzzy faux fur Lola high boot, are a growing category, increasing 124 percent in volume year-over-year, compared to 68 percent in ready-to-wear. But Smilovic is resisting the idea she needs to be in every category.