The prelude to Tibi’s 25th anniversary show was the opening verse of Peggy Lee’s “Is That All There Is,” a song about becoming disillusioned with life and being inspired to “break out the booze and have a ball” in spite of that. The ditty inspired designer Amy Smilovic early on in the collection’s conception. “We wanted to acknowledge that style and beauty make us feel really great. When you’re just trying to enjoy life, surrounding yourself with that is a good thing,” she said. “Life is life. It’s all there is, and you can make it great and enjoy it or not.”
It seemed to connect, also, to Tibi’s reinvention over the past two and a half decades. Smilovic started her brand while living as an expat in Hong Kong, and in its first decade or so, Tibi was known for bold, colorful prints. Since then, the label has evolved to be more a reflection of Smilovic’s sophisticated and clean personal style, more in line with ’90s minimalism than Y2K jubilance. Looking at the spring 2023 collection, it was hard to see remnants of the brand’s tropical origins. Oversized but keenly tailored suits, sheer fabrics, and low-slung maxiskirts and pants ruled the runway instead: insouciant but with a formal bent.
Within the framework of Lee’s lyrics, it seemed silly to ask Smilovic what the through line in her 25 years of work has been. Why should she be attached to nostalgic self-references? Why shouldn’t she keep exploring what modernity means now, rather than what it meant back in 1997? (For the record, that’s what she said she thought linked all of her collections: modern effortlessness).
Smilovic’s aim is to provide her customers with clothes they can wear for multiple facets of their lives. “No matter where you are in your life, it all merges together, so you don’t open up your closet and have work and dinner and kids’ outfits,” she said. Even so, elements of the collection felt like they were cheekily thumbing their nose at the idea of corporate clothing. See the jumpsuit that looked like a pair of work slacks held up with suspenders, or the black pants with sheer legs, or the light-wash denim suit, or the pinstripe miniskirt and kerchief top, or the blazers with only one arm (which Smilovic herself wore to the show). Yes, these pieces could be mixed and matched for a corporate office environment, but they also felt appropriate for a time when many people feel apathetic toward office life and tying themselves to a stifling 9-to-5. These clothes adopted the aesthetics of tradition, but messed with them in an irreverent—and, it must be said, modern—way. They seemed to say, in harmony with Lee, “If that’s all there is, my friends, then let’s keep dancing.”
