Discover the origins of the Tibi brand and the meaning of its name
Her brand may be synonymous with the contemporary-chic aesthetic now seen on a host of street-style stars around the globe, but few may know that Amy Smilovic's brand Tibi actually began in our fair city of Hong Kong, and perhaps even fewer might know that it underwent a 180-degree overhaul that allowed it to be the authority on the modern, relaxed silhouette today.
We sat down with Amy at Upper House Hong Kong to learn where the name Tibi came from and how she feels about all competitors following suit.
What brought you to HK all those years ago and why was Tibi born here?
My husband and I were both working for American Express but when he got transferred to Hong Kong, I realised I would have been reporting to him had I stayed, so I left, especially since I always wanted my own company. I had an art major in college, and I could draw and I loved clothing and I loved business and being in Hong Kong felt like it was the right place to start a clothing company. All signs were telling me that I should start a clothing line.
Where did the name Tibi come from?
Shortly after moving to Hong Kong, I met a woman who was from New York and she was engaged to a guy, who by total coincidence I went to the University of Georgia with. She and I started a line together named after her grandmother Tibi but six months after living in HK she decided to move back to the US and I kept the name, hired her sister to work for me for four years and the rest is history.
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What was the moment you knew your clothes struck a chord?
In fashion, you’d often strike a chord for a moment, until you hit another trend and so on. For example, in my first year, I did a show in Coterie in New York and Jeannine Braden from Fred Segal loved my skirt and said if I made it in different prints she’d buy so many. So I came back to HK, found these weird scarfs and asked the factory to recolour them (even they thought it was weird).
After we went back to Jeannine, all of a sudden it was Fred Segal, then Bendels’ then Bergdorfs, it just snowballed. Back then, when you hit a trend it was great but if you didn’t it was a struggle. Six years ago I decided I didn’t want to have a business based on trend, and I decided I wanted to clean up the brand and bring it back to my personal aesthetic.
I’ve always liked things very clean and modern, relaxed and easy, and I put that up on a wall and decided this is what the brand is going to be.