Amy Smilovic’s Instagram feed isn’t just for snaps of new Tibi collections or glimpses of her daily outfits. It’s a veritable style guide, with tips and tricks for fashion obsessives and rookies alike. One recent highlight reel tackles miniskirts, spurred by a follower’s question about how to wear tiny hemlines after years of midi lengths. Smilovic’s response: You can “chill out” a sexy skirt by balancing it with a big sweatshirt. Another reel is dedicated to mixing colors: Never wear brights with white or black, and if you’re mixing pastels or jewel tones, a clash of textures will keep the look feeling modern. So, yes, she has some rules. But Smilovic is also adamant that occasionally rules can be broken.
Consider her resort 2022 collection, arriving in stores today. The opening look involves a black blazer, emerald skirt, and ruched turquoise bodysuit—a seemingly wrong combination of blacks and brights. To Smilovic’s eye, it work because of the “icky” textures: The skirt is a shiny, paper-thin nylon, while the soft bodysuit is ruched and a little slick. A daffodil tube top and swishy black skirt requires a second look, too: The stretchy top is actually cashmere, lending a bit of softness to the stark color contrast.
Elsewhere, a “trouser skirt” sits lower on the hips and extends past the knee; glittery holiday dresses come in skinny, squared-off proportions; and narrow trousers in a sunny daisy jacquard skim the ankles. Smilovic paired them with a second-skin T-shirt in a micro version of the daisies, a rare instance of head-to-toe prints. Generally, she advises her followers to avoid prints altogether; at the very least they shouldn’t wear a printed top with a solid pant (it looks too grown-up, too formulaic). But she made an exception here because she wanted “something that felt light.” For all of her rules and how-to tips, the goal is almost always to make fashion easier, more relatable, and more fun. Look closely, and you’ll notice some of the daisies were knitted with little smiley faces—a reminder not to take any of it too seriously.
