It didn’t take more than a quick scan of the Tibi front row to see that Amy Smilovic has found herself leading a tribe. Four women were wearing the same marigold yellow plissé dress from the spring runway. A pair sitting side-by-side had on identical oversize gray plaid blazers and white T-shirts from fall 2017, and yet another set of twins was in matching light washed denim from spring 2018. There were too many white booties to count.
Smilovic doesn’t necessarily invent the trends, but she knows how to interpret and amplify them with incredible savvy. For fall she was thinking about “twists on classics,” she said. “We hooked onto the idea of luxury fabrics as building blocks, which led us to architecture, which led us to construction.” So what appeared to be an update on a bourgeois scarf-print dress inspired by Hermès — by way of Balenciaga — was actually a print of orange pulleys found on a construction site. A traditional khaki trench had the fluorescent spray paint signals found on unfinished raw floors. Classic quilting came on a navy blazer belted over matching pants while sweatshirts were stylishly tied around the shoulders, preppy-meets-street-style, of a white netted dress and a brown furry bomber.
The silhouettes were cut to reflect modernist modesty — big, bright sweaters over straight skirts and knee-high boots; fluid jersey midi dresses with long sleeves, and oversize suits. And the palette was designed to pop. Next season, expect to see audience members twinning in red coats, pink dresses and cobalt blue shoes.
