Lessons from building a fashion brand with Tibi founder Amy Smilovic

The Tibi creative director & founder imparts her wisdom on defining success, ignoring industry playbooks and why young designers are solving problems they don’t even have yet.

When Amy Smilovic started Tibi in 1997 with $15,000 and no formal fashion training, she wasn’t trying to build a global fashion business; she was trying to make something she believed in. Nearly three decades later, the brand has become one of fashion’s most respected independent labels – but Smilovic is clear that the version of success she has today looks very different from the one the industry expected her to chase.

Her new book, Almost Reckless: A Creative and Pragmatic Approach to Taking Risks, published by Penguin Life, is not a traditional business book. Instead, it reads more like a permission slip: an argument for defining your own principles, trusting your instincts, and building a working life that actually feels aligned with who you are.

Speaking about building Tibi, scaling a fashion brand, and what young designers often misunderstand about success, Smilovic’s advice focuses less on fashion specifically, and instead on how to build anything without losing control of it.

Here are some of the biggest lessons she’s learned from her career.