Tibi Spring 2027

For Tibi’s 30th anniversary, Amy Smilovic looked to Dolly Parton for confidence and individuality, bringing a little Tennessee into the label’s considered approach to modern wardrobing.

For a designer whose language is built around thoughtful, versatile dressing, Dolly Parton might seem like an unlikely muse. Yet for Tibi’s 30th anniversary, Amy Smilovic travelled to Tennessee and looked to Parton not for rhinestones or corsetry, but for the confidence to be completely herself. “Dolly knew who she was,” Smilovic explained, using that certainty as a way of pushing Tibi beyond its usual intellectual approach to getting dressed.

The literal references were surprisingly restrained. Navy suits and a raw Canadian tuxedo appeared in boxy, everyday proportions, while grommet-covered Western yokes, gingham shirts and a pencil skirt finished with tiers of beaded tassels brought more obvious hints of Nashville. The contrast was deliberate: Parton may have been famous for spectacle, but Smilovic was more interested in the self-assurance underneath it.

A hand-drawn silk print offered a more direct connection to Tennessee, combining irises, vintage cars, guitar players and cowboy boots. It also nodded back to Tibi’s beginnings in 1997 and the scarf-printed skirts that once caught the attention of photographer Bill Cunningham. Against an otherwise muted collection, the print and flashes of embellishment provided moments of looseness without abandoning the brand’s more cerebral sensibility.

If the challenge was to get out of her head, Smilovic perhaps only partially succeeded. But that is not necessarily a problem. Thirty years into Tibi, the collection suggests that its identity lies precisely in the tension between considered wardrobing and the occasional disruption of something louder, stranger or more personal. Dolly may have been difficult to find in the clothes, but her confidence was there.