Building a $60M revenue independent fashion brand

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Amy Smilovic founded Tibi in 1997 and has built an apparel business generating $60M annual revenue that is totally independent of outside capital. Tibi operates two brick & mortar stores in Soho New York and St. Simon’s Island in Georgia, where Amy grew up. Independent fashion brands at this size and this longevity are truly rare and this interview highlights the thought processes that ultimately led to Tibi’s long term success.

This was one of my favorite interviews I’ve done to date - Amy is a unique blend of contrarian and logical. Huge thank you to Amy for being an open book and not holding back. I suppose that’s one of the advantages that comes with true independence.

Interview Highlights

• Tibi’s founding story

• Positioning the brand for longevity

• Navigating rip offs from the rise of fast fashion

• Finding a sweet spot between wholesale and direct to consumer

• Setting boundaries with department store retailers

• Lessons learned from running brick & mortar retail through the years

• Building a personal brand as a fashion entrepreneur

• Feeling like a fraud with a non-traditional background

• Why Tibi chose against raising capital

• Controversial opinions about the fashion industry

• Amy’s advice to emerging fashion entrepreneurs

You founded Tibi in 1997 in Hong Kong, and then you had a subsequent rebrand and a buyout of your co-founder. Walk us through the story.

It was February 1997, the year of the handover. I went to Hong Kong with the idea of starting my own company. I had been with American Express at that point and Ogilvy Advertising prior. And I had had an art minor in college and had always loved art. So when I started Tibi, it was more of a pragmatic decision, in the sense that I had business, finance, and marketing experience. It all made sense - I started a clothing company much quicker than I had ever imagined because I was in Hong Kong, where you can’t imagine the speed at which they move. I moved there on a Wednesday, and by Friday, I was picking up my first samples. I had already found a factory and a fabric market where they had all these fabrics from Italy. 

I also joined something called the American Women's Association. And that Friday afternoon before picking up my samples, I met another American there named Octavia. It turned out that she and I had gone to the University of Georgia together. And she ended up not having anything to do that afternoon. I told her I had started a company two days ago, and she wanted to come with me to pick up the samples. So we went together and on the way back, we formed another company because, why not? 

And that other line was what became Tibi. We named it after her grandmother. My grandmothers were Betty and Bernice, and Tibi was hands down the favorite for a label. We did it based on four pieces of clothing, and decided to source all of our fabrics in Indonesia. It was an opportunity to fly around and be really creative and do something without having to worry about what others were thinking. We were really in a nice vacuum in Hong Kong doing this. 

Then we produced a small collection, sold it, and made some more. And then after that, about 6 months into it, Octavia left to move back to the US. 

We had each put in $30,000. She asked for her money back, and I paid her back but kept the name. Her sister ended up working for us for six years later on, so it was all amicable. And here we are today.

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