Inside Tibi’s First European Store: An Intimate Conversation with Amy Smilovic on Style, Space, and the Soul of a Brand

Some ideas don’t come from a business plan. They come from a feeling. For me, the idea of Tibi Studio Vienna had been forming quietly for years. Not a store. Not a rollout. Something more intimate. More intentional. A space where the pace of shopping slows down and clothes aren't just chosen, but understood. It’s never just about what you wear. It’s about the energy you carry. The life you’re living. It's about how style can quietly support you through it all. 

That vision found its perfect counterpart in Tibi and its founder and creative director, Amy Smilovic. What started more than a decade ago as admiration from afar grew into a creative partnership built on trust, clarity, and a shared belief in doing things differently.

Now, as Tibi’s first European store is about to open – not on a bustling shopping street, but behind the quiet façade of a historic Viennese apartment – that shared vision has taken physical form. The Tibi Studio Vienna isn’t a flagship store. It’s a mindset brought to life. This kind of concept only works when it aligns deeply with a brand’s values. And with Tibi, this alignment felt seamless.

Spread across rooms designed to encourage both conversation and reflection, the Tibi Studio Vienna is about more than just selling clothes. It’s about creating space. For alignment. For expression. For the kind of ease that can only exist when people feel truly seen.

My team sat down with Amy to discuss what has brought us to this moment and why this new chapter signifies so much more than a geographic expansion. We hope this conversation will give you a better understanding of what Tibi Studio Vienna is really about. Enjoy. It's a good read.

When a brand like Tibi chooses to open its first studio in Europe, it’s about more than geography. What made this the right moment and what made Vienna feel like the right expression of that next chapter?

We’ve had a growing customer base in Europe, but it’s been greatly due to the strength of many of our partners like Yasemin at Schneeweiss. She has relationships on the ground that we could never have fostered across an ocean. Every day I receive requests for more options in Europe, people craving a broader selection of the brand. We’ve worked with Yasemin for a long time, we trust her immensely, and most importantly our customers trust her. For that reason, Vienna was a natural choice.

The studio space is both deeply Tibi and undeniably Viennese. How do you see this location interpreting the brand’s DNA within a new cultural context?

Yasemin and I share a similar mindset. When you are working closely with an individual, especially when you are separated by time zones, it’s comforting to know that someone deeply understands the brand’s DNA. Our company has always been multi-cultural – my husband is Czech, our President is Chinese, my head of design is Vietnamese and our head of production is from Puerto Rico. And I started the brand whilst living abroad in Hong Kong. It feels very natural for us to operate in a place like Vienna that attracts a global audience and I’m so proud to have this base here.

Tibi’s philosophy of Creative Pragmatism bridges fashion and function. What did it mean to bring that mindset into a physical space like this?

I hope that the physical space embodies a true balance between heritage and modernity. Vienna is steeped in rich history and I love taking those codes and putting a spin on them that is deeply modern and a bit irreverent at the same time. The perfect balance between form and function.

You’ve often said that clothing should be a tool for clarity, not performance. How do you hope that idea translates to someone encountering Tibi for the first time in Vienna?

I think that when you are immersed in an environment it is of course easier to understand a designer’s intent. The tactile component is important to our designs – we’ve always had what could be a mild obsession with rich fabrics and ensuring that the textures and color tones work and complement each other. Even if to simply cause friction and interest. That’s hard to achieve in a store if there’s a smaller assortment – so to have a space fully dedicated is very exciting.

What kind of shift – in mindset as much as wardrobe – do you hope people experience when they visit the Tibi Studio Vienna?

I hear from people all the time that simply immersing themselves in our environment and having the opportunity to be amongst others who have a similar thought process is incredibly rewarding. Yes, it is the clothes, but those who are attracted to our clothing tend to share a similar energy level, a high level of curiosity and a bit of a passion for discussion. People often come for the clothes but then stay for the conversation. Kind of hard to explain until you’ve experienced it.

That sense of connection seems to run through not only the way you engage with your customers, but also your longtime collaboration with Yasemin. What do you think has made that partnership so enduring – creatively and personally?

Yasemin is a funny combination of both my husband and myself. She’s got that great right/left brain balance. Very sharp with numbers, she understands she’s running a business and at the same time she’s deeply committed to a creative lifestyle – in being able to make her own choices, support and be with her family, and just generally be a very genuine great person.

And what made her the right person to bring the spirit of Tibi to life in Europe?

Yasemin has the trust of her market and of our customer base. It’s an understatement to say that I’ve received hundreds of messages from customers telling me how much they love working with her. That means so much to me, because it reflects on our brand. I want to work more with people like that, I’m so proud that we’re doing this together.

Tibi has remained fiercely independent in an industry often driven by scale. How do you protect the brand’s voice as it continues to evolve globally?

At Tibi we look at growth in ways that are completely unorthodox in the realm of fashion businesses. First, the reality is, is that we don’t aspire to scale at all costs. We’re committed to staying independent and in control. To do that, that means we have to work with a relatively small number of people that we can trust and that deeply share our mindset. That doesn’t mean just employees and vendors, it also means the customers that buy the brand. A brand, which is owned by a company, which at the end of the day is really a band of individuals, stays unique by insuring that the voices of the individuals are there. We will not become an algorithm driven company, because that deflates us. It would take away our agency, our creativity, all the things that inspire us. But to stay in control, to be creative, comes at the cost of never getting too big. And that is more than ok with us, it’s by design.

What do you hope the Tibi Studio Vienna will become in five years – not just for the brand, but for the people around it?

Omg, five years from now? I honestly have no idea. Because if I think what I was doing five years previously, I was selling in all the department stores around the world, I had double the gross sales I have today, and I was deeply, deeply unhappy with our business. I had no idea that today I’d have written two books, have a third on the way, be the founder and creative director of a brand that is exponentially more healthy than it was five years ago, albeit much smaller in terms of top line sales. I had no idea that customers would feel such a tight connection to the brand, and me to them. And I didn’t realize that women like Yasemin would become such true business partners and that we’d be crafting entirely new ways of doing business. So, you ask me what this will look like in five years? I have no idea, but I know with all the good ingredients here that it should be great – whatever it is.

Thank you for sharing so openly – that honesty feels deeply woven into everything Tibi stands for. Looking back, was there a moment in the process of creating the Tibi Studio Vienna that truly stayed with you?

I think the moments that I relish here is when I approached Yasemin about the idea of doing something, I was quite specific in my suggestion and I thought it was a great one – but she said no. It was not what she wanted for her. And I was disappointed but I really respected that. And that’s why I was so thrilled when she called later and said that what I’d proposed was not right, but here’s what she thought would be – and that it would be best for both of us. And she was right.

This is the kind of stuff that makes me so excited – I love having ideas, and I love it more when the ideas aren’t embraced but rather become just the starting point for something bigger and better than what I could have initially imagined.

That reflection captures so much of what this collaboration is about – listening, trusting, and letting intuition guide what comes next. With that spirit in mind, if you could leave one message, or even just a feeling, at the door of Tibi Studio Vienna for everyone who walks in, what would it be?

I hope that you come and enjoy this experiment. This is really new in our industry, and I think it's something that could have only come together when you really have a designer, a specialty store, and a customer who is all tuned in to the same mindset. I’ve done events all over the world and I know how thrilled people are when they find a place where they can come and meet up with other creative pragmatists. This is where people tend to find their people.

What Amy described is rare. A place where a shared mindset becomes something you can actually step into. Tibi Studio Vienna is just that: a space shaped by intuition, trust, and a quiet kind of confidence that’s hard to put into words until you feel it for yourself.

If this speaks to you, if you’re drawn to that feeling of ease, intention, and the quiet power of dressing for who you really are, we’d love to welcome you. Step inside, take a breath, try things on, ask questions, or simply stay a while. This is more than just a place to shop. It’s a space to connect. With yourself, with others, and with a new way of thinking about style.

For personal styling appointments, we’re just a message away.
Or discover the Tibi collection online – and start your own conversation with Creative Pragmatism. It’s personal, and it’s worth it.