Nobody would say COVID-19 was a positive experience, but for Tibi designer Amy Smilovic, who celebrates 25 years in business at Recent York Fashion Week on Saturday, it was transformative.

During lockdown, Smilovic created a whole philosophy of dressing and being, which she calls “creative pragmatism” (she’s writing a book about it, too), a Tibictionary of her own styling terms to recollect when getting dressed, and have become an Instagram Live star, increasing the brand’s following to greater than 500,000.

She’s garnering hundreds of views for her weekly “Style Class,” now in its third season, teaching viewers how one can closet purge, find personal style, and wear their clothes multiple ways; has cultivated customers who count, and increased her gross profit by greater than 300 percent in the method.

“It truly is a community of like minded people! Amy, you might be a revelation ! I’ve began changing up my wardrobe and investing in a Tibi piece each season. They’re at all times the pieces I am going to each time I don’t know what to wear but at all times feel my best and probably the most myself,” one viewer wrote within the comments a few “Style Class.”

“Here in Mongolia people don’t know Tibi ‘yet’ but my friends, people I do know, sometimes even strangers, ask me ‘how do you set on things like this?’” wrote one other.

Smilovic is celebrating her brand renaissance by inviting her customers to Recent York on Saturday for her first runway show since pre-COVID-19. Greater than 800 guests are scheduled to attend, coming from so far as Mexico. A few of them have turn into close friends through direct messaging across the brand’s content.

“Pretty quickly, we were getting 30,000 or more views, and we realized people desired to have a conversation about anything but COVID[-19],” Smilovic said of her style classes, and eventually determining social media by just getting within the trenches and doing it herself. “I used to be able to actually be so articulate about who we were and why we designed what we did.”

“We’re a mindset brand,” said company president Elaine Chang, who has been with Tibi for 10 years, of the impact of Smilovic’s creative pragmatism ethos. “We’re not tackling it just like the self-help aisle of a book store, but we’re beginning to have conversations of where to go along with it,” she added, not ruling out a TV show potentially.

“CP [creative pragmatism] is about acknowledging we’re individuals, now we have our own thoughts, and so they may conflict with others, but that’s OK. The advantage of humans is that from various things you’ll be able to create something latest. If the whole lot is identical, how do you create anything on the planet? Amy’s very articulate about that. Customers will ask if she will speak about how one can wear a wedge shoe, and he or she’ll say, ‘I can’t speak on that, that’s not my aesthetic.’ It’s been a thoughtful conversation about here’s our standpoint and if you must be an element of it great. That’s a really different thing than the catch-all ‘hearken to your customers,” said Chang.

Restraint has actually bred creativity at Tibi, which Smilovic founded in 1997 after moving from Recent York to Hong Kong along with her husband. The brand already had one pivot, from feminine and print-heavy to minimalist in 2012. There are 55 employees.

A part of the survival tactic in the course of the COVID-19 downturn was to pare down stock keeping units by 60 percent, and residential in on wardrobe essentials like crispy nylon cargo pants, fluid trousers, oversize blazers, shirts and crew neck sweaters, often with a slight flourish, like a hole on the back, a cutout elbow, slit neckband or curved legs. Most pieces are priced under $1,500.

The IG Live “Style Class” also helped the brand transition to more direct-to-consumer sales.

“We’re not selling to all those shops anymore, and the business is just so rather more streamlined,” said Smilovic during an interview at her Financial District studio.

It became about finding the true brand evangelists.

“It was knowing that the world was such an enormous place and that if we just found those that actually thought just like us that might be enough,” Smilovic explained. “It’s still not a ton of individuals, and it’s not every Bravo franchise of a housewife, those usually are not our customers. We don’t have really broad appeal, however the those that we appeal to, it means a lot to them.”

Smilovic has expanded the basics line, or “Without Fails,” as she calls the gathering of tube tops, jeans, cashmere cocoon sweaters and more, and encouraged experimentation.

“People would write me and say, ‘I’ve been wearing this for some time, how do I feel latest?’” Smilovic said. “And I’m like, oh, do that ring on with it, or take the waistband and switch it under. It’s not about going out and buying something latest each time, it truly is about taking what you already own and manipulating it otherwise. In order that whenever you do buy something latest, it’s very thoughtful and also you understand where it’s filling a necessity in your closet.”

After all, a purchase order is perhaps purely emotional, too. “I get that and I really like fashion, however it’s really giving people the boldness that we don’t need to sell people tons of an item.”

Shoes, including the stretchy Leo bootie and fuzzy faux fur Lola high boot, are a growing category, increasing 124 percent in volume year-over-year, in comparison with 68 percent in ready-to-wear. But Smilovic is resisting the thought she must be in every category.

“I don’t need to be within the business of ironic funny T-shirts,” she laughed, declaring the “Frosty’s” shirt she’s wearing along with her own blazer and jeans is from a restaurant near where she’s from in Georgia. “Not everyone has to love what you’re wearing, but what you’re wearing should offer you a sense,” she opined.

She has 117 wholesale accounts, including plenty of multibrand stores reminiscent of McMullen, Kick Pleat and Hampden Clothing within the U.S., in addition to her own SoHo boutique that opened in 2005.

“Amy has created a group that empowers women to play with proportions and challenged our clients to rethink traditional staples of their wardrobe,” said Hampden founder Stacy Smallwood. “Clients of all ages search out the brand for its forward twist on pieces that also function of their on a regular basis lives.”

Smilovic desires to open up latest markets internationally, taking her “Style Class” seminars on the road, with one scheduled in Paris at Printemps on Oct. 2.

“Milan and Florence are two of my top five cities on Instagram. I actually have over 40,000 followers from Italy, and I only sell in a single store,” she said speaking in regards to the Europe potential.

She doesn’t want any more of her own stores within the immediate future, but is toying with the thought of pop-ups, following a successful temporary Tibi fit shop on Melrose Avenue in Los Angeles, where customers could try sizes and place orders. She might also start curating like-minded brands on her website, whether or not they be fashion brands or something else.

All of it’s energizing her for the subsequent 25 years.

“There may be nothing that would have happened here without my husband, Frank,” she said of her partner and chief executive officer, who also has a background in marketing. “Luckily, we get along great. I even have Elaine and one of the best team. Twenty-five years later though, I still can’t imagine it. If we hadn’t pivoted in 2020, I believe we’d have been toast.”