Tibi Spring 2013: When Prints Go Missing

By Bonnie Datt Sep 9, 2012, 6:00pm EDT

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Last February, Tibi designer Amy Smilovic departed from her bold signature prints and feminine styles and replaced them with a catwalk primarily filled with boxy, masculine solids. That Fall 2012 collection, however, did include one bold print—black birds on a white background—which showed up in a few pieces. Judging by the attendance at the Tibi Spring 2013 show last night, Smilovic's customers still really want her prints—we were surrounded by women wearing that bird print blouse. In fact, we've never seen so many audience members wearing the same garment at a show before. The first couple of times we saw someone wearing it, it really grabbed us, the next 7,846, not so much...

Smilovic clearly didn't have print on the brain when she designed this collection, though. Yesterday's included just one: a bold pink, beige, and white print that showed up in many pieces. The only other pattern-esque looks in the collection were made via the designer's use of overlaid lace (a theme that's also appearing in her capsule for eBay this November) All the other pieces were done in solids, including some interesting color blocked skirts and trousers.

And Tibi does great trousers. Menswear influenced fitted hip hugging ones. The jackets in the collection, however, tended to veer back towards boxy again, and bulky faded denim vest veered a bit more Chico's than Tibi. But a couple of feminine hourglass shaped dresses with full skirts more than made up for it. See the collection in the gallery below.