Tibi’s Resort 2027 adds playful color to coastal grandmother staples

Amy Smilovic is doing what good designers do when a look starts to harden into cliché: she’s testing the edges without breaking the spell. Tibi’s Resort 2027 takes the practical, polished DNA the brand built its name on and gives it a brighter pulse, turning coastal-grandmother ease into something more opinionated, more modular, and way less precious.

Tibi’s whole thing is practical, but never boring

Tibi was founded in 1997 by Amy Smilovic, and the brand still leans on the phrase she coined for it, “Creative Pragmatism.” That is not marketing fluff. It is the operating system: expressive clothes that still behave in real life, with a chill, modern, classic sensibility that keeps the edges soft but the point of view clear.

Smilovic has been blunt about the brand’s identity from the start. She coined “creative pragmatism” because she never fit neatly into one category, and that tension is exactly what gives Tibi its bite. Resort season is where she says the brand really “double down hard on who we are,” and this collection makes that feel true instead of slogan-y.

Coastal grandmother gets a much needed upgrade

The coastal-grandmother code has been clear since it hit the culture in 2022: linen button-downs, roomy white jeans, chambray shirts, oversized totes, sun hats, easy sandals. It is Nancy Meyers energy with a wardrobe attached, the sort of thing that sits comfortably on Diane Keaton, Meryl Streep, Jane Fonda, Lily Tomlin, Diane Lane, Martha Stewart, or Ina Garten, depending on how literal you want to get about the fantasy.

Tibi understands that appeal better than most because it already lives in the same visual neighborhood. The brand’s polish, utility, and restraint map neatly onto that breezy, beach-adjacent vocabulary. But Resort 2027 refuses to stop at clean neutrals and sensible layers. It keeps the ease and adds color, wit, and just enough oddity to make the look feel current instead of costume-like.

The pieces that make pragmatism feel playful

The strongest clothes in the collection are the ones that make you look twice. A flannel anorak hides a modular belt in its pocket, which is such a Tibi move it almost feels like a joke, except it is also genuinely useful. Then there is the weatherproof trench with belt loops at both the waist and hip, a detail that makes the coat feel adjustable and lived-in rather than stiffly “tailored.”

That is where this collection gets interesting for anyone who loves the coastal-grandmother uniform but wants more personality from it. The silhouettes are still wearable and protective, but the styling gets more charged through candy-colored nylon peplums layered over tees and skirts. It is a smarter kind of whimsy: not ruffles for the sake of softness, but a little pop of shape and color dropped onto pieces that would otherwise read as familiar.

WWD described the collection as Tibi’s brand codes turned up a notch, and that is exactly right. The color comes through as part of the structure, not a separate decoration. You can see why this feels like a step beyond basic seaside polish: it is the same practical wardrobe language, just spoken with more confidence.

Color is doing more work than usual

The palette matters here because it stops the collection from settling into beige nostalgia. Smilovic said the color story came from a customer DM that led her to Milton Avery’s work, which is the kind of accidental-culture-to-runway pipeline that feels very now. It is also a reminder that Tibi’s customer is not just buying clothes, she is steering the conversation.

The result is strong combinations pulled from the Tibi Color Wheel, with enough saturation to feel alive but not so much that the clothes lose their balance. That is the sweet spot. Coastal grandmother can get sleepy fast if it is trapped inside a wall of sand, shell, and ecru. Tibi’s version keeps the sandy ease, then snaps it awake with sharper color relationships that make the wardrobe feel more personal.

Why the business story matters as much as the clothes

There is a reason this evolution feels deliberate instead of desperate. Smilovic said in 2024 that direct sales make up a majority of Tibi’s business, and that kind of control changes everything. It means the brand can speak directly to the customer it knows best, without diluting itself to chase everyone else.

That independence also explains why Tibi chose to stop doing a fall 2024 runway show. It is a clean signal: the brand is not trying to perform for the calendar or pad out the season with filler. It wants the right clothes, the right timing, and the right point of view. In that context, Resort 2027 is less about spectacle than precision, which is exactly why it lands.

How to read the look now

If coastal grandmother once meant easy linen and polite understatement, Tibi is showing how to make it more dimensional. The formula is still there: practical layers, breathable fabrics, clothes that can move from city to shore without changing identity. But the update is in the attitude, with modular details, smarter color, and silhouettes that carry a little more personality.

That is the real shift. Tibi is not abandoning the customer who wants polish and utility. It is giving her a wardrobe that can still do the practical job, while looking a little sharper, a little stranger, and a lot more alive.