With over a quarter of a century at the helm of Tibi, her self-founded brand, Amy Smilovic is no stranger to the sartorial successes and struggles of ever-evolving personal style. It is the very approach to building a mindset brand that upends how fashion can be deliberated and discussed. Creative Pragmatism is the philosophy, and the Creative Pragmatist is the individual: curious and modern yet grounded and balanced. Challenging the existing categories of fashion and the prevailing wisdom that style and looking good are one and the same, Smilovic has defined the grey area for people who never felt at home in the highly prescribed segmentations dictated by industry norms and the media. Individuals who buy into this ethos interestingly apply Creative Pragmatism not only to their style choices, but to their everyday lives.

Are you born with style? Or can it be learned? To answer the latter, yes. The definitive tome for the ideation, cultivation and execution of individual style, the Creative Pragmatist is an all-encompassing manual that teaches us why the balance of modernity and functionality is critical to personal style development and how to achieve it. If you’ve ever questioned why different items in your closet make you feel not yourself, consider this book your unsung hero. Underscored by her own illustrations, Smilovic creates for a visual and written educational experience chock full of guiding principles to achieve a sartorial narrative completely your own.