Designer Amy Smilovic wrote the book on style. Literally: It’s called The Creative Pragmatist and it is a veritable manual on how to flesh out and express your personal style. The original tome, a collector’s item of which only 3,000 copies were produced, quickly sold out and has been impossible to find on resale sites. “No one’s letting go of it,” says the Tibi founder/creative director. Now she is giving everyone a chance to get her hands on her sartorial wisdom with a second edition of the book, this time in paperback. It is chock-full of practical takeaways to help you elevate your look, as well as solutions to some common fashion conundrums. We recently met up with the designer during her stop at Montreal’s meticulously curated Maison 4410, which carries her line in stores and online. Looking like the definition of “effortlessly chic” in loose jeans, an oversized ruffled button-down and flat sandals, Smilovic sat down with ELLE Canada to share some of her very best spring style tips—but you’ll want to follow them all year long. Trust us: The way you get dressed is about to change forever.

According to Smilovic, the thing most people are missing in their wardrobe are odd colours—shades you can’t quite describe. She calls them “ishes,” as in brownish, greenish, yellowish or purplish. “Most people have black and then they have neutrals like white, navy and tan. And then they tend to feel like their closet is too grounded and neutral, so then they bring in brights, like red, blue or yellow. But if you focus on the way colour makes you feel, you realize that when you had all the neutrals in your closet, you were feeling classic a lot of the time. Then when you brought in the brights, you were feeling a little sharp and bold. But you don’t have things in your closet to make you just feel chill and cool.” That’s where the “ishes” come in. Adding in a hue that’s not so saturated and feels a bit off is the secret to looking more interesting and effortless, says the designer. “Weird browns, strange greens or odd-coloured yellows kind of soften a bright or they give dimension to a neutral,” she explains. When someone’s outfit has that “je ne sais quoi,” it’s usually because they put in a weird colour. They’re not just black and white or black and red.” 

The idea of finding out what “season” you are to decipher which colours best suit you has become über-popular online, much to Smilovic’s dismay. “If you like the colour, wear the colour!” she says. It’s as simple as at! And if you really feel like a particular hue, like a “weird green” for instance, washes you out, consider wearing it away from your face. You can tie a “weird green” sweater around your waist, says Smilovic, or carry a “weird green” bag or slip on a pair of “weird green” tights. And if you really want to wear it against your skin, there’s always blush or self-tanner, says the expert.

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Much like rules about wearing colours that suit you, Smilovic isn’t a fan of selecting silhouettes based on one’s body type. “So many women have been conditioned to think about clothing in terms of what flatters their body and I just think it’s a terrible way to think about getting dressed,” she says. “It’s not remotely a consideration when I’m getting dressed. It’s really about things that feel interesting, that give dimension or irony. It’s a whole package.” Rather than placing so much importance on body types, she believes we should pay more attention to personality types instead. “I have so many [clients who are] larger women and don’t want to be in fitted dresses. They’re like, ‘Just because I have curves, I’m supposed to dress like a Kardashian? Can’t I just be chill and effortless?’”

“Before building up or paring back your closet too much, do your homework first and figure out who you are,” says Smilovic. The key, she stresses, is paying attention to how certain clothes make you feel. “All of us go through those times where you bought the outfit that you thought was going to make you feel incredible and it looked great on all your friends and then you put it on and got a million compliments, but you didn’t feel like yourself.” It goes to show that the goal when putting an outfit together shouldn’t be attracting compliments on your handbag or shoes or jeans because that means “people are seeing things instead of seeing you.” Instead, the aim should be to feel totally like yourself. Look back at the times you felt truly great and you’ll start to see a very clear throughline emerge, says the pro. That is your personal style. 

It’s not that trends are a bad thing—Smilovic for one says she loves things that are new and interesting—it’s that you need to be able to distinguish the ones that feel authentic to you from the ones that might be best admired from afar. “If I want to try something very extreme from, like, Margiela or Balenciaga or something, I’ll pair it with things from my closet like my jeans and my shirt that I always wear, and then it becomes me and not Balenciaga. I navigate trends by seeing if I can filter a piece into my wardrobe. If I can’t, I would never buy.” Again, it’s about really knowing yourself and asking yourself if you want something simply because you keep seeing it everywhere or because you really like it. “It has to either really work with my wardrobe or it has to have some special meaning to me,” says Smilovic.