Tibi Italian Sporty Nylon Tie Skirt

The hem is normally the one fixed thing about a skirt. Everything else can be adjusted, taken in, or worn differently, but the hem is where the drafting stops and the decision is final. Here it is not. A tie runs along it, and where you set it decides the silhouette: drawn in, the hem gathers and the skirt closes into a rounded shape that curves back toward the leg; left loose, the same skirt falls straight and reads as a column. That is a bigger change than an adjustment at the waist would be, because the waist only alters the fit while the hem alters the line, and the line is what anyone actually sees.

The cloth is what makes it possible. A light Italian technical woven is smooth-faced, stable, and tightly constructed, which means it holds a gather open instead of letting it droop, and it returns to straight when the tie is released rather than keeping the memory of the gather. A softer fabric would do one of those two things and not the other. It is also worth being plain about what this cloth is: one hundred percent polyester, whatever the product name says, and it is a genuinely good polyester rather than a compromise.

Adjustable clothing usually means clothing that has not decided. This skirt has decided twice and lets you pick which decision applies today, which is the same quality that made us take the Nylon Zipper Trouser and the two convertible bottoms. It is also light enough to wear through a Santa Fe summer, which most skirts with any shape to them are not.

One hundred percent polyester, in an Italian sporty technical woven. Made in China. Black. Adjustable tie detail at the hem.

Sits at the waist and falls straight, with the hem tie setting the shape below. A technical woven of this kind has no give at all, so the waist is the fit decision and there is nothing else to negotiate. Drawn in at the hem it reads shorter and fuller; left loose it reads longer and cleaner, so the same skirt occupies two different places in an outfit.

With the Pebble Sable Square Neck Cross Back Tank tucked and the hem loose, which is the plain version. With the Sculpted Cotton Long Sleeve Top and the hem drawn in, structure over curve. Under the Cavalier Twill Shrunken Blazer, where the cropped jacket over the gathered hem is the whole proportion.

Polyester washes easily and hates heat, which glazes the surface and will set a gather permanently in whatever shape it was in when it went in. Wash cool, hang to dry, no dryer, and leave the hem alone with an iron. Our care guidance covers polyester and technical cloth, and it has a word on Italian cloth.

The same Italian technical woven cut as a short is the Italian Sporty Nylon Bubble Short. For a skirt with a held shape rather than an adjustable one, the Nylon Lantern Skirt. The Tibi designer page has the house’s own account of itself. Everything we currently hold from Tibi is listed together.