TONY SMITH
Tony Smith is a CFDA award-winning Creative Director, brand strategist, entrepreneur and educator whose career has been
defined by building distinctive fashion identities and reimagining established American brands.
Working across menswear, womenswear, and lifestyle, his approach brings together creative vision, product
development, merchandising, and storytelling. His work reflects a belief that successful brands are built through a
clear point of view—one that connects design, craftsmanship, culture, and the customer.
His first encounters with creativity came through his father’s advertising agency, where hours spent in the studio sparked a lasting fascination with image, narrative, and design. While studying Fine Arts at Parsons School of Design, he immersed himself in fashion retail, an early hands-on experience that laid the groundwork for his dual love of art and clothing.
At just 22, Smith launched his first label and retail concept, THESMITHS. As founder and Creative Director of THESMITHS, Tony developed an independent fashion and lifestyle brand that brought together original collections, a distinctive retail environment, and a highly personal approach to merchandising. With stores in New York and the Hamptons, THESMITHS established a cohesive brand identity across product, presentation, and customer experience. The brand developed a loyal following among artists, actors, and cultural figures, including Cindy Sherman, Christy Turlington, Ellen DeGeneres, Kevin Kline, Ron Gorchov, Gene Pressman, Herb Ritts, and Mickey Drexler.
Drexler subsequently recruited Smith to join Banana Republic as Head of Men’s Design, where he helped evolve the brand toward a complete lifestyle vision. Soon after, Smith re-launched his own women’s ready-to-wear collection, picked up by top retailers including Barneys, Bergdorf Goodman, Nordstrom, and Henri Bendel.
Smith’s collaborative spirit led him to merge his design ethos with Billy Reid, serving as President & Creative Director. He built and led the design team, established the brand’s creative identity, and helped guide Billy Reid to its first CFDA Perry Ellis Award for Menswear in 2001. Establishing Reid as a major American voice in menswear.
His career continued through leadership roles at Club Monaco, where he directed men’s design, and IC Isaacs, a denim-focused licensing house where he worked with Catherine Malandrino and Marithé + François Girbaud. Partnering with Liz Claiborne and Isaac Mizrahi, he helped translate Mizrahi’s vision into a collection distributed worldwide through leading retailers.
In 2010, Smith became Creative Director of SHAE, a contemporary knitwear label where he combined his design sensibility with an early commitment to sustainable practices. He introduced circular up-cycling, renewable fibers, and full-cycle traceability, long before these practices became industry standards.
Smith founded his consultancy TONY SMITH CONSULTING. Through Tony Smith Consulting, Smith works with established and emerging fashion and lifestyle businesses on creative direction, brand positioning, collection development, and product strategy. His current work includes advising Plain Goods, an American lifestyle brand grounded in craftsmanship, utility, and enduring design. His approach focuses on understanding what makes a brand distinctive and developing that identity or contemporary customers.
Alongside his consulting practice, Tony teaches at Kent State University’s New York City campus, working with
emerging designers on creative development, sustainability, digital innovation, and the relationship between design
and the marketplace. His work continues to explore the intersection of heritage and modernity, with a particular interest in how brands can evolve while preserving the qualities that make them meaningful.