Fashion label goes from Down Under to the top

Australian brand Zimmermann, which started as a stall in Paddington Markets, is now a mini empire with its first South-east Asian store in Singapore

- Carmen Sin

Zimmermann sisters Simone (far left) and Nicky (left) co-founded their namesake brand and turned it into a global success.

A woman walks into a Zimmermann store and finds no dress to her fancy. To co-founder Simone Zimmermann of said Australian brand, the scenario is as improbable, and comedic, as most of the jokes set up this way.

Allowing herself a chuckle, she says: “If you can’t find a dress in our stores, you've got to be searching for something very particular.”

The chief operating officer of the billion-dollar fashion label — Australia’s first — is the older sister of the brand’s creative director and co-founder Nicky Zimmermann, whose high femme sensibility is Zimmermann’s calling card.

Its signature dresses are often flowy and flouncy, ruffled, tiered or tulle-skirted, with interjections of monocolour numbers that break up the frou frou.

On Dec 9, Zimmermann opened its first Southeast Asian boutique at Paragon in Orchard Road.

The seemingly belated launch, some 35 years after its founding in Sydney and 15 since its entry into the United States, had been in the pipeline since before the Covid-19 pandemic.

Says Simone in a video call with The Straits Times: “Singapore is a natural city for us. It’s a global, cosmopolitan place. There’s an expat population from many places in the world, some Australian but also from Europe and the US.

“We were excited when things lined up because it was an aspiration to open there.”

There was evidence that Zimmermann women were in abundance here too. The brand's online store and homegrown retailer Club21 have been supplying a loyal local fan base for years with its dreamy, adult aesthetic. Pants are frequently flared, corsetry recurs and prints are fresco-like.

Simone draws a vivid portrait of the clientele: A woman who embraces her femininity, enjoys dressing for occasions and is a seasoned vacationer.