Nicky Zimmermann

The Sydney fashion label Zimmermann was founded in 1991 by the Australian designer Nicky Zimmermann and her sister Simone. The business began with clothes she designed in her parents' garage and sold at Paddington Markets, and its swimwear became one of the main lines of a label that now shows in Paris.

Paddington Markets and a first shop in 1992

Paddington Markets, held on Saturdays in the grounds of a church on Oxford Street in Sydney's eastern suburbs, gave a generation of Australian designers their first customers. Nicky Zimmermann sold her early pieces there, which let her watch at first hand how women reacted to the clothes. Simone joined the business, the label was formally founded in 1991, and a first shop opened in 1992.

Earlier versions of this page said the sisters started with swimwear made in their flat. The label's recorded history puts it the other way round. It began with clothing, and in the following years extended into swim separates, then children's wear and accessories.

Swim separates inside a ready-to-wear label

That order explains the swimwear. It is designed by the same team as the dresses and sold in the same collections, so a bikini and a sundress from one season share prints and details. In construction the tops draw on lingerie as much as on sportswear: structured shapes close to a balconette bra sit beside plain triangles, with bikini bottoms cut at several heights. Swim and Resort are still listed as distinct lines next to Ready-to-Wear, Kids and Accessories.

Nicky Zimmermann and the move north

The label opened its web shop in 2008. In 2011 it began trading in the United States and moved to the Northern Hemisphere calendar, so its summer collections arrived in New York in June. It presents ready-to-wear at New York Fashion Week and made its Paris Fashion Week debut in 2022. It now runs about 56 stores in Australia, the United States and the United Kingdom.

Outside money came in stages. General Atlantic bought a minority stake in March 2016. In December 2020 the Italian investor Style Capital acquired 70 percent, with the family keeping the rest, and in August 2023 Advent International took a majority stake in a deal that valued the company at about A$1.5 to 1.75 billion.

Industry roles

Beyond the label, Nicky Zimmermann has sat on the advisory board of Australian Fashion Week and was a founding board member of the Australian Fashion Chamber. Those roles put her among the designers who shaped how Australian fashion presents itself abroad. Zimmermann itself kept a decorative, print-led look rather than the surf image much Australian beachwear trades on, and that choice is what carried a market-stall label to a Paris show schedule.

Last updated October 7, 2026