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Zimmermann is always on the move.
The Australian-born brand has long had international ambitions, since its 2012 SoHo, New York, opening. Since, it’s been on a steady path to establish itself not just as an Australian export, but as an international brand — with strong Aussie roots — starting with its first and largest market, the US. Zimmermann may have traded New York Fashion Week for Paris Fashion Week in 2022, but when it comes to sales, the brand shows no sign of slowing down in its home away from home. Right now, the brand’s primary focus is bricks-and-mortar retail.
“Our new boutique openings are a specific focus for the US over the next year where we see significant opportunities for growth,” says CEO Chris Olliver. “We have seven new boutiques scheduled to open through the end of fiscal year 2025.” For this period, Zimmermann is forecasting 15 per cent growth in the US, he says. The plan is to up this to closer to 20 per cent in fiscal 2026.
The physical-retail turbocharge is powered by last year’s majority stake sale to private equity firm Advent, the primary focus of which was expansion. It valued the brand at over $1 billion — Australia’s first billion-dollar label. One year in, Zimmermann is making good on its promise to expand in new and existing markets.
Part of realising these goals is finding the right retail spaces to reflect its ambitions. Twelve years after opening its first New York store on Mercer Street — and moving to a bigger space down the road one year later — the brand is relocating once more: to 39 Greene Street.
“39 Greene Street is a very iconic building, it’s very quintessential New York,” says COO and co-founder Simone Zimmermann, who founded the brand with her sister Nicky in 1991. “It has dimensions and volumes of space that really allow us to continue to have a store experience for our clients that is bespoke to a place.”
This week’s SoHo opening is the latest in a line of new Zimmermann stores. When we speak, Zimmermann is fresh off the plane from a weekend in Saint Barths, celebrating the brand’s latest outpost there. Earlier this year, its first Middle East boutique opened in Dubai (now the brand’s number one store). In Europe, Zurich, Munich and Venice are in the works.
As the brand’s biggest and most mature market, the US is a key focus. It already makes up 35 per cent of Zimmermann’s sales. (Australia, for comparison, currently makes up 25 per cent.) “America is a really important market for us,” Zimmermann says. “We’ve been very successful there and have a lot of loyal customers.” Now, it’s about bringing these customers physical spaces to better introduce the Zimmermann world.
“America is like different countries,” Zimmermann says. “Each region differs in what products work.” To date, there are 27 stores in the region, with many more to come. (There are four more US openings slated for this year: San José, San Diego, Las Vegas and Austin.) The brand has hit the major hubs outside of New York and Los Angeles, she says — now, it’s going deeper. “We’re having fun finding locations that have a whole new ecosystem. We’re in Naples, Florida. I didn’t even know where that was,” she says. “There’s so much opportunity still without getting to a point where we’re overexposed.”
The team is continuously looking for new and better spaces, whether in new cities or in those with existing stores; it makes up a large part of each regional president’s role, says Zimmermann. “A big part of the role in the US is to look for new locations, and to look for either cities that we aren’t in, or places that we’re in that we could be in a better space. Same in Europe and Asia,” she says.
Part of the key to success is not just showing up, but showing up right. “What is most extraordinary about Zimmermann is the way it has managed to provide a quite unique ‘look and feel’ to its products and stores,” says Luca Solca, senior analyst of luxury goods at consultancy Bernstein. “This is a rare occurrence in the world of fashion — especially in the mid-price category — where brands tend to have a limited ability to stand out from the crowd.”
Aussie Aussie Aussie
The brand’s stores pop up at pace, but what grounds them is an Australian thread, mixed with the DNA of wherever they may be setting up shop. “From a design point of view, [interior design agency] Studio McQualter are always really great at pulling in elements of the locations that we’re building stores in, whether that’s in Florence or Shanghai,” says Zimmermann. It’s not about literal connections but design elements — whether a painting, shape or colour — that link back to both where the space is and where the sisters are from.
Zimmermann’s newest SoHo spot, for instance, looks straight out of a recently renovated New York brownstone — block colours, mod chairs, colourful carpets, all beautifully lit thanks to the glasshouse-like windows. A painting by Australian artist James Drinkwater sits atop a shelf not lined with books, but shoes. Look to Zimmermann’s newly opened Saint Barths outpost, by contrast, and you’ll gauge an entirely different feel: sage green scalloped awnings line the windows; the ceiling is made up of beachy wooden panels; the floor tiled. The decor evokes a (very chic) beach hut. Throughout the boutique, art by Australian painters Emily Ferretti, Stephen Bird and Natalie Bloom line the walls.
Not everyone knows the brand is Australian anymore, Zimmermann says. Once upon a time, the brand was known as an Aussie export. But now, with 48 international stores, offices in New York, Paris and soon the Middle East, and a slot on the Paris schedule, newer customers aren’t always aware. “Being from Australia is so quintessential to Nicky’s design aesthetic, but there are so many people that walk past the brand, or are a new customer, that learn that we’re from Australia. And it always seems to make sense [to them], which is a really important thing for us.”
The bulk of Zimmermann sales associates are also Australian, I point out. “Yeah… that’s not exactly a coincidence,” Zimmermann says, smiling. “From a front line point of view, it’s authentic in terms of having Australian teams in stores,” she says of why the brand intentionally hires lots of Aussies. Some are Australian expats already working abroad, others move countries with the Zimmermann brand. It’s good for both the brand and Australian talent, she says. “Obviously there’s a commercial aspect that works really well. But it’s also a really great thing for us to be able to have that feeling of nurturing talent, nurturing Australians and giving them an opportunity, when they want to, to work anywhere.”
Bigger backing, bigger plans
The Advent investment is helping the brand scale further, including international expansion and product-category growth. For Zimmermann, the focus on physical retail is key: “It’s a way that we really feel strongly about in terms of building our clients.” Off of the Dubai opening, the Middle East is a growing focus, with four more stores and a regional HQ on the way. As is China, with two spaces currently in the works to add to the brand’s two existing Chinese outposts.
The investment is also going into product development. Accessories is a category that the brand has long dabbled in, but never emphasised, Zimmermann says. Now, it’s shifting gears. “We’re really applying a lot of energy to it,” she says of the brand’s handbags and footwear, the latter of which is already witnessing growth. Other categories like outerwear and denim are also rising in importance as Zimmermann moves into cities that are less coast-focused, she notes.
Despite the growth turbocharge, on the ground, nothing’s changed since the investment, Zimmermann insists. “Having Advent as partners, there’s definitely expertise that we can draw on when we need it,” she says. “But other than that, the day to day of the business doesn’t change. Nothing changes for our teams. It’s irrelevant from that point of view.”
As for Zimmermann’s next stage, though, it’s anything but. “It’s obviously important in terms of the size of the investment, the level of the investment and the goals that we have to grow up.”
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