PARIS – Sydney style is landing in Paris once again, with Australian brand Zimmermann opening its second location in the city, this time on Rue du Fabourg Saint-Honoré.
The new boutique from the popular Australian brand founded by sisters Nicky and Simone Zimmermann is an expansive space of 3,100 square feet just steps from the brand’s European headquarters. Nicky serves as creative director while Simone is chief operating officer of the brand.
“Paris is such a key market for all luxury and designer brands. It’s also where our European headquarters are based with our second design studio located here,” said Simone Zimmermann. They also operate offices in Sydney and New York. “The fact that we show our collections here twice a year has also cemented our connection to Paris and its importance to our business.”
The brand opened a design studio in Paris a little over a year ago.
“We’ve been building a really great team to work in synergy with our existing design studio in Sydney and with a focus on our shoe and accessories collections. It adds a new dimension to our creative process and I’m really enjoying it,” said Nicky Zimmermann.
The latest opening comes in the midst of the brand’s big international push. It now has 58 stand-alone stores across Australia, the U.S., U.K., Europe and China.
The company sold a majority stake to private equity firm Advent back in August.
Recent openings have been in Rome, Palm Beach, Miami and Honolulu. The second Paris boutique is also the brand’s fourth in France, after Rue Francois 1er in Paris, Saint-Tropez and Cannes, which opened in 2021. The expansion will continue apace.
“We have quite a bit of retail momentum planned for 2024,” said Simone Zimmermann, listing off a roster of planned openings, including Monaco, Ibiza, Venice and Munich, Germany. “Our first store openings in the Middle East will also kick off in Dubai,” she added.
The design duo will officially celebrate the opening with a dinner featuring a menu curated by French-Australian chef Guillaume Brahimi on Wednesday night.
Bathed in creams and white with Palladiana marble flooring, the interior was envisioned to bring in light with pops of color seen in forest green armchairs, vases and sprigs of eucalyptus, or yellow Jim Thompson curtains.
Nicky Zimmermann calls the airy space “optimistic.” It combines Art Deco, modern and midcentury furnishings.
Daniel Elm and Bauhaus armchairs offer seating in different areas, while Phillippe Barbier table lamps and an Akari floor lamp also feature, alongside a vintage ’50s Italian chandelier. The eclectic eras also pull in a wood and glass table from Nerone Y Patuzzi from the ’70s.
Fitting rooms enclosed by a striped silk fabric and tented ceilings line the space.
On the second floor, the collections are separated by a red vintage Chinese coromandel screen which has been converted into a large wardrobe.
The interiors were overseen by the Sydney-based architecture firm Studio McQualter, which has been the brand’s long-term design partner for its many global outposts.
“We collaborate closely with our store designers, Australia-based Studio McQualter, on all aspects of store fit-outs. They assist us in curating the art in our stores; we tend to lean into a mix of Australian and international artists. An artwork we’re excited about is the Sgraffito mural by artist Alasdair McLuckie,” said Nicky Zimmermann.
To make the piece, the process includes carving the plaster to create a pattern that reveals colors underneath. The art is visible at the entrance, as well as from the second floor. The mural was commissioned by McLuckie and crafted in white and blue Sgraffito by Barcelona-based firm Estucs Oriol Garcia, the historical house famed for its traditional lime stuccos.
“It’s a real central piece of the store experience,” she added.
Other works include modernist vases from Nelly Yassef and Herman Kahler, as well as paintings by Australian artist Troy Emery.
The boutique will open with the Fall 2023, Resort and Swim 2024 collections. Zimmermann has been presenting its runway show in Paris, most recently its Spring 2024 collection back in October.
