The vocation for fashion almost always flourishes in childhood. Simone Zimmermann remembers it well. “My mother Emma used to do elaborate outfits for a night out with her sister. They had different styles but they helped build them and they had a great time. They spent hours putting together five looks and then choosing one of them. I vividly remember the shoes, the jewellery”, explains the businesswoman in the fitting room of the Zimmermann store on Passeig de Gràcia. Barcelona is the latest conquest of this Australian firm. He just sold a majority stake to Advent. A billion-dollar agreement that will allow them to expand and rise in the international market.
The balance between art and business is crucial to succeed in an overcrowded industry. It is for this reason that the duo of Nicki and Simone is perfect. While the former, creative and with her brown hair up, designs her lines, Simone, with her blonde hair blowing in the wind and her acumen for figures, swells the presence of the Australian brand in the world.
“Barcelona is beautiful. As in London and Paris, people from all over come here for its art and culture”, comments Simone, who last summer enjoyed the Mediterranean coast and got to know the spirit of its women: “They look for unique, sensual designs, they appreciate the detail in the pieces, enjoying and dressing for it, exactly what we seek to convey”, he says.
Despite the fact that the advice they gave her was “never start a business with the family”, not following it has given her a very special relationship with her sister. “Nicki is very talented and through working together we have been able to share wonderful adventures, travels and a unique relationship,” she says.
Humble, jovial but with a furnished head Simone is one of those people who exudes vitality. It is impossible not to see the essence of it in the lines of the signature. For her, the character of the brand lies in “optimism, femininity, and self-confidence and above all in embracing life with strength.”
