Nicky Zimmermann looked back to her time in design school in Sydney in the ‘80s and the films that made an impact on her and her classmates, such as “Pretty in Pink,” “The Breakfast Club” and “St. Elmo’s Fire,” for inspiration for her resort collection.
“It was very much about that era and what those films meant to me,” Zimmermann said. “It was also about the music and when [the actors] weren’t in the films. These guys also had such incredible, iconic style and to me it’s timeless. The ‘80s can be sort of a polarizing fashion era, but to me, it was more about the mood of these films and these actresses and their personalities — like they had really strong personalities — they all had individual style, and it was a very strong influence on myself.”
The designer’s prints stood out, balancing the nostalgic with the present day. There was the “dear diary” print, which gave a nod to the past with an array of motifs like cassettes, lockets, lipsticks and dove birds. The print was seen on sheer fabrics and superimposed on lace details, giving a whimsical and light feel that balanced out the more structured styles.
“The lace print is really just the idea of taking units and an iconic texture of the ’80s and trying to reinterpret it through art in a very modern way,” Zimmermann said. “Also the florals, we could have approached it and just sort of gone down the line of doing a take on a Laura Ashley type of printing — which was the classic kind of Molly Ringwald print — but what we did is we worked with our artists and I wanted to do very a soft, unusual [print] — something that we would call dirty pastels.”
Zimmermann juxtaposed the airier feminine styles with heavier materials like denim and leather and constructed silhouettes, including biker and jean jackets, that she said gave a nod to the male protagonists in the films.
Her spin on ‘80s fashion trends combined with her skill in craft and design details made for a strong resort 2025 collection with myriad pieces fit for her go-to customer.