As the prelude to this show on the penultimate day of PFW, we heard a recording of Lana Del Rey reading a wistful poem about lost love that she wrote in 2019: “In Zimmermann with sandals on one / Summer dress to choose….” And there she was in the front row, now a so-called friend of the house, taking in the myriad summer dresses that oozed blurry watercolor florals and billowed with breezy organza volumes. Would she choose one of the strapless, A-line styles in lace with braiding around the décolleté or one of the dresses that bounced with every step? Perhaps one of the flattering, sportier styles in solid color with the neo empire waist or the draped gown in teal cut seductively low along the back?
The beauty of this collection, titled Kindred Spirit, is that Del Rey—any of us, for that matter—might not have selected a dress at all but rather a pair of mocha leather overalls that appeared unzipped over a bodysuit or a coordinated dark-denim ensemble, the bell-bottom jeans matching a bell-sleeve jacket. Harem pants and a blousy halter top is just one example of a jet-set look that could live in a wardrobe for years.
Before the show, Nicky Zimmermann explained that the original idea was more grounded than high-flying. She was inspired by photos of Australian artists based around the Sydney suburb of Lavender Bay in the 1970s. They weren’t so much bohemian as a group of like-minded people riding the collaborative vibe.
“What I loved in the photos was the energy and the fun and that they were having a great time,” she said. “They were working and living but also really playing. It was a pretty conservative time in Australia, and they just created their own environment.”
To then be worthy of the runway, and real life beyond, the design teams in Paris and Sydney leveled up the workmanship and wealth signaling—especially now that Zimmermann is on an international-expansion tear, with new stores planned for Venice, Hamburg, Bangkok, and Vienna, among other cities. It’s easy to see how women across markets develop loyalty for a brand that is sensitive to making them look and feel good; call it the Zimmermann secret sauce. Leave the poetic writing to Del Rey; Nicky Zimmermann gave every indication today that you can’t have kindred without kind.
