ZIMMERMANN DAY2

ZIMMERMANN        

Images sourced from Vogue

http://www.vogue.com.au/

Clique Clique was the name Nicky Zimmermann gave her latest collection. The big white show space full of mirrored panels reflecting floods of light was more click, click, as in “Girls on Film”.

Still, you kinda got where Nicky was coming from when she talked about cliques of renegade girls, chockfull of attitude. Maybe it wasn’t immediately obvious with the clothes so floral and floaty (on the surface at least) and the models looking so pretty in their rag-tied hair and dewy make-up, but a sideways glance revealed the harder edge: splatter prints, biker zips, a corrugated metallic dress. 

It was Zimmermann’s peculiar genius to create something that was simultaneously enchanting and ever so slightly intimidating. There was a kind of defiance in such unabashed prettiness, especially when it was cut with an ironic undertow of violence (those splatters!). Rather obliquely, Nicky said she’d been inspired by a mid-70s photo of President Ford’s daughter Susan in jeans and a tee hosing down her Mustang in the forecourt of the White House.  Such a casual gesture against such a politically charged backdrop – who would ever have imagined a designer famous for swimsuits could invoke such a loaded reference?  

But Zimmermann has already proved itself to be about much more than swimwear. After the show, Nicky herself acknowledged she’s gone about as far as she can go with her signature category. There were bikinis here (tankinis, even) whose ingenuity and engineering would shame the eveningwear of lesser designers. More promisingly for Nicky’s future in design, there were also artfully patchworked floral dresses, elaborately handworked perforated pieces, tech crochet like seaweed. The pastel sweetness of an empire-lined lace dress was innocent, rather than sugary, mainly because you knew the mind that created it was worldly enough to think up a floor-sweeping Veruschka-worthy cashmere hoodie. 

Another Zimmermann plus: the ability to offer a multi-faceted fashion proposition that feels like it comes from a single, intelligent, creative source.  Fashion calls that a point of view – and it’s pure gold.