The browsers at Paddington Markets in 1991 could not have known it, but the 24-year-old selling floral dresses beneath one of the plane trees would become one of Australia’s biggest fashion export success stories.

Nicole Zimmermann acknowledges she didn’t think she was starting an empire, but as orders for the East Sydney TAFE fashion graduate’s striking designs rolled in – helped by early coverage in Vogue magazine – older sister Simone left the IT industry to manage what is today known as Zimmermann International.