Nique took its first breath as a design studio based in Melbourne, Australia. The team also pursued their interest in fashion, designing a range of windcheaters in 1998 as a side project.
The response to those designs prompted the development of a full collection to satisfy a rapidly growing following. People found a natural affinity with the Nique aesthetic, and distribution grew from four stores to sixty almost overnight. In 2003, the Graphic Design element of the company was phased out to focus purely on the fashion label. Nique clothing can now be found in over 180 outlets across the globe. In recent years Nique has opened a string of innovative retail stores in the fashionable strips of young Melbourne.
Nick and Lucy have collaborated with some of Melbourne’s most progressive Architects to create individual design concepts for each location as opposed to the one-size fits all chain store mentality. Where possible the design team honor the stores origin by stripping walls back to the raw shell, exposing steel beams, original period ceilings and floorboards. The new design concept is then slotted into the shell, ensuring each store communicates the brand message of being Authentic, Acidic, Articulate and Accessible. Nique stores span a range of sizes and feature low cost, ideas driven store fit out solutions, which honour the central ideology of the brand. ‘Great design need not cost more, it’s about better choices’
