tration twice – in 2020 and 2021.  After Brandbank Group bought the brand out of administration in 2021, it began its transformation from a purely stationery business into a true lifestyle brand, with a product offering that includes apparel, travel bags, pet accessories and food and drink containers. Gorman took the creative reins in 2023, two years after exiting her eponymous fashion label, Gorman. The designer was drawn back into the retail industry by the opportunity to reimagine Kikki.K’s offering through a completely new lens. “This is an exciting time for the business. With such strong brand heritage we have an excellent foundation for a vibrant new future,” Gorman told Inside Retail. Gorman’s early conversations with the Kikki.K team were about acknowledging the brand’s past – stationery – while moving towards its future – lifestyle. At the same time, Gorman said that Kikki.K is “certainly not forgetting our heritage. It’s what got us this far and is a staple within the rebrand.”  To the desk and beyond Like most rebrands, Kikki.K has updated its visual identity – an instant signifier that the brand has undergone a shift – moving away from muted pastels towards vibrant tones. Gorman, unsurprisingly, loves colour. She views colour choice and colour layering as a form of personalisation and identity.  “I’m very curious as to how and why people choose colours, and I think Kikki.K challenges colour choice for the customer, in a positive way,” Gorman shared. “I want people to stop and think about their relationship to different colours when they come into Kikki.K,” she added. But the change in colour palette is secondary to Kikki.K’s new product categories. It only takes a stroll through the stores or a browse of the website to see that Kikki.K has evolved into a true lifestyle brand. Kikki.K’s Melbourne flagship, located in the Emporium shopping centre, shows its transformation from a paper-focused brand to a lifestyle brand, looking to appeal to a broad, intergenerational demographic and a gender-neutral audience.  “It’s been vital for people to be able to come in and touch and feel [the products] – it’s an area of expansion for us as well,” Gorman said about the brand’s expanded offering. “We’re looking at expanding our doors in conjunction with changing up our product and introducing sort of a new lifestyle approach,” she added. Alongside updated notebooks, planners, diaries and calendars Kikki.K stores are now filled with apparel, including denim, jackets and dresses, and travel accessories, including carry-on suitcases and weekenders. “We’ve evolved from pre-Covid era desk-scaping into a broader view of lifestyle organisation across commuting, travelling and dressing, in alignment with modern life on the trot,” Gorman explained.     The former stationery turned lifestyle brand has always been known for personalisation, but under its rebrand, Kikki.K is offering customers the opportunity to customise products beyond monogramming. Kikki.K’s trek bag range, ‘Kolour Luxe’ notebook range and ‘build your bottle’ system can all be customised by the customer for personal functionality and style. “We’re about high rotation pieces that reduce the decision making around the small stuff, because there’s enough of the big stuff to keep us busy – plus, we want you to live life in colour,” she said.  According to Gorman, the rebrand has encouraged many people to return to the brand while appealing to a whole new demographic. “What we are now finding is that we’re getting a lot more uptake from a new audience,” concluded Gorman. “A lot of people talk about Kikki.K from when they were younger – when they were at school or when they were at uni – and those customers now have kids of their own.”