Nikkou Store
My name is Tiffany Cooper – the owner and founder of Nikkou Store coming soon to Casuarina. Call me crazy, but I have decided to leave the 9 – 5 and begin my life long (27 year) dream of sharing beautiful pieces in my very own concept store.
Memories from my childhood bring me back to my first fashion parade at three years of age, in my hometown of Lithgow. It was a Teddy Bear’s Picnic fundraising event, I modelled Oshkosh b’gosh whilst flinging along my favourite Teddy Bear, I had picked out earlier. I was basically on my way to the Victoria Secret show. A few years later my Mum brought home a VHS copy of Grease (1998) starring Olivia Newton John and John Travolta. The storyline of transforming Sandy from a good girl gone bad by sporting a new look had me mesmerised. I watched it over and over studying the outfits, the music, the hair, until I knew every outfit and every word off by heart.
In 2000 after surviving the ‘apocalypse’ Mum persuaded Dad that we were swapping our small quiet town of Lithgow in the Blue Mountains for a life of glitz and glamour on the Gold Coast. ‘We are moving with or without you Ash,’ I remember Mum saying to Dad. As primary school came and went, and Year 12 graduation came closer, my friends ventured off to Uni and I followed my dream of working in the fashion industry to Melbourne. For just over a year I worked and studied, ate 99c cans of tuna for breakfast, lunch and dinner and was comforted by my electric blanket as the only source of heating. I would set up in bed in the middle of the day writing and researching for my assignments just to keep warm. I came to realise that this fashion business in Melbourne wasn’t the lifestyle I was chasing. This Aquarian, Gold Coast girl needed to be salty, sun kissed and by the sea.
I moved back home with my tail between my legs, a better understanding of the world but still eager to pursue my dream in fashion, whatever that may be – I was still yet to discover. After studying my Business Degree in Events and Marketing, working in retail customer service – most recently as the wholesale manager for Zulu & Zephyr and the continual support from my friends and family, the seed for Nikkou Store was planted. I just didn’t know where or how but I had a burning desire to work it out.
