On a Friday afternoon, shortly after launching the “Skims ultimate nipple bra” online – a bra with erect nipples included – and just before announcing that Skims was going to be the official underwear brand of the NBA, WNBA, and USA Basketball, Kim Kardashian was sitting in her office in Calabasas, California. She spoke about sizes, specifically how big she wanted Skims to be. “The sky is the limit,” she said in a video interview. Her long hair was back to dark brown after a brief period of platinum dye, framing her face as neatly as the well-groomed garden outside. “I want the brand to be in as many countries as possible. I never start a project without thinking big.”
This is Kim the magnate. Kim, whose journey from a sex tape, to a reality TV series, to Kanye West’s muse, and to a billionaire businesswoman has been a whirlwind through 21st century American culture. Kim, the “emblem of American capitalism in the era of social media economy,” as expressed by MJ Corey, a psychotherapist and author of the upcoming book “DeKonstructing the Kardashians,” is taking another step towards world domination through Skims.
Founded four years ago, the brand went from being valued at $1.6 billion in 2021 to $4 billion last summer. In the process, it became the official underwear brand of the US team for the 2021 Tokyo Olympics and won the Innovation Award from the Council of Fashion Designers of America in 2022. Last month, it launched a men’s line.
Since late September, Skims has dominated social media to such an extent that it sometimes seems to provide a distraction in the overwhelming news cycle. First, when Kim Kardashian appeared 45 minutes late at Victoria Beckham’s fashion show, then with her new campaign featuring Cardi B, later when she flooded the internet with semi-nude athletes like Brazilian soccer player Neymar advertising underwear, and finally with the nipple bra sold with a cheeky public service announcement for climate change and to benefit a non-profit environmental organization.
And now, it’s time to dazzle. Next week, there will be another collaboration from Skims (so many launches, so little time): a partnership with Swarovski, the Austrian crystal company famous for its kitsch animals and customizations for rock artists. Indeed, the first commercial burst of the holiday season includes “body jewelry” (belly and bust crystal chains and necklaces), as well as tight-fitting dresses and crystal-studded mesh bodysuits, a custom-made dress made of huge crystal threads, and several sets with crystals embedded in what the brand calls its Jelly Sheer fabric, reminiscent of the dress Marilyn Monroe wore at the Met Gala in 2022 that made Kim Kardashian look naked and sparkling at the same time.
Thanks to the partnership with Swarovski, the line will have a wide reach not only on social media, where Kim Kardashian, with her 364 million Instagram followers, is already the supreme queen. It is also a move to dominate the physical world, as it will be sold in 40 Swarovski stores in different countries, including a new 14,000 square feet store in New York, which opens this month, as well as temporary appearances in department stores such as La Rinascente in Milan, Galeries Lafayette in Paris, Lane Crawford in Hong Kong, and the Mall of the Emirates in Dubai.
After Skims’ collaboration with Fendi in 2021, it is quite clear that Skims has transcended the world of shapewear to become part of the larger story of current fashion.
When Comfort Becomes Elegance
“The best-kept secret of Skims,” said Jens Grede, co-founder of the brand and CEO, “is that our broadest category is loungewear.” This year, Skims appeared on the Lyst index of “most popular brands,” ranking 17 out of 20 based on searches in each of the three quarters to date. It is the only non-luxury brand on the list (Nike, which used to be on the index, disappeared this quarter). In the latest list, Skims was sandwiched between Louis Vuitton and Fendi, reflecting both people’s current way of dressing and Kim Kardashian’s exploration of her limits.
“We are all watching in real-time, waiting for her to collapse,” Corey said, “but it never happens.”
That is the goal of the collaboration with Swarovski: “to push what the brand can do,” Grede said. “For example, when we first launched Fendi, we were very concerned about the higher-priced items, but it turned out that the higher-priced items sold out first.”
The collaboration is a low-risk way to test the market and lay the foundation for what may come in the future. With plans to open flagship stores in Los Angeles and New York next year, as well as five to eight more in smaller cities, it is hard not to see the Swarovski x Skims initiative as another way to test real-life retail.
Furthermore, these are not garments to be covered up, but to be shown off: at cocktails, dinners, date nights, and special occasions – anywhere someone wants to be “super elegant this season,” in Kim Kardashian’s words. This is despite the fact that “super elegant” is not a term traditionally associated with Skims, as it has always been more “super basic”; and despite Kim being careful to say that she has no concrete plans to create her own runway brand.
Nevertheless, she acknowledged that winning the CFDA award “gave us a little boost to do collaborations that were more high fashion and expand.” She also noted that “people wear our clothes outside. All the time.”
And according to Grede, once you cover everything in crystals… well, “loungewear really becomes evening dresses.”
Dazzling
“I feel like it really embodies who I am, being very simplistic but then having this shiny, feminine side,” said Kim Kardashian, who modeled a sleeveless Skims Jelly Sheer top in crystal-dotted nude color, as a demonstration. “I’ve definitely evolved from what I was in the 2000s,” she said. “It’s been a journey through my taste in the past decade, in all the things that interest me: architecture, landscaping. The way I want my bushes trimmed is not far from how I want my packaging, with clean lines, very symmetrical… but when it comes to my crystal items, I will always hold onto them. They just make me feel a certain way. I’ll go to my mom’s for dinner and everyone is in pajamas, but I’m dressed in Swarovski. That’s just me.”
That’s why Giovanna Engelbert, creative director of Swarovski, wanted to work with Kim Kardashian. While Swarovski has supported designers in the past by providing them with crystals as raw materials, this is the first time the company has collaborated with a brand to create garments that will be sold in their stores.
“We didn’t want to just make a bra with crystals,” Engelbert said. She had worn Skims during her pregnancies and had some knowledge of Kim Kardashian through fashion. She reached out to her about two years ago, and they officially embarked on the project six months ago.