How Kim Kardashian is now partnering with Swarovski to develop shapewear

One afternoon, shortly after launching the “Skims nipple bra” online—a bra with a built-in erect nipple—and just before announcing that Skims would be the official underwear brand of the National Basketball Association, the Women’s Association National Basketball and USA Basketball, Kim Kardashian was sitting in her office in Calabasas, California, talking about sizes. Specifically, how big she wanted Skims to be. “The sky is the limit,” she said in a video interview. “I want to be in all possible countries.”

This is Kim the tycoon. Kim, whose journey from a sex tape to a reality show, from Kanye West’s muse to a billionaire businesswoman, has been a dizzying journey through American culture at the beginning of the 21st century. This is Kim taking another step in the march toward dominance. worldwide via Skims.

Founded four years ago, the brand went from being valued at $1.6 billion in 2021 to $4 billion last summer. Meanwhile, it became the official underwear supplier to the US team for the 2021 Tokyo Olympics and won the Council of Fashion Designers of America’s 2022 Innovation Award. A line for men was launched last month.

Now comes another collaboration from Skims: a cufflink with Swarovski, the Austrian crystal company. It involves “body jewelry”—crystal-filled chains and necklaces for the belly and breasts—as well as stretchy mesh dresses and unitards encrusted with crystals, and various garments with crystals embedded in what the brand calls its Jelly Sheer fabric.

The collaboration, known as Swarovski x Skims, was unveiled on November 7 at the opening of a Swarovski flagship store in New York. The line will not only be promoted on social networks, where Kardashian, with her 364 million followers on Instagram, already reigns. It will also be sold in 40 Swarovski stores around the world.

Following a Skims 2021 collaboration with Fendi, Skims has transcended shapewear to become part of today’s broader fashion story.

“The best-kept secret about Skims,” said Jens Grede, the brand’s co-founder, “is that our largest category of clothing is loungewear”—whatever “loungewear” means in a world where Leggings have been accepted as pants and comfort is key.

Swarovski x Skims pieces are meant to be worn in public: at cocktail parties, dinners, dates — anywhere someone wants to look “super chic,” Kardashian said. This, despite the fact that “super fancy” is not a term that has been linked to Skims, which has largely been “super basic”.

This is the first time Swarovski has worked with a brand to co-create clothing that will be sold in its stores.

“We didn’t just want to make a crystal bra,” said Giovanna Engelbert, Swarovski’s creative director. She contacted Kardashian about two years ago and they started the project six months later.

“I feel like it really embodies who I am, being really simplistic, but then I have this completely sparkling feminine side,” Kardashian said of the collection.

“I go to my mom’s house for dinner and everyone is in their pajamas and I arrive dressed in Swarovski. “That’s who I am,” she added.

By: Vanessa Friedman
The New York Times