Kim Kardashian isn’t a regular mom, she’s a cool mom. So cool in fact, that having daughters North and Chicago is in part what inspired her to create her eponymous line of shapewear, Skims. In an interview with Vogue, which was released on March 15, the multi-hyphenate star gave a little insight into how she actually got started with her fashion brand. And spoiler alert: It started with some DIY action in the sink!
“I always try to see what I’m obsessed with and what’s a necessity in my life. If it’s not perfect, then how can I try to make something that is. One huge gap that I felt like was missing in shapewear was just color range. There was probably one shade of nude, a black and maybe a darker nude — if that,” the 40-year-old entrepreneur tells Vogue.
She continues: “It was usually just two tones. It was one nude that was too light for me and a black. I would take that and put it in the sink with coffee bags and tea bags and let it sit there, soak and dye it to get it to be a darker shade of nude. I just thought, ‘This doesn’t make sense.’ There’s so many different skin tones. If I can’t find mine, I know that my daughter, isn’t going to be able to find hers.”
With that realization, Skims was born.
Maybe Kardashian just has a golden touch, but the line took off pretty instantly, gaining a handful of organic celebrity endorsements along the way. In fact, the mom of four recalls a little run-in with Martha Stewart while talking to the outlet.
“She [Stewart] stopped me at a party. I’ll never forget it — I’m obsessed with Martha Stewart. I was walking in New York and I hear ‘Kim, Kim!’ I turn around and she’s like, ‘I just need Skims, I love it,’” Kardashian shares. “It was just such a proud moment that Martha Stewart wanted Skims.”
Stewart isn’t the only celebrity to take a liking to the brand either. The KKW Beauty founder reveals that Kathy Bates once sent her a handwritten written letter professing her love for the brand. So don’t be shocked if Bates, 72, pops up in a Skims campaign sometime soon!
Another contributing factor to the brand’s success is in large part due to the Keeping Up With the Kardashians star’s redefined approach to undergarments. She’s not shy to strike a pose in Skims or post shapewear-clad photos to social media.
“People will say, ‘Oh, you made shape wear cool again’ … I’m never one to shy away from saying [that I wear] things under my clothes, give all my girlfriends tips or walk around just in my Skims. I think it made people, also maybe a younger audience of people, comfortable wanting to wear shapewear and just feel good about themselves no matter how old or young they are.”
And when it came time to branch out into loungewear (shoutout to the cozy collection!), timing was definitely on Skims side. “The pandemic hit during our first or second drop of loungewear and we had loungewear designed for the whole next year,” she tells Vogue. “It just happened to be the perfect time and the perfect storm of everyone just staying home and wanting to be a lot more comfortable.”
