On the same morning Kim Kardashian’s Skims Solutionwear line launched, she’s still talking about that Kimono name controversy.
When appearing on the Today show this morning, Tuesday, September 10, the Keeping Up With the Kardashians star promoted the exciting news while also acknowledging the many public hurtles she encountered during its development.
For a bit of background, back in June the KKW Beauty founder announced her exciting new undergarment venture — Kimono. Although the name was developed as a play on the reality star’s name, people were not happy, calling it cultural misappropriation. She responded two days after, addressing people’s concerns and then a few days after that she announced that she’d be changing the brand’s moniker.
On Tuesday morning, she acknowledged these difficulties and explained what the process was like when deciding to forgo the original name and rebrand.
“We ran [Kimono] by retailers, a bunch of people that we respected. Everyone seemed to really like the name,” she said during the interview. “As soon as it came out, there was so much backlash and I didn’t respond immediately. I waited a good day to see how I felt about it.” She went on to explain that she asked a lot of friends and peers for advice so she could really understand the situation before making any moves.
“I understood what people were saying and I would never want to intentionally disrespect a culture. I [also] would never intentionally want to hurt my brand and have that association.” This made her decision to change the name a no-brainer.
However, there was kind of a big problem. She had about a million garments packaged and branded with the Kimono name. And since she hates tags in her undergarments, Kimono was printed directly onto the fabric making it difficult — and costly — to remove and wasting them wasn’t an option either.
“That was a really big deal to me,” she said. “I had to weigh everything out and so I announced that I was going to change the name.”
So where did Skims come from? “Skims sounded right,” she said. “I love that my name is in it.” She also explained how her Libra tendencies for balance make the “s” on either end an important trait. “Everything happens for a reason and I’m glad that we have that behind us and we are here on launch day.”
The name controversy aside, the inclusive and innovative shapewear line is a can’t-miss, with sizes ranging from XXS to 5X and nine “nude” shades available for nearly invisible wear.
The 38-year-old proved just this in an Instagram video on Tuesday morning. Donning a sheer Jean Paul Gaultier dress the she wore to the People’s Choice Awards in 2018, the mom of four showed the major difference between her shapewear and the one she actually wore at the awards show.
In a throwback photo, her lighter undergarment is fully visible underneath the frock. However, in the video there appears to be nothing underneath the dress. It isn’t until she lifts the bottom that the shapewear becomes visible. “You can see me wearing the color Ochre here,” she wrote in the caption. “To basically create my own lining in the dress!”
You can grab your own pair today at skims.com.
