On the Friday night of London Fashion Week, fans congregated outside the new Skims store on Regent Street, as co-founders Kim Kardashian and Jens Grede celebrated the opening of the London flagship with a star-studded party, attended by Troye Sivan, Kim Petras, Tems, and Central Cee. It’s Skims’s first European flagship, and marks a significant milestone as the label continues to invest in major retail expansion beyond the US.
“You can only describe texture and fabrics in so many ways through what you post on socials, and I can do so many educational tutorials explaining all of that. But it’s a really different feeling for people to be able to come here, try on the product, stretch it, feel it, see what fits for [them],” says Kardashian, speaking to Vogue Business at the store.
“Even [down to] design of our store and how we merchandise everything, it’s really important to be able to immerse yourself in our Skims world.”
The 12,000-square-foot flagship, designed by architect Rafael de Cárdenas, is located at 245-247 Regent Street, inside the former Ted Baker store. The space, split across two floors, features a large sculpture by artist Vanessa Beecroft, and racks filled with the entire Skims range, from apparel to underwear.
“I remember 20 years ago, driving down the streets of London, everyone had such an individual style,” Kardashian says. “I don’t think I ever dreamed that we would have a store right here.”
Trends across Europe start in London, Grede adds, so it makes sense to start the brand’s European expansion here. And when the Regent Street store became available, it was the perfect spot, in a prime tourism location, close to flagships from Apple to Alo. “Location, location, location,” Grede jokes, referencing the very British TV property show (he lived in London for many years before relocating to LA in 2017).
Skims — which launched in 2019 — is now a $5 billion brand, thanks to the completion of a $225 million capital raise in November 2025, led by Goldman Sachs Alternatives. It’s an impressive five-year trajectory, particularly in a challenging macroeconomic environment, where both high street and luxury players are facing serious headwinds.
With celebrity brands, it’s common to assume success is the result of a founder’s sheer reach and cultural power. Kardashian is a major advocate for Skims on her own channels, and alongside this first-person marketing, she conceives a constant stream of star-studded creative campaigns for each Skims drop, shared widely on social media.
Recent examples include the Everyday Cotton campaign with Hailey Bieber, a NikeSkims drop ad with Olympic gold medalists Jutta Leerdam and Chloe Kim, and a tongue-in-cheek Skims men’s campaign with Will Ferrell as fictional golfing legend Lonnie the Hawk.
But these buzzy moments only get customers to buy once, the founders explain. “Seventy percent of our customers are returning customers today,” Grede says. And their loyalty comes down to the product. “I think that people see the marketing, the campaigns, and the stores, and it’s easy to think that builds a company. But it’s really Kim’s obsessiveness around the product.”
Skims has established itself as a solutions-driven label, with an extensive shapewear and underwear line, designed to fit every body type and skin tone, plus a large selection of basics, covering many silhouettes and styles that cater to a broad audience. The brand is continuing to invest in new categories and lines.
Last month, Skims tapped Supreme’s former longtime head of design Erin Magee as chief design officer — another investment in the product looking ahead. Last year, Grede and Kardashian launched NikeSkims, a new brand created by Skims and Nike that draws on the former’s shapewear expertise and Nike’s performance capabilities.
There’s also an upcoming collaboration with Paris designer Ludovic de Saint Sernin, announced last week. The designer accompanied Kardashian to the London opening.
Kardashian herself often takes to Instagram to demonstrate the fit or feel of the garments, ranging from the tongue-in-cheek but commercially successful nipple bra, to the latest NikeSkims drop. But it’s the stores that really move the needle.
“You can get a customer for sure with a fun campaign or fun PR packages, but you get a returning customer when they receive the product, and they understand how good it is and how different it is from everything that’s out there,” Kardashian says. “I feel so proud [because] I feel like we have really done such a great job at that.”
It’s Kardashian’s first time visiting the London store, following its soft opening in July. After a day of shows at London Fashion Week, where size inclusivity is lacking, you really notice the mannequins in the Skims store, which are predominantly curvy or of mid-size proportions.
“I was whisked right up here, and I haven’t had a chance to have a tour of the store yet,” she says. “But I love seeing our sculptures; each store has a unique sculpture.
They’re one of one, so I want to see up close how grand it is to scale. There’s nothing that I love more in our stores than seeing all of our bodices with the bras on and all of the different skin tones, and all of our different shaped mannequins — that’s what’s cool to me.”
In terms of future innovations, Kardashian is excited about a new bra coming out “with very specific padding”. “I love that we continue with our bra and shapewear innovation, we’re always trying different materials,” she says. “All of the core pieces are really important to me.”
After London, the duo have plenty of travel planned through the rest of the year. Grede is off to Shanghai and Tokyo next week to open two NikeSkims stores. Meanwhile, Kardashian is excited for new Skims store openings in Delhi and Mumbai, planned for early next year. “We’re taking it all over the world,” she says with a smile, “and it’s going to be so much fun.”