Body-ody-ody had been the sentiment of London Fashion Week, with designers playing with all things sexy on the runways. And on Friday night, the city got to take that further and indulge in the Skims treatment, as co-founders Kim Kardashian and Jens Grede welcomed friends of the brand to its newly opened Regent Street flagship—the first international standalone store for the shapewear and intimates behemoth.
It was a starry and various guest list: musicians like Central Cee, Troye Sivan, Tems, Kim Petras, and Rose Gray, actor Ellie Bamber, model Alton Mason, designers Kim Jones and Ludovic de Saint Sernin, Sha’Carri Richardson, major England WAG Tolami Benson, and Emma Grede. Several editors arrived straight from the LFW front rows to party with Kim, the third day of shows following be damned. The crowd descended on 245-247 Regent Street for classic and lychee martinis, cutely branded Skims burger sliders, and soft serve ice-cream. Model and DJ Kim Turnbull was on the decks, a soundtrack of pop and R&B bangers just about managing to rise above the room’s excitable chatter. Guests flitted around, in and out of racks filled with Skims’s big apparel and underwear hitters, and making use of the Skims photobooth. The celebrations later continued over an intimate dinner, which featured a three-course menu of a Waldorf salad, roasted chicken and fries, and a chocolate mousse studded with almond and hazelnut praline.
It was Kardashian’s first time visiting the London store, following its soft opening in July. Naturally, she dressed for the occasion. She wore Ludovic de Saint Sernin’s Mermaid Bi Dress in flesh-toned leather, which closely contoured her curves with a grommet-studded bodice and lace-up slit revealing a sheer underlay beneath. The choice was particularly apt: Kardashian’s forthcoming collaboration with the designer is set to launch October 1, marrying Skims’s shapewear foundations with Saint Sernin’s unapologetically sexy, party-ready signatures. Later, she shimmied into a sculpted chocolate brown corset with belted and tie-up detailing and a hip-skimming maxi skirt.
Inside, guests got a look at the new flagship’s Rafael de Cárdenas-designed interiors. A longtime Skims collaborator, de Cárdenas brought together sleek architectural lines and delicate sculptural curves, with a monumental one-of-a-kind Vanessa Beecroft sculpture presiding over the space. (Each of the Skims stores, from New York to Atlanta and Houston, have their own unique art piece on the shop floor.)
The opening marks a significant London milestone for Kardashian and Grede, whose Skims universe has continued to stretch far beyond the shapewear on which it was founded. For one Fashion Week night, at least, Regent Street belonged to Kim.
