Why did Skims collaborate with an emerging brand? The brand co-signed a capsule with Vettese and no one saw it coming

After collaborations with Fendi, Roberto Cavalli, and Dolce&Gabbana, one might assume that Skims only seeks partners from the pinnacles of fashion. But the brand founded by Kim Kardashian and Jens Grede loves to surprise, and today announced a collaboration with Vettese, an emerging brand with which it will co-sign a limited-edition ready-to-wear capsule collection.

The collaboration is expected to bring Vettese's "sculptural" approach to Skims pieces, with its mix of functional garments and more glamour-inflected designs featuring anatomical draping. The news is noteworthy as it marks Skims' first partnership with an emerging designer and expands the scope of Skims collaborations into more unexpected territory (the brand is already enormously popular among celebrities and influencers), moving it toward a potential status as a "brand of brands." But why do these collaborations work so well?

Everything Can Be Skims-ified

As mentioned, Vettese is a brand that, from bodysuits to draped dresses, works extensively on the idea of the "wrapped body," in this case enveloped in fairly prestigious fabrics. The brand, despite its luxurious soul, has much in common with Skims, and nominally shares the goal of creating pieces that embrace the silhouette, whatever it may be, through fluid constructions. This opens up the work of founder Kari Vettese to the creation of various designs such as long fitted dresses, silk bustiers, bandeau tops, knotted and draped skirts, and bottoms with adjustable waistbands.

In the collaboration with Skims, where technical fabric takes center stage, we find convertible tops, draped skirts, and curve-enhancing dresses, all created by integrating Vettese's constructive approach with the fabrics and colors typical of Skims (ecru, cocoa, and onyx are the colorways — all three very Kardashian) for a series of pieces that blur the line between day and night, casual and formal. Is it a jumpsuit? A dress? That's precisely where the value of the collaboration lies. The product is unique and specific.

Everything can be Skims-ified. Including a brand born in November 2022, which produces entirely in-house and only made its New York Fashion Week calendar debut in February 2025. In reinterpreting the brand's "Body & Tube" philosophy, the collaboration has produced techwear pieces that are also convertible — meaning they can be worn in different ways, even "the wrong way," thanks to detachable buttons that allow the pieces to be transformed, creating new looks or separated at will. What could be more avant-garde than bringing this kind of design innovation to a mass audience?

Is Skims a "Brand of Brands"?

Collaborations have always served to elevate the perception of the larger partner while giving visibility to the smaller one. Skims doesn't always follow this precise dynamic: sometimes it is the smaller partner, as in the case of Fendi and Dolce&Gabbana; other times it establishes a kind of parity, as when it works with Nike; and other times still, as in the present case, it is the larger, more widely distributed partner that "welcomes" the niche designer. From one collaboration to the next, Skims is a sportswear brand, a functional underwear brand, a fashion brand. And what is striking throughout all of this is its ability to consistently stay ahead of the curve by selecting relevant partners who, in turn, reflect relevance back onto the brand.

In this sense, Skims is a "brand of brands." Its appeal lies precisely in its chameleonic and seemingly infinite potential. Consistency in collaborations remains an essential requirement, of course, but by adopting temporary, modular identities through the method of time-limited collaborations — and thereby generating the kind of constant urgency in customers that Supreme has cultivated for decades — Skims is able, on one hand, to build relevance by association and, on the other, to never anchor itself to overly demanding concepts or identities, remaining capable of existing ubiquitously across all levels of the market.

It is a more agile and flexible identity, as well as a method that in fashion counted among its pioneers Kim Jones at Dior, who changed collaborators every season, albeit with somewhat mechanical results, and Jean-Paul Gaultier, during the period when he entrusted his Couture collections to a different designer each time. By bringing this method into mass distribution and positioning itself transversally across the market, Skims is increasingly close to representing a blueprint for the modern brand — one that exists not above or below others but alongside them, and which, starting from a product with undeniable appeal, can produce anything while remaining fundamentally itself.