A three-tiered diving board stands next to a metallic palm tree inside this pop-up shop that designer Willo Perron has created for Kim Kardashian‘s lingerie brand SKIMS in London.
The brand’s first physical retail space in the UK, at the Selfridges department store in London, follows the same formula as its debut shop in Paris. Here, surfaces were coated in panels of glossy plastic with gentle thermoformed curves to suggest the shape of the human body.
But for this temporary summertime pop-up, Perron abandoned the brand’s typical fleshy colour palette in favour of a pale blue hue reminiscent of a heavily chlorinated swimming pool.
The resulting plastic panels are so glossy they look almost wet as they form everything from mirror frames and bench seats to wall panels and the shop’s monolithic till counter, which is embossed with the SKIMS logo.
A huge replica of a three-levelled diving board stands at the heart of the store, with a stepped base and springboards formed from lengths of the same baby-blue plastic.
Shiny chrome tubes act as handrails and are repeated throughout the store in the form of gridded partitions and clothing rails, curving around the columns of the Grade II-listed department store.
Rounding off the poolside atmosphere is a matching metal palm tree sculpture, integrated into the long bench set that runs along the shopfront.
To display stacks of rolled-up nude-coloured SKIMS towels, Perron also added two smaller freestanding platforms with the same steps and chrome handrails as the diving platform but minus the springboards.
Taking over Selfridges’ ground-floor pop-up space The Corner Shop until 8 July 2023, the shop will offer the brand’s core collection of swimsuits and bikinis alongside limited editions and seasonal colourways.
Customers will also be able to buy ice cream to match their swimwear, stored in baby-blue freezers courtesy of London gelato company Chin Chin Labs.
“I’m thrilled to bring SKIMS Swim to London for the first-time ever and take over The Corner Shop at Selfridges with our most conceptual pop-up experience to date,” said SKIMS co-founder and creative director Kim Kardashian.
“We have followers all over the world,” she added. “As we enter the next phase of SKIMS retail, I look forward to connecting with these customers through innovative shopping experiences on a global scale.”
Returning for its second year, SKIMS’s swimwear offering is pitched towards providing various levels of coverage for different body types and modesty requirements.
This is an extension of the brand’s drive to create inclusive underwear and shapewear that works for people of different sizes and abilities, following the launch of its Adaptive Collection last year.
Over the next three years, the brand is planning to open a roster of freestanding stores across the UK and EU.
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