shit i bought and liked no. 67: the truth about skims…
Bad news, team… Skims are good.
You may have learned this fact upon reading this article in The Cut last year. It wasn’t that I didn’t believe them (I worship the ground The Cut walks on), but I wasn’t in enough need to part with precious dollars that could go towards any of the other shit I wanted to buy at the time. Eventually though, the time came to buy new underthings, and it seemed like a good opportunity to put Skims to the test.
Now, liking Skims wouldn’t be at all controversial if the brand wasn’t the brainchild of one Kimberly Noel Kardashian, BUT with that name comes a lot of baggage, especially lately.
There is a LOT to take issue with when it comes to Kim. Her racial and cultural appropriation (unsure if everyone remembers, but she tried to name this brand KIMONO before a whole culture was like…. uhh, maybe don’t?), intentionally lying to people about what goes into achieving the beauty standards that she has arguably set/at the very least upholds, her weird rant about how everyone needs to “get their fucking ass up and work.” All of that… is not great in my opinion.
But it would be difficult to talk about Kim right now without mentioning the story that’s really at the forefront at the moment—the one unfolding between her, her ex-husband Kanye West, her new boyfriend Pete Davidson, and her young children. I just listed a bunch of things that have led most people I know to either full-on hate or at least have some level of distaste for Kim, but however annoying/detrimental to the culture/whatever else you want to say she is, nothing justifies the harassment she’s facing seemingly constantly from her former partner. Publicly, no less, to million of fans around the world, with young children involved and threats of violence.
As Trevor Noah noted in this clip that I highly encourage watching in its entirety, she is being relentlessly harassed by her ex-husband, and despite being one of the richest, most powerful women on the planet, she seems fairly powerless to stop it. (After it aired, West targeted Noah and was temporarily suspended by Instagram.)
I know this is a shopping newsletter, and the shopping is coming so soon, but this is something we’re all watching play out on the Internet (mostly due to West’s penchant for leaking texts and making inflammatory statements via social media), and it underscores some of the realities for regular women around the world leaving/trying to leave toxic relationships. And that feels like an important thing for all of us to understand.
ANYWAYS. Onto the shopping part. In order to purchase Skims, you have to at least temporarily stop caring that some of your money will ultimately go into Kim’s pockets. Now just by virtue of being normal people in this country, plenty of our money already goes to shitty people/corporations, but not everyone is gonna want to do that kind of mental gymnastics here, especially for a product that has plenty of alternatives. If you can’t/aren’t willing to, that’s totally fine! I actually want to talk about that a little more in a bit. But product-wise, she did actually do something noteworthy.
During the winter I ordered a bunch of styles, hoping for the best but expecting the grim reality that as a woman buying clothing on the internet, some or all would be unsatisfactory. WRONG. Every single thing in this order was kept. And not because of a shitty return policy!
Let’s start with bralettes. The Fits Everybody Crossover is quite simply perfect. It’s made of a soft, meshy material with adjustable straps and clasps in the back like a real bra, but far more comfortable. In the past two years of basically only wearing bralettes, I’ve realized I prefer a crossover front to a triangle, though Skims does stock both (and a ton of other styles). The Sienna is the perfect nude tone for my skin tone (hugely appreciative of the color range here), though I also bought Onyx and will definitely add Umber to the mix the next time I have to replenish.
And the underwear! Insane! I ordered three different styles, expecting to have a clear favorite. I loved all of them. Even the 100% cotton, which I was not expecting to love! Unsure if any of you have had this issue with underwear, but in the past, regardless of store, brand, etc., I’ve always felt like I needed to size up. Not with Skims. I was the exact size the size chart said I would be. It’s a small thing, but hugely helpful—it took the guesswork out of the equation, which is big when you’re taking a shot on something you’ve never tried in person.
And last but not least, the shapewear. You didn’t think I’d order from Skims and skip out on the piece de resistance, did you?! This was the only place where I was slightly meh. I bought the Sculpting Short, which has more of a smoothing effect than a full-on suck-in situation (though it is level 2 of 3 in terms of the “core control”—the level 3 shorts were fully sold out). I prefer a short to a thong or a brief in shapewear because those can cut into your hips or butt in a weird/visible way, but these were a tad long for any mid-thigh level hem.
I’ve never been completely satisfied by a piece of shapewear, and tbh I’m wasn’t as WOWED as I expected to be for all the hype around Kim’s, but this is the best balance between comfort/wearability and effectiveness that I’ve found so far. (Kris Jenner, if you’re reading this, I have plenty of thoughts for a Core Control Sculpting Shorter Short—it can be a Skims and Shitters collab!!!).
That’s all for this Skims review, but I’m genuinely curious—when it comes to controversial companies/ founders (Tesla, Away, Skims, Bezos…), do you still buy their products? Are there some you’ll support while swearing off others? Have you written them off entirely? How does what you know about them factor into your decision to buy or to skip, or does it at all? I really am curious and would love to hear more from all of you.
If you’re reading this and don’t subscribe… you made it this far, clearly you were into something. Subscribe at shitiboughtandliked.com—you can also find past recommendations for everything from the perfect straight leg jean to a delish coffee alternative to my version of the ESWB (emotional support water bottle, duh).
XOXOXOXO,
Priyanka