Dolce & Gabbana’s SKIMS collab is the perfect antidote to the luxury slowdown

If you’re in the mood for some luxury that won’t break the bank, Dolce & Gabbana has got your back. Next week, you’ll be able to shop its collaboration with SKIMS, where you’ll be able to snag lingerie, swimwear, and ready-to-wear pieces for as little as $48. More elaborate pieces will cost $698, which is about the price of a D&G scarf.

The partnership between the two brands, which was announced yesterday, is not entirely unexpected. Kim Kardashian, who launched the shape wear brand SKIMS in 2018, has been a a fan of D&G for years. She is often seen wearing dramatic D&G outfits, and two years ago, she helped design a capsule collection for the brand called “Ciao Kim.”

This time, she brings D&G’s maximalist, Italian aesthetic to SKIMS, which has expanded beyond shape wear to underwear and loungewear. In the new ad campaign, Kim Kardashian and her sister Kourtney model pieces from the collaboration. There are corsets and bras in D&G’s signature leopard print. There are contouring dresses, bikini tops, and silky robes. The aesthetic is distinctly Italian, calling to mind Federico Fellini films from the ’60s and ’70s.

View this post on Instagram A post shared by SKIMS (@skims)

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by SKIMS (@skims)

A Match Made In Fashion Heaven

The collaboration is a coup for SKIMS, which has been growing explosively since it launched. Last year, the company became profitable, and was on track to hit $750 million in sales, up from $500 million from the year before. It also raised $270 million in new funding that values the company at $4 billion. As Victoria’s Secret has been on a steady decline, SKIMS offered a fresh new take on lingerie; one that is focused on body inclusivity, comfort, and minimalism. Gen Z has embraced it wholeheartedly: these consumers make up 70% of SKIMS overall consumer base.

But the partnership may be even more important for Dolce & Gabbana. The luxury market is in the midst of a slowdown. LVMH, the conglomerate which owns everything from Louis Vuitton to Dior to Fendi, saw its net profits drop 14% in the first half of the year. Meanwhile, Gucci saw its sales drop by 20% in the second quarter of the year, eating into the profits of Kering, its parent company.

There are many reasons for the downturn. Luxury spending around the world exploded during the pandemic when consumers had more cash in their pockets because they weren’t spending as much on travel and eating out. But things have shifted. Chinese consumers have stopped spending considerably, due to the slowdown of the Chinese economy. Meanwhile, many people believe the recent U.S. election hinged on Americans’ unhappiness about the economy, and how tight they feel money has become.

Luxury brands are scrambling to figure out how to stay afloat. Many are replacing top executives. Chanel, Missoni, Balmain, Dries van Noten, are among the many brands that have swapped out creative director or CEOs this year. Just last month, Fendi announced that Kim Jones would step down as artistic director after four years; his replacement has not been announced. At Celine, Michael Rider replaced Hedi Slimane as creative director.

Mid-Market Collaborations

In the midst of this, D&G is tapping into the tried and true strategy of collaborating—this time with a mid-priced brand that will be palatable to consumers who might be feeling the pinch.

This is nothing new. Luxury brands love partnering with more affordable brands. Consider Loewe’s collaboration with On running, or Gucci’s collaboration with the North Face. In all of these cases, the luxury label is tapping into a mid-market brand whose star is rising. Dior’s partnership with Birkenstock occurred when the German shoe brand was becoming a pop culture sensation.

These partnerships allow both brands to access each others’ audiences—but at times of diminished consumer spending, it is also an opportunity for the luxury brand to make up revenue that they might be losing from their mainline brand. But there are also risks with this strategy. The luxury brand might lose its halo of exclusivity and quality if the final products aren’t well-made or well-designed. There’s something of a cottage industry of influencers roasting bad luxury brand collaborations on social media. Often, the dissatisfaction comes from paying luxury prices for mid-tier brand quality.

This D&G collaboration with SKIMS appears like it’s on the right track. SKIMS is a rising brand hooked into the zeitgeist of young consumers. The prices of the collab products are more in line with those of SKIMS, meaning you will be able to snag pieces for under $100. But aesthetically, everything about the product and the way it is marketed seems steeped in D&G’s lush, distinctly Italian aesthetic.

On a landing page on the SKIMS website, you’ll find the Kardashians in what looks like a small Italian village. Kim, with big, curly ’70s style hair, drinks wine from a bottle at a small cafe; she stares languidly out of a window next to a comically large pot of spaghetti. Khloe smiles at the camera while laundry hangs on a line in the background. You might be getting SKIMS fabric technology—and its affordable prices—but the soul of these collaboration is D&G all the way.