HTSI editor’s letter: have a Skims through this week’s stories
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First, a confession. I have never watched Keeping Up with the Kardashians. Nor the Real Housewives series, nor any of the reality juggernauts that have dominated television schedules for the past decade. When Kim Kardashian first became a major presence in fashion, I was one of those alien people who remained totally ignorant of her cultural value. I would watch bemusedly as she wiggled into front-row seats at Tom Ford and Givenchy while editors would variously venerate her presence or tut loudly and clutch their pearls.
Kardashian has always been a provocateur in fashion: her very existence seems to excite more heated argument – about relevance, privilege, changing attitudes and talent – than any other in the western world. And yet despite being the focus of a million weird projections, she’s always come across as intelligent, articulate, even-handed and – for someone so ridiculously famous – oddly down-to-earth.
This year marks the fifth birthday of her “solutionswear” line, Skims, the company she founded with Jens and Emma Grede in 2019 to rebrand support hosiery, girdles and other deeply unsexy undergarments as something desirable and new. And, boy, has she succeeded. As Maria Shollenbarger writes in this week’s issue: “Skims has since proliferated into a full-blown apparel company, with a market valuation of $4bn and pole position in the global pop-culture discourse.”
Maria met Kardashian at the Skims headquarters in Los Angeles last month. Chief among her observations was Kardashian’s laser focus, her determination and her personal investment. “I handle all the visuals, all the ideas, fabrics, fits,” she tells Maria. “I’m the face of this brand.”
What’s so brilliant about Skims is that it offers the kind of lingerie you think you should be able to pick up anywhere, but actually find quite scarce. Kardashian couldn’t find shapewear that matched her skin tone. So she came up with a solution. And is now bouncing all the way to the bank.
Kardashian is a living legend, but she is not the only one in this issue. Bob Crowley, the theatre designer, director and costume designer, has worked on so many productions that his artistic signature is scrawled in almost every theatre on Broadway – and off it – and the West End. His little brother John is no slouch either: the director’s latest film, We Live in Time, will come out later this year. (Side note: his first movie, Intermission, starring a delightfully callow Cillian Murphy and Colin Farrell, remains one of my favourites.) As the brothers mark new career milestones, they reflect on their relationship, their shared love of drama and the things that have inspired their work. John has been too in awe of his older brother to work with him much in the past, but I hope he overcomes that notion soon.
At HTSI we love an obsessive and in Noritsugu Oda we have perhaps found the most endearing yet. Oda has worked for most of his career as an illustrator, but his pastime has been collecting chairs: he now has 1,400 designs of historical importance, of which he keeps more than 100 in his specially appointed home. Kanae Hasegawa goes to visit him on the island of Hokkaido to admire one of the greatest private archives in the world . Now 78, Oda is beginning to consider what he’ll do with his extraordinary legacy – but first he’s going to have a long sit down.
Lastly, how hot do you like your food? Do you love your plate to sizzle? Do you keep a plaque chauffante to hand? Ajesh Patalay investigates the politics of heat this week, and whether an optimum meal temperature exists. Turns out I may be a hypo-taster, as I rather like my food lukewarm.
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