Aug 5 (Reuters) – Reliance Brands, the luxury retail arm of Reliance Retail, has partnered with Kim Kardashian’s SKIMS to bring the shapewear brand to India, as global companies race to enter the country’s burgeoning fashion and beauty markets.
The firm, a unit of Mukesh Ambani-owned Reliance Industries, will operate the SKIMS brand across physical and digital channels, beginning with Delhi and Mumbai, the companies said on Wednesday.
Indian beauty retailers are rushing to bring international brands to the country as Gen Z and millennial consumers, influenced by social media, gravitate to global beauty trends and celebrity-backed brands.
Indian beauty and fashion retailer Nykaa also teamed up with pop singer Selena Gomez’s Rare Beauty this year as well as Shiseido Group-owned NARS Cosmetics.
The SKIMS partnership adds to Reliance Retail’s growing foreign brand portfolio including singer Rihanna’s Fenty Beauty and Fenty Skin, designer brands such as Stella McCartney, and Italian luxury house Valentino.
SKIMS entry comes at a time when India’s shapewear market is seeing robust growth with a mix of homegrown direct-to-consumer brands, including Underneat, and international labels vying for customers.
Founded in 2019, SKIMS has been expanding its global retail footprint with recent store openings in London and Dubai, after raising $225 million in funding that valued the company at $5 billion.
(Reporting by Saikeerthi in Bengaluru; Editing by Sonia Cheema)
