SKIMS has officially opened its third flagship in the historic Gold Coast in Chicago, transforming a former 1960s bank into its most theatrical retail stage yet. Designed by Rafael de Cárdenas Ltd., the store turns hard, institutional architecture into a sensual, gallery like showcase for the brand’s signature “soft” essentials.
A 1960s bank turned SKIMS flagship
The new SKIMS Chicago flagship is located at 1000 North Rush Street in the city’s upscale Gold Coast neighborhood, occupying a two level, roughly 6,500 square foot space inside a former bank built in the 1960s. Following openings in New York and Los Angeles, this is the brand’s third global flagship, underscoring how SKIMS is extending beyond ecommerce into immersive brick and mortar.
Architecturally, the project balances the building’s original sweeping curves with a rigorous grid of display forms, sharpening the contrast between softness and structure that sits at the heart of SKIMS’ brand identity. Clean planes, warm neutrals and highly controlled lighting create a backdrop that lets the product palette read almost like a monochrome installation.
Art gallery energy: Vanessa Beecroft at the entrance
Visitors are greeted at street level by a monumental reclining odalisque sculpture by Italian artist Vanessa Beecroft, a long time collaborator of Kim Kardashian and SKIMS. Placed near the glazed facade, the figure turns the entrance into a museum like vignette, blurring the line between retail and art gallery and inviting passersby to stop, stare, and step inside.
This art anchor does several things:
- It immediately codes the space as cultural, not just commercial.
- It visually connects Chicago to earlier SKIMS flagships in New York and Los Angeles, where Beecroft’s work has also been featured.
- It echoes the body focused nature of the brand, while keeping the tone sculptural and elevated rather than overtly promotional.
The spiral descent and the vault finale
A mannequin lined spiral staircase choreographs the journey from the ground floor to the lower level, with repeated body forms acting almost like a live “lookbook in motion” as customers move through the space. The tight spiral and stacked mannequins create a sense of procession, reinforcing the idea that descending into the store is an intentional, cinematic act rather than a simple trip downstairs.
At the bottom, guests pass through the former bank’s vault doors into a mirrored chamber that houses an immersive product presentation. This finale zone:
- Reflects both customers and merchandise in all directions, amplifying the brand’s sculpted silhouettes and neutral tones.
- Nods to the building’s past life as a place where valuables were stored, now reimagined as a vault for SKIMS “essentials”.
- Adds a subtly surreal note, in line with the caption’s description of the space as a “quietly surreal finale”.
Why this flagship matters for SKIMS
For SKIMS, the Chicago opening is more than just another point of sale; it is a statement about how the brand sees physical retail as an extension of its digital world. By pairing a historical building with a hyper controlled interior, SKIMS shows it can inhabit culturally loaded spaces and make them feel unmistakably “SKIMS” without erasing their past.
Strategically, planting a flagship in Chicago’s Gold Coast gives the brand a central Midwest anchor, complementing its Fifth Avenue presence in New York and its Sunset Strip flagship in Los Angeles. Each store doubles as a content engine, an architecture story, and a physical touchpoint for a brand that built its name online but is now clearly investing in long term, high impact real estate.
Photos: William Abranowicz
