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Shriya Som's Summer of Love

Eastern Eye Staff
By Eastern Eye StaffJun 20, 2018
Eastern Eye Staff
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by DIMPLE SANGHANI

ACE INDIAN DESIGNER TALKS ABOUT HER FASHION IDEAS AND LATEST COLLECTION

A RAPIDLY-rising star in the fashion world, Shri­ya Som has been shining brightly and delivering sparkling creations that have lit up the wardrobes of women looking for something contemporary, yet elegant and classy.

She has dressed celebrities and regularly shows off her impressive versatility with an array of stun­ning pieces. The ace Indian designer unveiled an­other captivating collection recently and has made her outfits available in the UK via leading retailer Aashni and Co.

Eastern Eye caught up with Shriya to look at her latest collection, talk fashion and get some top tips...

What got you connected to fashion?

It was my interest in fine arts and love of New York City that brought me to apply to Parsons School of Design. Once getting there I de­cided to try out a fashion class; right after that I realised how much I love to create clothes.

How do you look back on your journey in fashion?

I always loved clothes! When I was younger I was never happy with the clothes my Barbie dolls came with. Now I think back, I’ve always had an eye and curiosity for fashion.

What has been your most memorable catwalk show?

I think it would be this past Summer Of Love collection since it was my first solo show and I got the opportunity of creating a magical space to compli­ment my clothes. It was a really amazing way to showcase the new collection.

Tell us about your latest collection...

The pieces in the collection symbolise the season of love, with flirty ruffles, gathers, tiers and tonal flora-ls in diaphanous sheer tulles and breezy silks layer-ed in cascading, asymmetric forms.

What was the biggest challenge of putting the col­lection together?

Choosing a new colour. When I’m designing I usu­ally stick to my basic colours of onion pink, off-white and light grey, but this season I decided to intro­duce yellow. To get the right shade took me a while.

How would you describe the women who wears your outfits?

The Shriya Som woman’s de jure is her free-spirited and aristocratically bohemian vibe, especially for our Summer Of Love collection

Give us a few key fashion tips for women...

Be comfortable, happy and confident in whatever you wear.

What’s the biggest fashion mistakes?

Wearing something that you are not confident or happy in. I think it very important to love what you wear and not let the dress wear you.

What advice would you give women choosing bridal outfits?

If you are a summer bride, I think colour would be one of the main things you look at! This season is all about pastels and ombré tones.

Where do you draw your inspirations from?

From street fashion! I love the ideas of working that into evening wear.

Which high-profile person would you love to dress and style?

Jessica Chastain

What are the future plans for your brand?

Paris Fashion Week!

Finally, who is your fashion hero?

My mother and grandmother, who are strong inde­pendent working-women.

  • The Shriya Som collection is available at www.aashniandco.com and you can follow her on Insta­gram: @shriyasom
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Kim Kardashian's SKIMS opens on Regent Street, in the same country her love life won't stop making headlines

Kim Kardashian attends the 2026 Met Gala celebrating "Costume Art" at the Metropolitan Museum of Art on May 04, 2026 in New York City. (Photo by Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images for The Met Museum/Vogue)

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Kim Kardashian's SKIMS opens on Regent Street, in the same country her love life won't stop making headlines

Key Highlights:

  • SKIMS has opened its first European flagship store, a 12,000 square foot site on London's Regent Street, its biggest single move into the UK market to date.
  • The store was designed by Rafael de Cárdenas, the same architect behind SKIMS' New York flagship, and features a nude sculpture by longtime collaborator Vanessa Beecroft.
  • The opening lands in the same summer Kardashian's relationship with Formula 1 driver Lewis Hamilton has been playing out publicly across Britain, from the Cotswolds to a shared trip through Tokyo.
There are a handful of people on earth whose store openings and whose love lives both make global news in the same breath. Kim Kardashian is one of them, and this summer, both have happened in the same country at the same time.
SKIMS, the shapewear brand she built into a multi-billion-dollar label, has just opened its first flagship store outside America, taking over a 12,000 square foot corner site on Regent Street. It's a genuine landmark for the brand. It's also, almost incidentally, happening in the exact country where her relationship with Lewis Hamilton has been playing out in public for months.

What does the store actually feel like inside?

Walk in, and the first thing you see is a towering nude sculpture by artist Vanessa Beecroft, lit from above by an oversized ceiling disc, framed by curved walls in the same fleshy, neutral tones SKIMS uses on its packaging. It's the kind of entrance built for a photo, and it's clearly meant to be one. The rest of the two-level store follows the same language throughout: soft curves, cream and beige everywhere, cabinets rounded enough to double as seats. It was designed by Rafael de Cárdenas, the same studio behind SKIMS' Fifth Avenue flagship in New York, so the London store deliberately echoes that one rather than starting from scratch.
Kardashian called London "one of the most inspiring fashion cities" in a statement marking the opening, and the choice to make it SKIMS' first flagship outside America wasn't accidental. Inside, shoppers get access to the brand's full UK range in one place for the first time, shapewear, loungewear, menswear, and the NikeSKIMS collaboration line, rather than piecing it together online.

Why has she been so visible in Britain this year?

Because the store isn't the only reason. Kardashian's relationship with Formula 1 world champion Lewis Hamilton became public in February, and since then the pair have been photographed together at a private members' club in the Cotswolds, walking arm in arm through Tokyo, and browsing a Vivienne Westwood store on the same trip. It's the kind of relationship that seems to generate a new set of paparazzi photos every few weeks, in a different country each time.
Not everyone is convinced it's as simple as it looks. Some entertainment outlets have reported anonymous claims that the relationship functions partly as a "showmance," a strategically timed pairing rather than a purely private one. Neither Kardashian nor Hamilton has addressed that characterisation directly, and the two have a longer history than the recent headlines suggest, having first been photographed together at a London awards show back in 2014, years before either was linked to the other romantically.
SKIMS Regent Street, at a glance
Location245-247 Regent Street, London
Size12,000 sq ft, two levels
DesignerRafael de Cárdenas
Notable featureNude sculpture by Vanessa Beecroft
SignificanceSKIMS' first flagship store outside the US
Product rangeShapewear, loungewear, menswear, NikeSKIMS

Is any of this actually connected?

Not officially. There's no suggestion the store opening and the relationship were planned to overlap, and SKIMS has been building toward a European flagship since at least 2021, when a smaller Paris pop-up tested the same visual identity on a much smaller scale. But the coincidence is hard to ignore: for a few months this year, the two most-photographed parts of Kim Kardashian's life, the brand she built and the relationship everyone's trying to decode, have both been unfolding on the same small island, a few hundred miles apart from each other at most.

For a woman whose entire career has run on being watched, Britain's had an unusually good seat this year.