NBCUMV Kim Zolciak-Biermann at BravoCon 2019.
Former Real Housewives of Atlanta star Kim Zolciak-Biermann has a new business venture…and no, it’s not a coffee shop. Launched about a month ago, in June 2020, Zolciak-Biermann introduced something she’s been working on for months to the public: a luxury swimsuit brand called Salty K Swim. The brand already has a following, with over 56.4k followers on their Instagram page, and two sold-out collections. In an exclusive interview with Heavy, Zolciak-Biermann revealed more about the story of Salty K Swim and what’s to come for the brand.
“I’ve always loved bathing suits,” Zolciak-Biermann revealed to Heavy, “I own probably over 1,000 bathing suits, I’m not even kidding you. I’ve always kind of had to have them altered for either my boobs or just the way it looks on my body. It would get pretty frustrating for me that I couldn’t just find suits that fit really perfectly.”
Zolciak-Biermann said that she first began thinking about creating a swimsuit line about five years ago, but it wasn’t until last year when the idea really came to life. “My other passion is fashion, fabrics, design, I’ve always kind of been that way and I love the ocean, so Salty K was a no-brainer for me…” Zolciak-Biermann said, “It all just kind of fell into my lap, and it’s been awesome. It’s really hard, the hardest part of Salty K is that I probably have 1,000 different designs and a gazillion different colors, so it’s been really hard for me to narrow down what I’m going to release first, how I’m going to release it, what colors I’m going to release it in…Other than that, I spend all day and all night designing with my team and drawing and picking out colors.”
Interestingly enough, Zolciak-Biermann revealed that the inspiration behind some of her current branding came to her in a dream. “I had a dream one night that Salty K was in the Bahamas,” Zolciak-Biermann said, “At The Atlantis, there’s a little boardwalk of stores that we used to go to all the time, me and my girls, and I saw Salty K there with the signs, the lettering, everything. I woke up that morning and I drew it out, and that’s exactly how the label came about and how the color scheme came about.”
Salty K Is Extremely Focused On Sustainability
When Zolciak-Biermann was creating the line, it was important to her that the brand had a focus on sustainability and was made from recycled fabrics. According to Zolciak-Biermann, the material for the Salty K swimsuits is made from plastic and fishing nets that are pulled from the ocean and then chopped down into little chips which allows them to make into the fabric.
“It was my way of giving back,” Zolciak-Biermann said, “It’s also, hopefully, a reminder for people who are at the beach in these suits–take your stuff with you. Don’t leave plastic bottles behind. I’m super excited to partner in the very near future with environmental organizations that are into this as well, and I want to bring awareness to this. This is a major problem. I want my kids, my grandkids, so forth and so on to be able to enjoy the ocean as I have. Choosing sustainable fabric, for me, is the way to go.”
Salty K Is a Family Affair
Zolciak-Biermann revealed to Heavy that she’s not the only one behind the Salty K brand. Her husband, Kroy Biermann, is involved, too.
“I have the vision, I have the eye for fashion, I love texture and I love to touch fabrics,” Zolciak-Biermann shared, “My husband is like, ‘okay, that’s great, but what about a website, who is going to ship the stuff, how are we doing that?’ It was kind of funny because this is the first company that I’ve done solo with just my husband and I. Kroy has worked day and night, every day on the website, is dealing with that, finding the warehouse…but Kroy has done all of the kind of backend of things and I’ve been kind of on the frontend of stuff.”
Zolciak-Biermann has also been enjoying having her two older daughters, Brielle and Ariana Biermann, model the suits. “Every day, my girls come down the stairs in my suits,” Zolciak-Biermann said, “I have the most supportive children in the world. And husband, of course, who has made this all possible…”
When the second drop of the collection happened, Zolciak-Biermann said that she was actually on a business call when it went live on the website. When she got off of the phone, much of the line was sold out.
“By the time I got off the phone, I just checked the website and it was sold out,” Zolciak-Biermann shared, “Kroy was like, ‘why are you crying?’ And I was like, ‘it’s happy tears.’ Obviously being a single parent and having my girls, I worked two jobs, I did all of these things. My girls sent me these really incredible text messages about how proud of me they are, and how exciting this is. It was so exhilarating, so exciting, I’m so grateful…it’s my true passion and I went off just my gut and my intuition with things and colors. For people to love them like they do, it’s the most incredible feeling.”
There’s A Lot More To Come For Salty K
Salty K has already sold out two lines in less than one month, but there’s still a lot more to come for the brand in the future. Zolciak-Biermann revealed that Salty K has a kids line and a plus-size line in the works, as well as new colors and styles.
“I have red coming out, which is like candy apple red, which is something I love so much,” Zolciak-Biermann said. “What’s funny is that Brielle has like, butter skin. She has the most beautiful skin color and texture, and there’s Ariana who has freckles and her skin isn’t as dark as Brielle’s. Then there’s me, I’m kind of in-between, and Kroy has more red undertones. I take all of my fabric and hold it up to everybody outside and make sure that every single one of us, it’ll work on.”
And soon, Salty K will be a brand that everyone of every size is able to enjoy and wear confidently.
“The day that I launched, there was such an incredible response for plus sizes. I immediately called my team and we’re making adjustments. I go up to an XL now, but we’ll be going up to 2X and 3X in the future. We’re working very hard on that for everybody, and I want to have sexy suits that people are comfortable and confident in. I double-line all of my suits so it tends to hold everything in really tight, and it’s a thick fabric. I’m very excited about that, and it’s definitely coming.” Zolciak-Biermann said.
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