diff --git a/Lib/packaging/command/bdist.py b/Lib/packaging/command/bdist.py
--- a/Lib/packaging/command/bdist.py
+++ b/Lib/packaging/command/bdist.py
@@ -124,6 +124,9 @@
             cmd_name = commands[i]
             sub_cmd = self.get_reinitialized_command(cmd_name)
 
+            # passing skip_build to a sub command
+            sub_cmd.skip_build = self.skip_build
+
             # passing the owner and group names for tar archiving
             if cmd_name == 'bdist_dumb':
                 sub_cmd.owner = self.owner