Emma Grede, the multi-millionaire co-founder of Skims and Good American, is extolling the virtues of manifesting. ‘I always dreamed of being in fashion,’ she says from the backseat of a car, as she is driven to a women-in-business conference in Santa Barbara. ‘I would always buy ELLE as a kid and would cut out pictures of the models walking down the catwalk and file them. I was obsessed with fashion and supermodels and not just the business and glamour of it, but the aspiration too.’
Grede has come a long way from Plaistow, East London, where she was one of four daughters raised by a single mother. ‘I uniquely understand what it means to be a woman with very little means and a big ambition,’ she explains. ‘My mum had me when she was 21. She had three children under the age of five by the time she was 27 and so I know what it means to sacrifice a lot and to not have a lot of opportunity or choice. My mum and her sisters and certainly my grandma had to get up and do whatever was in front of them.’
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There was a time when success felt far from inevitable. Diagnosed at 21 with dyslexia, Grede found school ‘incredibly hard.’ She dropped out when she was 15 and enrolled herself at the London College of Fashion in 2001 at the age of 16. Within six months, she’d pulled out of her course because she could not afford to study full-time. Instead, she started balancing fashion industry work experience placements and part-time work in a shop. ‘School was hard for me, and I couldn’t cope with the work because of my learning difficulties. I left home, I was living in a high-rise in East London with no power, and I just needed money,’ she notes. ‘I managed to just about make ends meet. And I did that for over a year. But it was interesting, because I went around the fashion business, finding things I didn't want to do. And eventually I landed a job where I learned to be good at negotiating and contracts.’
Her career started to accelerate. In 2008 at the age of 26, Grede founded Independent Talent Brand Worldwide, a London-based talent management and entertainment marketing agency, with funding from Saturday Group, her now-husband's fashion marketing agency. Among the deals that ITB brokered was Natalie Portman’s long-standing relationship with Dior. ‘I learned very quickly that I happen to be just a pretty good talker,’ Grede reveals. ‘I'm a good seller. I can talk and make things happen.’
And make things happen she did, indeed. A decade after its establishment, ITB was acquired for an undisclosed amount, and Grede exited the company. In 2024, she was named as one of America’s Richest Self-Made Women by Forbes. Her estimated net worth stands at approximately $390 million (£302 million) in large part thanks to her 8% stake in Skims — the brand she co-founded with Kim Kardashian; 22 % stake in Safely — the brand she co-founded with Kris Jenner; and 23% stake in Good American — the brand she co-founded with Khloe Kardashian. It’s the latter that lay the groundwork for Grede’s enduring relationship with the famous family. She pitched the idea for a body-positive and size-inclusive denim brand to Kris Jenner during Paris Fashion Week in 2015. In 2016, she pitched it to Kardashian herself and later that year, Good American was born, selling $1 million (£770,000) worth of denim on its first day alone. It was the largest denim launch in history. One year later, and Grede and her husband — Frame Denim founder and Swedish entrepreneur, Jens Grede — swapped Britain for Bel-Air, where the couple and their four children still reside.
Furnished with an appreciation of women from her childhood and throughout her career, Grede is today turning her attention to uplifting, empowering and, perhaps most notably, investing in others. She is chairwoman of The Fifteen Percent Pledge, a non-profit organisation founded by Aurora James that works to get retailers to dedicate 15% of their monthly budget to Black-owned businesses. And, after a guest appearance as the first Black woman to appear as a Shark on Dragons' Den spin-off series Shark Tank, this year Grede will add yet another string to her bow: she has become a full-time Dragon herself.
‘The more successful you become, the more responsibility you realise that you have,’ she says. 'I'm obsessed with the idea of who gets to be in business, who gets chances, and who's allowed to be successful. And when you open the pathways and give people that might not otherwise have had the opportunity, I think that we're all richer for that.’
Is there another brand in her yet? ‘Who knows! Never say never. I always say, “this is the last thing I’ll do” when I launch something, but I’ve got the bug,’ she laughs. ‘No number of jeans or knickers that will ever be enough! And it's so nice when you get to do something every single day that you feel passionately about.’
She concedes, before she hops out of her chauffeur-driven car to the key-note conference she’s speaking at: ‘I was a really poor kid growing up, and I've made it my business to find financial freedom and to be able to have what money affords me, which is choices.’ If that’s not proof that dreams really do come true, then what is?
You can listen to Emma’s new podcast, Aspire with Emma Grede, available now everywhere podcasts are found, and on Emma’s YouTube channel.
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Naomi May is a seasoned culture journalist and editor with over ten years’ worth of experience in shaping stories and building digital communities. After graduating with a First Class Honours from City University's prestigious Journalism course, Naomi joined the Evening Standard, where she worked across both the newspaper and website. She is now the Digital Editor at ELLE Magazine and has written features for the likes of The Guardian, Vogue, Vice and Refinery29, among many others. Naomi is also the host of the ELLE Collective book club.
