September 10, 2025 |
Emma Grede shows up to the set of her 10 shoot on a sunny Monday morning in West Hollywood wearing Ritz-Carlton-branded striped silk pyjamas, with an Hermès black crocodile Birkin in her hand. Such is the life of one of the most powerful, hardest working Brits in America.
The co-founder and CEO of Good American, a founding partner of Skims, the chairwoman of the Fifteen Percent Pledge and a mother of four, Grede has chosen now to step out from behind the scenes of these projects and into the spotlight to discuss her most recent, and perhaps most personal, business venture: her own podcast.
With the launch of Aspire with Emma Grede, she’s doing what she does best: telling it like it is. “No one is honest about what it takes,” she says. “Nobody’s honest about the sacrifices and nobody admits their failures. In the culture we have today, there’s this idea that success happens overnight. You don’t wake up like Cinderella. I’m 42 and I feel like I’m just getting started.”
Grede’s fairytale began in East London, as the eldest of four girls born to a single mother who worked at Morgan Stanley (her dad is of Jamaican and Trinidadian heritage). With the responsibility of acting as a second parental figure to her siblings, Grede was “a busy 12-year-old… It never felt like a burden, it just felt like my responsibility.” Her childhood instilled an intuitive superpower in Grede, which is now a big part of what she attributes to her transformational success. “I’m led by who I am. It’s an East London principle, telling the truth at all costs. You better tell the truth because your reputation is all you have. In business, that’s never more true. East London is a place where I was taught to work hard. I’ve had a job since I was a kid, from selling fireworks to delivering newspapers. My mum gave us an unbelievable sense of self-belief. All you have is what you’re prepared to give, so you better give it your all.”
top, trousers and belt by MARC JACOBS, earrings, rings (right hand) and bracelets by CARTIER
It was The Clothes Show that ignited Grede’s love of fashion as a young teen. The BBC One programme, which ran throughout the late ’80s and ’90s, brought fashion to the small screen for the first time and inspired a generation of enthusiasts. “I’m so lucky because I grew up in a place that was so full of culture. British art, music and fashion was there and it was in your face. Being in London and seeing that, there was a sense of escapism. It was something so far from what I grew up knowing. I wanted to get as close as I could to it.” Today, on set, she revels in wearing full, fabulous looks from Dior, Fendi, Marc Jacobs and, of course, Vivienne Westwood. A true London girl, she screams, “Let’s do Westwood! This outfit is doing the most!”
Recognising me as a fellow fashion obsessive, Grede tells me she has a uniform. “I have a thousand pairs of black trousers, a thousand jackets and a thousand pairs of shoes, which I interchange. I’m a basic bitch.” She means it in a good way, as an intrinsic part of knowing, designing and developing a product women want before they know they want it. “I understand how the person who has a traditional job and makes one or two purchases every now and then is going to spend their money. I know how precious that item might be. Everyone wants to feel special, put something on and feel good. And pay the right price for it.” Her fixation on how clothes make you feel began with her first major purchase: a pair of Gucci shoes she bought aged 15. “The best feeling in the world. The bag, box, receipt. I’m attuned to how those things make you feel. And how they can make you feel less than, right? For a long time so many women were counted out because of their size. In doing Good American, that felt like the answer.”
from left: dress by VIVIENNE WESTWOOD, earrings and bracelets by CARTIER, shoes by VIVIENNE WESTWOOD from PECHUGA VINTAGE; dress, bra, socks and shoes by MIU MIU
The concept for Good American came to Grede in 2015. After a decade of interning in London at fashion production companies, then starting her first business – the marketing and entertainment agency Independent Talent Brand – which matched fashion designers with funding, Grede found a gap in the market and successfully pitched Good American to Kris Jenner as something that could bridge the significant sizing gap in fashion. Grede launched the now B Corp-certified brand in 2016 with Khloé Kardashian (the certification verifies social and environmental performance). Building on that success, Grede co-founded Skims in 2019 with Kim Kardashian and her Swedish husband, the co-founder of Frame Denim, Jens Grede, as a solution-orientated brand creating the next generation of shapewear. The company was valued at £3 billion by 2023.
“The reason I have such an amazing working relationship [with Kim and Khloé] is because I don’t speak on their behalf,” she says, although she is a big part of the reason their businesses have succeeded at this level. “So much of who they are they have built [themselves] and I shouldn’t try to encroach on that. I’m the luckiest because I get to work with so many incredible women.”
It has made Grede value who gets to come to the table with their ideas. She adds, “Women approach business in such a different way. It’s shown me how incredible women operate and how powerful they are when given the chance.” Transforming these companies into billion-pound powerhouses has come from mastering anticipating trends and, of course, clever marketing. “I try to understand the American consumer and be there for her needs. I’m thinking, how do you make the most incredible jeans on the planet or the best bra?” Grede’s focus is on how she can have the most useful conversations. She believes her purpose is to share her knowledge and connect with like-minded entrepreneurial people on a larger scale. “Almost every morning when I’m in the car, I take a call at 8am and speak to a young founder or somebody who’s just started a business. I’ll try to give them advice, but it’s not scalable. [The podcast] is my way of taking everything I’ve learned and all the people I’ve met and letting everyone benefit.” So far, Grede’s guests have included trailblazers like Gwyneth Paltrow, Michael Rubin, Jay Shetty, Karlie Kloss and Meghan Markle. The undercurrent flowing through every conversation she has is honesty. “I’m in a situation where I can talk about the things I’ve failed at and that can be useful to someone else. The benefit of getting older is understanding where the pleasure comes from.”
from left: jacket, shirt, tie and skirt by VIVENNE WESTWOOD, earrings and rings by CARTIER, shoes by VIVIENNE WESTWOOD from PECHUGA VINTAGE; dress and shoes by DOLCE & GABBANA
Grede is straight up with her advice. She takes pride in her hustle and, earlier this year, videos of her on Steven Bartlett’s Diary of a CEO podcast went viral on TikTok because of her lack of belief in work-life balance, which some people found polarising. “If you are leading an extraordinary life, to think extraordinary effort wouldn’t be coupled to that somehow is crazy,” she told Bartlett. In short, she thinks that people should go to the office every day and work through the nights and weekends if they truly want to succeed. While some don’t agree with that stance on long hours in a hybrid WFH culture, she remains unfazed.
“People have an idea of who and what you are, and they take pieces of you. We’ve become so accustomed to things being fake that when somebody’s authentic, people find it hard to take. I’m trying to dismiss some of that because being fake helps no one.” Grede has the gift of never taking anything personally. Perhaps it comes from the extensive therapy she’s had on and off since she was 18, which she says has influenced her leadership style. “I’m constantly trying to anchor into the great parts of somebody and be in constant learning mode. Resilience is key to a founder, but it’s also a key attribute of just being a happy woman. You can blame yourself and be fearful imagining everything is about you, but it’s not. Nobody is watching you like you are watching you. I learned from a young age that I can make mistakes and they’re not a reflection of me.” Her advice to young women is to simply be a good person. She radiates warmth and understanding, especially to the women around her. “You can’t be a people pleaser and a leader, but I do think you have to be good. You have to be able to look at yourself in the mirror and be like, ‘Do I do right by people? Do I make decisions I feel good about?’ It doesn’t take much.” That mindset has extended into her philanthropic work. She serves on the board of the Obama Foundation and, as chairwoman of the non-profit Fifteen Percent Pledge organisation, she works to get American brands to reallocate 15 per cent of their annual spend to Black-owned businesses.
from left: dress by SKIMS, earrings, ring, necklace and bracelets by ALEXIS BITTAR, shoes by MAISON ERNEST; CHANEL
On set with 10 she never stops, regrouping with her team between every look to talk about her jam-packed schedule, but in front of the camera she lets go, dancing to the music. A self-confessed ’90s kid, she says the soundtrack to her life would be something by “Whitney or Mariah” and she makes a point that her “favourite year of music is 1998”. A highlight of the week is a non-negotiable date night with Jens, her husband and “biggest cheerleader”. “I’m lucky I met someone who values all the stuff that is important to me. You can’t do what I do with four kids and these companies without having someone by your side who is willing to back you. I think the person you choose to be in a relationship with is such a big fucking decision.”
At the weekend, she will drive from her Bel Air residence with her family to her beachfront Malibu mansion. How does she instil that East London grit into her kids, who are now living a privileged LA lifestyle? “I’m aware I’m living a very different life to how I grew up. It’s important that my kids have a front-row view to what it means to live your life with a sense of purpose. Ambition is important. I think the best thing is for them to see me getting up and working hard, and then figuring out what they value. What’s important to them? I don’t care what it is but just care about something deeply.” Right now she cares deeply about doing something new that scares her, which is her podcast. “I’m best when I’m out of my comfort zone and pushing myself. I’ve watched too many episodes of Oprah and listened to so many podcasts and I’m like, ‘I don’t know how to interview someone!’ But you know what? I’m curious and I’m resilient. I’m just trying to be excellent.”
10 Magazine’s 25 anniversary issue is out on newsstands September 15. Pre-order your copy here.
EMMA GREDE: MILLION DOLLAR BABY
Photographer MAGNUS UNNAR
Fashion Editor SEBASTIEN HOHL
Talent EMMA GREDE
Text ROXY LOLA
Hair ALEX THAO at The Only Agency using UNITE HAIR
Make-up DOM DELLA at The Only Agency using PAT MCGRATH LABS
Digital operator TUCKER LEARY
Fashion assistant GEORGIA EDWARDS
Production TIAGI and SONYA MAZURYK
Producer MARTHA BARR
Production assistant ANDREW PFEIFER
Post-production STEVE ALDAHL
Special thanks to DERRICK BROWN, OLIVIA HOMAN, BRITTANY SMITH, CHANTELLE-SHAKILA TIAGI and JOSS MEEK
