Emma Grede: The Architect of Cultural Capital

Co-founder of Good American and founding partner of SKIMS, Emma Grede is reshaping the luxury essentials market with sharp instinct, inclusive values, and an iron business hand.

Emma Grede is not just building brands—she’s building new paradigms. As the co-founder of Good American and a founding partner of SKIMS, Grede has quietly emerged as one of the most powerful Black women in fashion today. And yet, her story begins far from the front rows of Paris or the boardrooms of LA.

Born in East London to a Jamaican-Trinidadian mother and a working-class background, Emma grew up surrounded by industrious women. Her mother worked for Morgan Stanley by day and studied at night. That blueprint—tenacity paired with vision—became Grede’s own signature.

She studied business at the London College of Fashion, but her education came as much from the music video sets and styling rooms of early-2000s London as from any lecture hall. She launched ITB Worldwide, a talent and influencer agency, which quickly caught the attention of the Kardashian-Jenner machine.

It was Grede who saw the gap in denim sizing. Who saw that luxury casualwear wasn’t reaching enough bodies. And who convinced Khloé Kardashian to co-found Good American with her. They launched in 2016 with a size-inclusive denim line that sold $1M on day one. It was more than a collection—it was a statement.

Then came SKIMS, where Grede partnered with Kim Kardashian and her husband Jens Grede. What began as shapewear now includes intimates, loungewear, and men’s lines—and is estimated to be worth over $4 billion. But Grede's genius lies in her ability to weave together message and margin. She doesn’t market empowerment—she builds it structurally.

She sits on the board of The Fifteen Percent Pledge, founded by Aurora James, and was the first Black woman to serve as chair of the British Fashion Council’s Institute of Positive Fashion. She is a mentor to countless Black and female entrepreneurs and speaks often about the need to institutionalize opportunity.

Her personal style is minimal, her communication surgical. Her favorite phrase? “I build. I don’t pose.”

ULM Insight:

Emma Grede reframes luxury through access and intelligence. In a world that often equates heritage with power, she proves that cultural fluency and operational brilliance can build new empires—on your own terms.

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