68 The Times Magazinen the beginning, Emma Grede created
influencers. Then she invented size 15- a dress fit no brands have previously
offered, but which sits right in the
middle of the female average – and
advertised it with actual-size models
who had stretch marks and a few rolls
on their stomachs.
More recently she gave us shapewear
that doesn’t cut off circulation or look
like surgical stockings. On the seventh day,
she rested at her multimillion-dollar mansion
in Bel Air, the wealthy suburb of Los Angeles,
where she has a garden banqueting table
that seats 50 and a wardrobe that is spread
over four rooms.
Grede, 39, is the most successful British
entrepreneur you’ve never heard of. Her
denim brand, Good American (where sizes
range from 00 to 24), took $1 million on its
first day of trading and grew by triple digits last
year, despite the pandemic. Her underwear
line, Skims, created smalls for the US Olympic
team. Her all-natural cleaning range, Safely,
made eco-friendly products mainstream at the
height of the pandemic’s hygiene fixation. Yet
her dentist only worked out who she was after
her recent turn as an investor on Shark Tank,
the US equivalent of Dragons’ Den.
That’s because Grede’s name doesn’t appear
next to the products that have made her an
estimated $5 million (£3.7 million) fortune.
Although CEO and co-founder of these
companies, she also happens to be the
business end of the Kardashian klan, using
their fame to launch the products she believes
people want and need. Khloé Kardashian
(214 million Instagram followers) is the face
of the jeans, Kim (280 million) is the body
behind Skims, and their mother/“momager”,
Kris Jenner (45 million), is the unlikely
ambassador for the cleaning products.
Unlikely, because a woman who last year sold
one of her three California megamansions for
$15 million probably wouldn’t know what they
were last scrubbed down with.
“One of the hardest things now is to have
cut-through,” Grede tells me over Zoom from
Los Angeles, where her Skims and Good
American offices are next door to each other.
“When you partner with talent, you can
cut through the noise. But it’s got to be an
incredible product; if it’s shit, it won’t sell. My
superpower is just knowing what an average
woman would want.”
When Good American launched, Grede
received hundreds of grateful emails every
day. She still fields plenty of messages on
Instagram, where she has 195,000 followers
of her own, from women delighted to have
found denim (and now swim, gym and
everyday wear) that fits them. After only
six years in business, GA’s skinny jeans are
now known as “America’s favourite” and the
company was last year awarded a prestigious
B Corp certificate, meaning its production
process is accountable to high environmental
and social standards. Prices for a pair start
at around £90. “Men in boardrooms used to
make decisions on behalf of women,” Grede
says. “If she’s a fuller figure, it has to be cut
on the bias and calf-length. Well, we did vinyl
miniskirts in a size 22 and they sold like crazy.”
Grede tells me the Good American
boardroom is a rather more diverse affair.
“It’s just what happens when you’re a black
woman in charge of a company.” But at Skims
at least, the board director also happens to be
her husband. Jens Grede, 43, is a co-founder
not only of the booming Kardashian undies
range but also of the luxe denim brand
Frame and joint CEO of the London creative
agency the Saturday Group, both of which he
co-owns with fellow Swede Erik Torstensson.
Torstensson, 42, is married to the Net-A-
Porter founder Natalie Massenet and the
families often visit each other in California
and the Hamptons.
“I’d love to tell you that we don’t talk
business at home,” Emma Grede says with
a smile. “But we talk about it all the time.
Jens has always supported my ambition,
both in business and as a husband. I’m lucky
I married a Swede who knew about equality
because his mum taught him. It has never
been down to me to look after our house and
children [son, Grey, 7, and daughter, Lola, 4].”
The couple have been together for 13 years
and worked together for 14. “I move quickly,”
she jokes.
Grede describes herself as “scrappy” and
“a hustler”. She cut her teeth finding sponsors
for fashion brands who wanted to put on
expensive catwalk shows, partnering labels
such as Alexander McQueen and Vivienne
Westwood with beauty brands, drinks firms,
tech companies and more – and taking a
slice for arranging the deal. Her first big pay
cheque came aged 26, when a company she
was working for was bought by the publishing
house Condé Nast.
After running one of Saturday’s creative
divisions for Grede and Torstensson, in 2008
Emma founded a new venture, ITB, a talent
management group; she still chairs it.
“I was early to understand the power of
influence,” she explains. “It had traditionally
been A-list actresses in fragrance ads, but
I looked at anyone with a cult following.
Artists, stylists – to me, everyone had
influence that you could potentially
commercialise and monetise.”
ITB was among the first to pioneer and
broker lucrative brand partnerships on the
fledgling Instagram between the likes of Justin
Bieber and Adidas, and the Kardashian half-
sister Kendall Jenner and Calvin Klein, as well
as smaller profile “nano-influencers”. Gredeand her team moved consumer marketing
past advertising and into #sponcon (sponsored
content), a development that now powers an
entire economy on social media and beyond.
“I am unashamedly focused on making
money,” she tells me in an estuary accent
undiminished by her move to LA four years
ago. “I’ve never had a problem talking about
it. People talk about their purpose and why
they do their jobs – I wanted to be able to
afford a certain lifestyle. Money has always
been a pillar for me, because I didn’t have any.”
Grede grew up in east London and then
Essex, one of four daughters raised by a singleI
‘I am unashamedly
focused on making
money. My superpower
is knowing what an
average woman wants’
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