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You\u2019ve probably heard of British entrepreneur Emma Grede because of Skims, the $5 billion shapewear company she runs with Kim Kardashian. She\u2019s also invested in other brands with the family, such as cleaning products company Safely and Kylie Jenner\u2019s clothing line, Khy. And the growing empire can all be traced back to one phone call she made to Kris Jenner that changed everything.<\/p>\n
It was 2015, and Grede had built her own entertainment and talent agency, Independent Talent Brand, which saw her jetting between London and L.A.\u00a0\u201cI knew every manager, agent, publicist, lawyer in Hollywood, that was my job,\u201d Grede recalls in an exclusive interview with Fortune.\u00a0<\/p>\n
It put her in a perfect position to pitch her new idea: a radically inclusive denim brand tailored for women who\u2019d been overlooked by mainstream fashion. In her mind, she\u2019d already picked the perfect partner for the brand: Khlo\u00e9 Kardashian, who \u201cembodied that idea right from the beginning.\u201d The star had often been honest about her experience as the curvy sister.\u00a0<\/p>\n
But here\u2019s the catch: Grede hadn\u2019t run a fashion business before, and the two had never worked together. Instead of waiting for an introduction, she boldly called the family matriarch and \u201cmomager,\u201d Jenner herself.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI had an idea, and I formed the partnership in my mind,\u201d the now 43-year-old self-made millionaire says. \u201cThe difference between me and someone else is that I made the phone call, I took the meeting, and I made it happen.<\/p>\n
\u201cI have no impostor syndrome and no delusions of who gets to run a business,\u201d Grede adds. \u201cI just thought, \u2018If not me, then who?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
Jenner asked Grede when she\u2019d next be flying to L.A. to discuss the partnership face-to-face. At the time, Grede was only flying that way once a quarter, but she quickly lied and said she was heading there the next week. So that\u2019s exactly what she did\u2014and the rest is history.\u00a0<\/p>\n
When Good American denim dropped a year later, it made $1 million on day one, making it the biggest denim launch in apparel history. And since then, she\u2019s gone on to sit on the board of the Obama Foundation and become the first Black female investor on Shark Tank. Most recently, she\u2019s teamed up with tennis champion Coco Gauff for a mentorship campaign with UPS.<\/p>\n
Today, Grede says, she\u2019s always advising founders to copy her, be more bold, and put themselves out on a limb: \u201cAn idea in your head is just an idea in your head. A lot of people talk and speak about things a lot\u2014sometimes you just got to do.\u201d<\/p>\n
Emma Grede says she\u2019s always been \u2018audacious\u2019<\/p>\n
Grede\u2019s confidence isn\u2019t luck\u2014or even something she developed alongside the billion-dollar success of her businesses. It\u2019s a trait she was just born with. \u201cI\u2019ve got a lot of audacity, and I think that you need that to get to where you want to go,\u201d the East Londoner tells Fortune.<\/p>\n
In her late teens, for example, Grede had aspirations of working in Britain\u2019s equivalent of Broadway. When the theater bosses ignored her handwritten notes asking for work experience, she stormed in there in person.<\/p>\n
\u201cI remember pounding the pavement in the West End,\u201d she recalls. \u201cI just thought because I didn\u2019t get any answers, that maybe they weren\u2019t getting my letters. So I took to hand-delivering letters.\u201d<\/p>\n
Even when she was holding down a day job, she\u2019d boldly ask customers with enviable careers for work experience\u2014and it would work.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen I was working in a clothes shop, I would talk to everyone. I\u2019d be like, \u2018Where do you work? What would you do?\u2019 If a stylist came in on a Friday and was doing a shoot on the weekend, I\u2019d be assisting them on the weekend. I did that multiple times.\u201d<\/p>\n
She says she would actively put herself into \u201csituations,\u201d versus passively waiting for opportunities to come to her. After finding out where customers worked, she would follow up with: \u201cDo you need some help? Can I come?\u201d<\/p>\n
Grede\u2019s advice for jobless Gen Z: Kill your darlings<\/p>\n
Millions of Gen Zers are currently unemployed\u2014or rather, NEETs, not in employment, education, or training.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Grede, meanwhile, has been working since the start of high school.<\/p>\n
\u201cI have had a job since I was 12,\u201d she says. \u201cI started delivering newspapers, then I worked in a deli, then I worked in about four different clothing shops, then I spent a year and a half doing work experience in every small designer and PR agency in London. Then I worked for Quintessentially, then I went to Inca Productions, where I worked for a fashion show production company. And I changed my job after about three years there. So I went from being an event producer to running the sponsorship department, and then I started my own company.\u201d<\/p>\n
Essentially, each experience led to the next. She treated every role\u2014no matter how unglamorous\u2014as a way to collect skills, contacts, and credibility that stacked into her next move. Thanks to a habit of speaking up and standing out, she squeezed real, r\u00e9sum\u00e9-worthy experience out of even the most unassuming jobs.<\/p>\n
Of course, even Grede experienced her fair share of noes along the way: \u201cI got very, very, very comfortable with rejection. If I think about how many things didn\u2019t work out for me, there are a lot more than the things that seemingly on paper did work out.\u201d<\/p>\n
But she dusted herself off and tried again. It\u2019s why her advice for those struggling to break in is to look at every experience as a step forward\u2014even if it\u2019s not the dream role yet.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI would think about the idea of transferable skills,\u201d she advises Gen Z job seekers. \u201cWe all set ourselves up to think about exactly what we might want to do. And the reality is that you can learn pretty interchangeable skills anywhere.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Growing up, Grede was fixed on the idea of working in fashion. \u201cI could have got a lot of those skills in an advertising agency or working in another creative industry,\u201d she explains. Gaining experience at an art gallery or boutique and then working your way up the ladder is much easier than pining for a job at a fashion house straight out of college. You just have to put aside your ego and prioritize building momentum over perfection.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019d do anything to get yourself going in forward motion,\u201d Grede explains.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cIn England, we have that lovely saying, \u2018killing your darlings,\u2019 and sometimes you just have to kill your darlings. You have to do whatever you\u2019ve got to do to move forward. It\u2019s better to just think about forward motion as opposed to being so fixated on what you\u2019d originally imagined things would be like.\u201d<\/p>\n
A version of this story originally published on\u00a0Fortune.com\u00a0on\u00a0Sept. 23, 2025<\/p>\n
Read more success interviews from Fortune\u2019s Orianna Rosa Royle:<\/p>\n
#Emma #Grede #billion #Skims #empire #began #audacious #cold #call #Kris #Jenner<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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