Key keywords: Emma Grede, Kardashian business ally, female ambition, multi-billion dollar retail brands, women entrepreneurship, Skims co-founder, Good American, inclusive fashion, consumer-centric retail In a recent wide-ranging interview, Emma Grede, the British businesswoman best known as the long-term strategic partner of the Kardashian-Jenner family, shared her unfiltered thoughts on female ambition, the barriers facing women in business, and the playbook she used to build a portfolio of retail brands valued at over $5 billion combined. Raised in a working-class neighborhood in East London, Grede started working odd jobs in event marketing at age 16, and quickly noticed a gaping hole in the fashion and retail industry: the vast majority of products were designed for a narrow sliver of consumers, ignoring the needs of plus-size women, women of color, and shoppers looking for affordable, high-quality functional goods. That insight led to her first major partnership with Khloé Kardashian in 2016, when the pair launched Good American, the first mass-market denim brand to offer sizes from 00 to 24 at launch. The brand raked in $1 million in sales on its first day of operation, and has since expanded into activewear, swimwear and footwear, with annual revenue topping $200 million. Grede followed that success in 2019 by co-founding Skims with Kim Kardashian, the shapewear and loungewear brand focused on inclusive sizing and skin tone options. Skims now has a valuation of $4 billion, counts the U.S. Olympic Team as an official partner, and is sold in major retailers including Nordstrom and Selfridges. Grede also teamed up with Kris Jenner to launch Safely, a line of non-toxic home cleaning products that hit $100 million in revenue in its first year on the market. During the interview, Grede pushed back against long-standing social stigma around female ambition, noting that for decades women have been discouraged from openly stating they want to build large, profitable businesses for fear of being labeled “aggressive” or “unlikable.” “Ambition is not a dirty word for women,” Grede said. “We need to stop telling young girls to shrink their goals to make other people comfortable. If your idea solves a real problem for people, there is no limit to how big you can grow it.” She also emphasized that her partnership with the Kardashian-Jenner family works because each party brings complementary skills: the family has unmatched consumer reach and trend intuition, while Grede brings decades of expertise in supply chain management, product development and retail operations. For aspiring female founders, Grede’s core advice is to prioritize unmet consumer needs over viral trends, and to never apologize for asking for the funding, resources and support you need to scale your vision.