She Wants to Turn Her Brand Into a Following... And Her Mentor Knows How It's Done.

Emma Grede, co-founder of fashion brands Skims and Good American, shares business advice with KIN Apparel founder Philomina Kane.

- By Graham Winfrey. Photographs by Ally Green

Reaching $1 million in sales is a milestone that can take years to achieve. For Emma Grede, it took one day. In 2016, Grede's size-inclusive denim brand, Good American, sold $1 million of product within hours of launching. By the midafternoon, the company was completely sold out of jeans. It didn't hurt that Good American's co-founder was reality TV star Khloé Kardashian.

While Los Angeles-based Good American had pulled off the largest denim launch in history, Grede spent much of her first day as a fashion entrepreneur explaining to customers why her company had run out of product. The experience helped set the tone for how the brand would communicate with its customers for years to come.

It was the beginning of a two-way dialogue between Good American and its community, Grede says. “That's been a huge thing for us.”

Good American wasn't Grede's first entrepreneurial venture; she founded the entertainment marketing company ITB Worldwide in 2008. And, following the launch of Good American, she started another clothing company, the shapewear brand Skims, this time with her husband, Jens Grede, and Kim Kardashian. (Grede met the Kardashian sisters through their mother, Kris Jenner, a business associate.)