5 min readThe Good Buy is a podcast from Harper’s Bazaar in which editors Leah Chernikoff and Lynette Nylander invite celebrities, designers, models, and tastemakers to talk shop: what they buy, where they got it, and why it matters. Come down the fashion rabbit hole and take a peek inside the closets and shopping carts of the world’s most stylish people. Learn how they use style to tell their stories.
Businesswoman, entrepreneur, fashion designer, podcast host, and now author: There’s not much that Emma Grede can’t do. And, on that same note, there aren’t many stars that she hasn’t collaborated with.
Best known as the driving force behind many of the Kardashian family’s brands—Good American (Khloé), Skims (Kim), and Safely (Kris)—the CEO has touched everything from inclusive denim to shapewear to plant-based cleaning products. On her own, she worked with designer Kristin Juszczyk to launch the Off Season apparel brand, collaborating with the NFL and Fanatics, and has hosted the likes of Michelle Obama and Duchess Meghan on her Aspire podcast. Furthermore, she has served as a chairwoman of the 15 Percent Pledge, designer Aurora James’s initiative founded to encourage retailers to dedicate at least 15 percent of their space for Black-owned businesses.
Now, she’s passing along her secrets, sharing everything she has learned over the years in her debut book, Start With Yourself.
We caught up with the star to discuss everything from her style inspirations to the lessons she has learned throughout the years. Read on for highlights, and watch the show in full above.
On her early experiences with fashion and style:
“The way you put yourself together is really important, because you are trying to lift yourself up in so many ways. I think that’s where style started for me. I am one of four girls. My mom was a single mom and she would always impose on us how important it was to be clean to separate yourself from the riff raff-ery that was around. I watched her get up, go to work every day, put on a suit, put on some fragrance, out the door. And so to me, that was so much part of being a professional and how you wanted to be seen in the world. I learned how to pull myself together in an outfit because that wasn’t the reality of my life. It was almost like a shield in a way, of saying, ‘Look, I’m coming into this workplace regardless of what’s happening at home, where I’m from, and in my life.’ It was an early defense mechanism.”
On her shopping philosophy:
“When you grow up really poor, a little bit dirty [laughs], you want to kind of fight against all of that. For me now, I take the clothing so seriously. Every time I take a tag off of something, it means something to me. There is zero taking anything for granted even at this point in my life. When I buy things, I know the price of everything. That’s what keeps me connected to my business. As a merchant, I understand the customer. If I’m asking you spend $68 on a bra, that bra is going to be worth every dollar of the 68 that I’m expecting you to pay for it. Because my value and my relationship to money is still so intact, it hasn’t gone because I’ve made a lot of money. It’s fully there.”
On her style inspirations:
“When I was growing up, I loved people like Jane Birkin or Bianca Jagger. I remember that photo of Bianca in the white tuxedo… I thought that was the best thing I’d ever seen. But it’s interesting: I think of myself as a minimalist, but I really love maximalist women. I love the way Rihanna turns up—in stuff I could never [wear], but to me I think that is style.”
On the labels she loves right now:
“I love Saint Laurent. These are Phoebe Philo, these pants, and I love Phoebe. While she was at Celine, I could probably afford like one or two things a season, and so I was very considered in my purchases. I love Khaite. I have a lot of my own brands, so I wear a lot of Elder Statesman, I wear a lot of Frame, I wear a lot of Good American, I wear Skims every day.”
On what she has learned through the years:
“You can’t listen to people who are not doing what you’re doing. There’s a lot of wisdom to be had from opinion and listening to other people, but unless someone is doing what you’re doing, you have to take it with a grain of salt. I was really, really lucky that I was surrounded by some great people, great early investors, great mentors, but they weren’t doing what I was doing. So I had to take the information and listen and be respectful, but then contextualize it and say, ‘Well, that’s great for what you did back then, but what I do is a little bit different.’”
Shop Emma’s Good Buys
HER FIRST BUY:
“I bought a Gucci thong that was in the campaign with the diamond G, and I wore it outside. I let it be seen. I was on the tube on my way to the London College of Fashion and I’d wear Miss Sixty jeans and pull the [thong] out. I thought I was amazing.”
HER REGRET BUY:
“When I was young, the thing was to wear Versace, Versace, Versace so you’d match the prints. I had that Moschino cloud print. When I look at the photos of me in that, I was so proud, and I’m like, ‘Why did I feel the need to wear the whole thing?’”
HER REPEAT BUY:
“Whatever I’m wearing, I’m wearing Skims. Wherever I start the day or end the day, it’s Skims all day long. It’s an amazing brand to be a part of.”
HER DREAM BUY:
“Right now, I’m really into jewelry. I love vintage jewelry. I like to buy things that have provenance and value.”
HER MOST RECENT GOOD BUY:
“Don’t you just love these shoes? [She takes off her duchess-satin olive green slingback by Anthony Vaccarello for Saint Laurent.] But you know what’s so interesting? I’m so aware that I will hate this shoe with a passion. In four months, I won’t wear it, but in six months, I’ll strongly dislike it, and in nine months, I’ll be like, ‘That’s so ugly it can’t even be on my shelf.’ But that doesn’t matter, because today, it just fills me with joy.”
