Khloe Kardashian’s Good American co-founder explains why the size-inclusive brand is a ‘game changer’
Khloe Kardashian may have been the perfect partner for Emma Grede when creating the disruptive and inclusive fashion brand, Good American. But Grede says that it’s the everyday people involved in the company’s mission and marketing that put it on top. Namely, its open casting calls.
“It’s a game changer,” Grede tells Yahoo Lifestyle of the company’s process for finding talent while backstage at theCurvyCon 2019. “Right from the beginning we did this open casting, and it was really something that we were like, we just want different faces, we want different shapes, different types of women, so let’s actually just go out there and find them.”
The British entrepreneur knew from experience that she wouldn’t be able to find the right people for the campaigns by going through traditional agencies. She explained that during her 18 years in fashion she had discovered that agencies had limited representation of plus size women and often rotated the few curvy models that they had.
“We’re not about that life,” Grede says. “We’re always looking for women that embody everything we care about. It’s confidence, it’s being self-made, it’s having ambition. We care about those things and we know that’s what our customers really love. They want to see women that are doing well, that are killing it for themselves, are badasses, from all walks of life.”
As a result, Good American has been able to represent every type of woman that they cater to in their campaigns — something that is surprisingly still rare. Even more innovative, however, the brand also gives women of all sizes the opportunity to see what a specific garment will look like on them with numerous fit models pictured in every single item on their site.
“We’ve always photographed three different size women in the clothes so that you could basically come on the site and see somebody, if not your size, around your size,” she explains. “It was just one of those things where the more we spoke to our customers, because Good American really has this amazing community of women that just give us constant feedback, we were just like why wouldn’t we photograph every single fit on every single size?”
With an expansive range of sizes 00 to 24, doing just that proved to be expensive and time-consuming. But, while other brands don’t want to put in resources to get those things done, according to Grede, she and Kardashian found that the effort was worth it.
“There’s a reluctance in the industry to take the time, to actually try to figure some of those things out,” Grede says. “I think the proof’s in the pudding. When we launched, we had a million dollar day. And that was just because people had never seen anything like it. They were so happy to see product shots on three different size models and it was this like seismic moment for me where I was like, ‘We are really onto something.’”
Now, as the company works toward its new goal of pushing inclusivity in fashion even further by expanding Good American’s size range even more (to size 32), Grede is thankful to have someone like Kardashian by her side.
“She just gets it,” Grede says. “She’s been bigger, she’s been smaller than she is now. But Khloe exudes confidence regardless of what size she’s at.”
Read more from Yahoo Lifestyle:
'Claws' star Jenn Lyon says Hollywood wants actresses to be 'as small as your bones will allow'
‘I’m not gonna preach loving yourself’: Jameela Jamil wants people to practice ‘body ambivalence’
Plus-size influencers have message for 'fat-phobic' family members: 'I need your support'
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