, founding partner of Skims, was honored with the inaugural Innovation Award at the 2022 CFDA Fashion Awards, she celebrated her success in a different way. “I bought, in Tom Ford days, a Gucci thong, that had the little diamante ‘G’,” she tellsof how she commemorated “making it.” “I’m very happy to tell you that I did used to pull it up out of my jeans so that you could see that I’d spent 165 pounds on a Gucci thong. I kept the box and the bag for maybe two years.
Marking the milestone with a pair of skivvies would prove to be an auspicious sign for Grede, who three years ago partnered withto launch her size-inclusive shapewear brand. “I was always a girl that should have been in underwear, you see,” she says., Grede received the Innovation Award, a new honor.
“Honestly, I’m so proud of it,” Grede says. “I think we’re really, really continuing to shape this industry. It just makes me so happy that we’ve been recognized in this way because I feel like what we set out to do in the beginning, to really embrace size equity and diversity and really to do it in a way that is deeply meaningful to the company and everything that we do, it’s just so nice to be appreciated for that.
“I'm a very classic person, so if I do a big gold Schiaparelli earring, I'm really pushing the envelope,” she says.to style the look, Grede actually purchased the dress three months ago, without any specific occasion in mind. “I just bought it, thinking, I’ll wear this to some fabulous party or it’ll be good at Christmas, or something like that. It’s so seldomly that I find things that I love. I love fashion, but like I said, I like classic and I like to think about things that I’m gonna wear and treasure. I’m one of those people that brings things out of the wardrobe for years and years and years.