Good American

Good American is an American clothing brand launched in 2016 by Khloé Kardashian and the British-born entrepreneur Emma Grede. It started as a denim label built around a wide size range, jeans from size 00 to 24 on day one, and has since grown into a full women's wardrobe that includes bodysuits, swimwear, activewear and maternity clothes. It is not a lingerie company. It appears in this encyclopedia for its swim and bodysuit lines, and for the influence its size policy had on the underwear brands that followed, Skims among them.

Kardashian, Grede and a million-dollar first day

The partnership paired a reality television star with a marketing operator. Grede, born in Plaistow in east London in 1982, had founded the talent and brand agency ITB Worldwide in 2008 and spent years matching celebrities with companies. Good American was her first brand of her own, and she became its chief executive. Kardashian brought the audience.

The launch is the part of the story that is always repeated, and it is well documented: Good American sold about one million dollars of denim on its first day. That figure turned the brand into a reference point for celebrity-led direct-to-consumer launches. Grede has since been reported to hold about 23 percent of the company.

Sizing as the product

The founding idea was that size would not be an afterthought. Most denim brands of the time cut a straight-size range and added a plus line later, often with different fits and in different stores. Good American offered one design across the whole run from launch, and it photographed its clothes on models in three size ranges so shoppers could see how a style looked on a body like theirs. The brand's About page now lists a range of 00 to 32 Plus.

That approach has a direct line into intimates. In 2019 Grede became a founding partner of Skims, the shapewear and underwear brand started by her husband, Jens Grede, and Kim Kardashian, and she served as its chief product officer. Skims launched with an extended size range and a set of skin-tone shades, the same logic Good American had applied to jeans. The two companies are separate, but the playbook is shared.

Good American's swim and bodysuits

The brand's move beyond denim followed the obvious path for a label known for fit. Workout clothes, dresses and a maternity collection were added along the way. Bodysuits now have their own category on the website, sold as tops to tuck into high-rise jeans, and swim has become a regular part of the summer range.

The bodysuit is the closest Good American gets to lingerie. It is a garment that crossed over from underwear long ago, and houses such as Wolford made it a wardrobe staple decades before the denim label existed. The swimwear sits in the same size range as the rest of the line, which in swim is still less common than it should be, since many swim labels stop well short of plus sizes.

B Corp status and materials

Good American describes itself as a certified B Corporation, the status awarded to companies that meet the B Lab standards for social and environmental performance. On materials, the company says its denim collections are now made from 70 percent "responsible materials," such as organic and recycled cotton. It also runs open casting calls every year to find models from groups that fashion advertising has tended to leave out.

These claims are the company's own, and the 70 percent figure applies to denim, not to swim or bodysuits.

A brand that set the template

Good American never became the largest of the Kardashian-linked businesses. That position belongs to Skims. But it came first, and it established the formula the later brands followed: a celebrity face, an operator running the company, a size range wide enough to be part of the marketing, and a launch built to sell out in hours. When underwear brands of the 2020s promote extended sizing as a founding principle, they are working from a model Good American put into practice with a pair of jeans.

Last updated October 7, 2026