If you’ve ever wondered what it would be like to have Tory Burch host a private fete in your honor, just ask Emma Grede. “I’m very proud of myself,” the CEO and co-founder of Good American and a founding partner of Skims told Vogue while reflecting on her latest accomplishment. Now, she has added author to her impressive resume with her debut book, Start With Yourself: A New Vision for Work & Life.
Joined by co-hosts Fabiola Beracasa Beckman and Diane von Furstenberg, Burch welcomed Grede’s intimate inner circle of fashion, media, and business execs to gather over cocktails at her Upper East Side home. The woman of the hour was elegantly circulating the soiree, greeting guests including Gayle King, Huma Abedin, and Joseph Altuzarra. “There’s just so many people here that I love—people that I met during my agency days, when they were my clients, and people that I’ve befriended over the years. It feels like the culmination of a lot of work and a lot of years in the industry,” the London native told Vogue.
The mom-of-four was taking a quick breather, curled up on one of Burch’s plush living room sofas overlooking a quintessential Manhattan view of Fifth Avenue and Central Park. “There’s so much chicness here, I don’t even know what to do with myself,” she later laughed, while addressing the crowd (many of whom were clad in Burch and DVF designs for the occasion. “If anybody had told me 15 or 20 years ago that I would be standing here amongst these three incredible women, I would have just gone, ‘Yeah….probably,’” she joked.
Throughout the evening, silver platters with caviar and hors d’ouevres and hand-painted floral wine glasses from Burch’s home collection did the rounds between the candle-lit tangerine and chartreuse sitting rooms. June Ambrose held court in a corner, captivating guests in one of her signature chapeaus, while Sophia Bush shared stories with Ego Nwodim.
The party also served as a reunion between long-time fashion friends. “Can I just say, 12 or so years later, the dynamic is still the same,” said Harper’s Bazaar executive digital director Lynette Nylander, who reflected on working with Grede at the start. “This has always been her. Even in East London, this was always her.”
Grede also lit up when she noticed stylist Elizabeth Saltzman making her way across the room. “I flew in for you, because you did it! You’re changing people’s lives—and it matters,” Saltzman praised as the two embraced between excited squeals.
Shortly afterwards, Saltzman and Ambrose joyfully posed with their newfound copies of Start With Yourself in hand while Bush made it her mission to capture the moment on Ambrose’s phone—as any good girlfriend would. “What is this shot?” Grede laughed as she looked on. “I just so happen to attract the fun ones.”
“I was so happy to be able to host tonight,” Burch told Vogue. “Emma, the more I get to know her, has such a contagious energy. She makes people feel like they can do anything.” Burch continued: “When I started our company 21 years ago, I didn’t have a ton of role models or people who acknowledged some of the fears and doubts I had. I didn’t even know the word to put next to them, and there were a lot of self-confidence issues. When I work with entrepreneurs today, confidence is one of the biggest things. So to have a message from someone so extraordinary, who built her own life and is an entrepreneur at the highest level to say, ‘Go with your instinct, go with who you are, and trust your gut’— that’s a message I stand by.”
It’s been a whirlwind book launch to say the least—and Grede is just getting started. Last week, there was a Los Angeles celebration hosted by Rachel Zoe and Aurora James, and from tomorrow, a nationwide tour begins with live events featuring Martha Stewart, Tracee Ellis Ross, Misty Copeland, Charlamagne tha God, and Jay Shetty, among others. Not to mention, a quick trip to London for promotion across the pond too.
“I had a real vision for myself and for my life,” Grede told Vogue. “I wrote the book that I needed to have when I was 25 years old. I ask that you read the book, and then you pass it on.”
