New York (CNN) Just a few years ago, Kim Kardashian was dyeing her own shapewear in a sink with tea bags. Fast forward to the present day, the idea blossomed into Skims – a $3.2 billion brand that catapulted the reality TV star into a business titan.
“For me, I was just looking for a solution to the fact that I like to wear shapewear and there was no color tone that matched my skin tone, let alone most of my friends,” said she told Poppy Harlow, presenter of CNN This Morning. at the Time 100 summit on Tuesday, adding that there was “nothing between” a pale or black color in shapeware at the time.
Skims is valued at $3.2 billion and has been named one of Time’s most influential companies for 2023. For Kardashian, the brand aimed to fill a need that didn’t exist in the market, which was to offer a wide variety of shapeware colors for women. Her business prowess has extended beyond Skims with a private equity firm she co-founded last year called SKYY Partners.
Kim Kardashian and Poppy Harlow speak onstage during the Time 100 Summit 2023.
Kardashian told Harlow that she “absolutely” trusts her gut when it comes to finding companies SKYY can invest in.
“The businesses I have now have full and equal respect and trust each other to operate and do our thing. If you trust each other like that, it can absolutely be magical,” she said.
As she gets older, the 42-year-old Kardashian realizes she now has the luxury of choosing the people she wants to surround herself with. “If you’re in one place and you take your time, you realize you absolutely don’t want to do business with people you don’t want to vacation with and don’t like,” she said. declared.
“It sounds very simple, but I haven’t had the opportunity for much of my career to choose who I want to do business with or what deals I make or to have the opportunity to get to know them.” she told Harlow.
Another aspect of Kardashian’s life is her focus on criminal justice reform. Notably, around five years ago, Kardashian worked with former President Donald Trump to commute the sentence of Alice Marie Johnson, a first non-violent drug addict.
It was a life-changing moment, she says.
“I had no connection to the justice system. While I had to figure out how to help someone and how to make a difference and get them out, I was really naive about all the issues with our [justice] system,” she said. “Once I saw that I could make a difference, I couldn’t stop there.
Kardashian said freeing Johnson was a “pretty easy experience” for her, but admitted she knows it shouldn’t have been. “It takes 10 to 20 years to do what I did in six months, and I didn’t realize the fight back then. For me, it was a few phone calls and it really hit me. .. that this process has changed.”
She said she reached out to President Joe Biden to help him switch other people, but got no response.
To that end, Kardashian’s mission to become a lawyer is getting closer to reality. She plans to take the California bar exam in 2025. “I’d be just as happy to be a full-time lawyer and do that,” she said as she gave up on her life in front of the camera.