Kira Karmazin: Empowering Women Through Fashion And Comfort

Longtime fashion industry vet Kira Karmazin has worked at some of the world’s leading apparel brands, from Victoria’s Secret to Carter’s. Intrigued by fashion since she was a young girl, Kira followed that passion into her adult years, combining it with her business education. After receiving her MBA, Kira embarked on an enviable 20-year career in the industry before deciding to launch her brand, KiraGrace, in 2013, which is named after her and her daughter. The accomplished CEO founded KiraGrace, always keeping the wearer in mind. Kira has continued to elevate the brand, from selling only activewear to venturing into ready-to-wear pieces and capsule collections. It is her mission to make every woman who wears her clothes feel beautiful, empowered, and comfortable.

Her Agenda: How did you get your start in the fashion industry, and what was it like working with brands such as Victoria’s Secret and Gap?

Kira Karmazin: I really started in fashion as a little girl, designing things and making clothes. I had my own little business in high school, college, and graduate school, so I was always dabbling in it. I got into the business through my MBA, so I had an MBA from the University of Michigan, and May Department Store was recruiting MBAs for their department store training program. That’s actually how I got into it. I was just excited to be able to combine my business education with my passion in life. So I was really happy to join in that way. 

I always referred to my time at Victoria’s Secret as getting my second master’s degree because it was just an incredible organization with really powerful people running the business. I learned so much, and I had already been in the industry for over 10 years when I joined them, but I had been in department stores, and Victoria’s Secret was a specialty store. They were really at the top of their game at that time, and it was just an incredible learning experience from that kind of leadership and teamwork. It was an extraordinary training ground. Moving to the GAP, I really learned what it’s like to do business at an enormous scale. Now, Victoria’s Secret was big, but the GAP was just unbelievable. It’s an enormous scale, and being accountable for really big decisions. One of the things I took away from those experiences is just what it’s like to be surrounded by really, really talented people, talented creatives, operators, and executives. 

HA: With over two decades in the industry, what would you say is the most important thing you’ve learned so far about working in fashion?

Kira: I love this question because, you know, this one comes back to me time and time again. I went into it [fashion] because I had a strong love of fashion, but it’s not as easy as that. The most important thing is really understanding your customer intimately.  I also worked at Carter’s Kids, and that was a whole different demographic. It’s really about understanding your customer and being able to translate fashion concepts into your customer’s needs, wants, and desires. I would say that’s the thing that comes back to me time and time again, because whether I was working in a big company or on my own. When you veer away from your most core customer, that’s when you start to lose your business. You start to make mistakes. That truly is the most important thing, is having that really strong relationship and knowing her really well. 

HA: What would you say has been the most difficult part about working in the industry at times?

Kira: I can look at that both ways. From a corporate perspective, one of the most difficult things for me was making the decision to step away from it and start my own business. I made that decision not because I didn’t love my roles and didn’t love my experiences. I just found there was a friction between what was demanded at an executive level at that time in my life versus where my life was. I was a single parent of a young girl [Grace], and I was not able to meet the demands of the role while feeling like the mother I wanted to be. I wanted to be more present and pick her up from school or things like that. That was one of the biggest conflicts that I had. One of the most difficult decisions I made, and I thought about it for a long time. Do I leave the career I love and try something on my own? That was a hard decision, but I’m so glad I did it because I’ve been running this business for over 10 years. Not only has it allowed me the flexibility and time to spend with my daughter when she was young, but it’s also allowed me to create something of my own using my own vision and creativity. 

The most difficult thing working on my own has been honestly juggling the operations because you don’t have the support system. You’re a small business, you’re starting up, and I see myself as the analytical creative. I’m good at math, but I really feel more comfortable on the creative side of the business. Some segments of the business I’m not good at. Trying to learn how to outsource and attract top talent who can help you fulfill the other needs and voids in your business has been a challenge. I would say the real game changer for me happened in the past year, when we created a team of incredibly diverse and unique talent. Everyone’s coming to the table with a really strong skill set. That has taken me a long time to get to that place where we all, sometimes, look around and we’re like, everyone here is so awesome. We’re all really distinct in what we bring to the table. 

HA: What made you finally decide to go ahead and start your own company, and what was really the inspiration behind KiraGrace?

Kira: The decision to start my own company was, as I told you, really just about finding the friction between my jobs at the time. I really wanted to as a parent, especially as a single parent, where I was the sole person in her lifetime, and she was so young. I really, really wanted to show up in her life the best way I could while also providing for my family. That was really what drove me to leave my job and start something on my own. The inspiration for the business and the concept behind it was always around celebrating women, celebrating women’s beauty, strength, and grace. I had been, and still am, very involved in yoga. I found a void in the market. There was a lot of activewear out there. Nike, Lululemon, all of those big brands are out there, but nothing that really felt as feminine and transformative as what I wanted to create. 

I wanted to create something that really filled the void between feeling beautiful and strong. Our product line was mostly focused on activewear for almost 10 years. The whole beginning of the business was activewear and performance products. COVID hit, and that was a big changer for us. We started to use all the knowledge that we had in activewear and performance fabrics, and working with four-way stretch fabrications. We started to build out entire wardrobes of clothing that allowed women to feel as comfortable as they would in their yoga clothes, but wear them all day long. Having pants that have four-way stretch, tops with four-way stretch, and moving into more sustainable fabrications,  that’s been the evolution. The inspiration for the business really was my love of yoga and how close I felt in that community at that time.

HA: How do you hope women feel when they wear your clothes? 

Kira: Two things. First is the original mission of the business, which was for women to feel beautiful, strong, confident, and supported. I want women to feel very, very confident and beautiful wearing our clothes. That is the overarching theme of where we are today. We make getting dressed the easiest part of your day. Our clothes have four-way stretch, and everything coordinates. If you have outfits of Kira Grace, you don’t even have to think about it. It’s going to fit. Whether you have a good day or a bad day, we are the go-to solution for you. It’s really, really comfortable. It’s really coming back and grounding in those missions.

Her Agenda: What do you have planned next for KiraGrace? 

Kira: We’re doing a couple of things right now. After COVID, we started moving into the ready-to-wear business, pants, shirts, sweaters, and things like that. I started to lose focus on activewear, and it became a smaller and smaller part of our business. Don’t lose sight of your customer and know her. She still leads a really active life, and she’s still looking for the same solutions that brought her to us in the very beginning: feeling beautiful and confident in her activewear and having a different point of view. So it’s elegant and timeless. We’ve reintroduced our key activewear pieces and designed a few more. This season, we brought out our first true activewear capsule in a couple of years, and it’s really beautiful. We did something fun for the summer, we really went into skorts and support tanks. The skorts are amazing for running, walking, yoga, pickleball is huge, and a lot of community.

 It’s really a reimagined activewear capsule, and it’s been incredibly successful. We’re almost sold out. We have another capsule again for the fall and holidays. We’re also looking at doing a couple of new ways of reaching out to our customers and doing direct mail. We’ve been toying with that over the last couple of years, doing mailers. I’m really excited about that because it gives us another opportunity to connect with and show women all the different ways you can wear KiraGrace and how we can offer solutions for you. The other thing from an inside perspective is just continuing to dedicate time and attention to our team and focus on our culture, and keeping it intact.