Kimora Lee built Baby Phat, let it go, then took it back.
After pocketing around $20 million from the brand’s sale in the 2000s and investing in other companies, including energy-drink brand Celsius, she began a two-year effort to buy the business back, Lee told “Aspire” podcast host Emma Grede.
“You really do build these things up to let them go, right?” Lee said in an episode published Tuesday. “It’s like letting your child go in the world. Getting it back was something that I knew I wanted, but I didn’t know how.”
In 2019, Lee announced that she bought back Baby Phat. She told Grede on the podcast that she wanted to preserve the brand’s signature DNA and felt called to get Baby Phat back, though she knew it would be tricky.
Lee isn’t the only founder to recently retake control of their brand. In 2025, Huda Beauty’s Huda Kattan bought back the minority stake she’d sold to a private equity firm, helping her regain full ownership of her namesake brand.
Lee regained control of Baby Phat in time for the Y2K craze that’s taken hold of Gen Z and Gen Alpha in recent years.
Cultural shifts have been on her side, as young people have begun swapping high-rise jeans for lower-waist styles and breaking out velour tracksuits. Baby Phat’s hip-hugging denim and matching sets fall in line with brands like Ed Hardy and Juicy Couture, which have had their own renaissances.
Baby Phat’s brand has also seen renewed interest. Searches for “Baby Phat set” spiked in February compared with the past year, according to Google Trends data.
Though Lee didn’t share how much she paid to buy back the brand, she said it was worth it in the end.
“You’re going to end up paying too much, and they’re going to get you for the nostalgia of your name,” Lee said.
