Your best business idea might be the problem you’ve been living with.

For years, Alice Kim struggled to find clothes that fit her body, even while working at Prada, Diane von Furstenberg, and Victoria’s Secret. Until her early 30s, she even wanted a breast reduction. Eventually, she stopped asking what was wrong with her slim body with larger breasts and started questioning why the industry wasn’t designing for women like her.

That frustration became PerfectDD, an apparel brand built around a problem millions of women recognize but few businesses had meaningfully addressed.

On Possibilities, Monique and Alice explore what happens when you stop trying to fit someone else’s standards and start building something better. From body image and workplace expectations to entrepreneurship, community, and collaboration, Alice’s story is a reminder that the problem you’ve been living with might be the opportunity you’ve been overlooking.

In this episode:

→ The fashion insider who couldn’t find a shirt that fit

→ Why perception is reality, and how the runway skewed what “normal” looks like

→ Monique’s IBM dress code, and the patterned stockings that got her called to HR

→ Seeing an overlooked customer where an industry saw a niche

→ Why “we’re in the same category” is the wrong reason to turn down a collaboration

→ Funding, control, and what Alice would do differently

→ The TikTok post she almost didn’t make, and what 8 million views taught her

→ Her advice to her younger self: enjoy the journey and find your community

How often have we assumed we needed to change ourselves instead of questioning what wasn’t working? This conversation is an invitation to stop.

About Our Guest

Alice Kim is the founder and CEO of PerfectDD, a fuller-bust inclusive clothing brand. A Dartmouth graduate, she began her career in investment banking at Bear Stearns before spending more than two decades in fashion at Prada, Diane von Furstenberg, Victoria’s Secret, and Shopbop. She holds three U.S. patents for her fit innovations, including hidden-button technology that keeps shirts from gaping. PerfectDD has earned Oprah Daily’s Editor’s Choice for Best Button-Down and a feature in The New York Times Wirecutter. Alice is a Tory Burch Fellow, an alumna of Goldman Sachs 10,000 Small Businesses, and a 2026 Victoria’s Secret Runway to Revenue finalist.

Shop PerfectDD: https://perfectdd.com

Follow PerfectDD on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/perfectdd

Follow PerfectDD on TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@perfectdd

Connect with Alice on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alicekim007/ 

Mentioned in this episode: Beth Mazza, co-author of Entrepreneur Like a MOTHER, from Episode 118 of Possibilities: https://www.moniquedemaio.com/podcast/who-told-women-they-had-to-choose-motherhood-money-ambition/

About Your Host

Monique de Maio is the Founder and CMO of OnDemandCMO, a speaker, and the author of the award-winning, bestselling book The 7 Secrets to Creating a Life You Love: A Practical Guide for Women in Leadership. An MBA and career marketing veteran, she helps women leaders see their own possibilities and design lives they love, and works one-on-one with leaders through her Strategic Advisor sessions.