Emily Hikade Left the CIA and Built a Royals-Loved Pajama Empire: 'I Owed It to My Kids' (Exclusive)
After working as a counterterrorism operative, Emily Hikade craved a little comfort. Now her luxury sleepwear brand, Petite Plume, helps celebs and royals relax in style
"I've been shot at," Emily Hikade tells PEOPLE in this week's issue, explaining life as a counterterrorism case officer in the Central Intelligence Agency. "People would shoot rocket-propelled grenades at your vehicle." Tasked with collecting information overseas, Hikade, 46, put her life on the line every day. "I've been so close to explosions that I've been knocked off my feet, where it rings in your ears, and everything goes into slow motion," she continues. "I was invincible; I felt fearless before I had kids."
Still, she had four boys while serving — Camden, now 15, Beckett, 12, Shaw, 10, and Gable, 7, with her husband, Christopher, 51, also a retired CIA officer — and by 2015 was longing for security and stability. "When you're home, and you're safe, that's when you put on your pajamas," she says.
That idea inspired her luxury pajama brand Petite Plume, which today has reached almost $100 million in revenue and frequently sells out in Nordstrom, Bloomingdale's and Saks Fifth Avenue. Her sleepwear is beloved by Hollywood royalty (customers include the Clooney twins) and actual royalty (Prince George memorably wore Petite Plume gingham pj's to meet President Obama in 2016).
In 2018, after more than a decade with the CIA, Hikade turned in her badge. Today she relishes time in her home outside Chicago, where the family moved four years ago.
"My oldest son said, 'Mom, I don't want to be the new kid anymore.' He just started high school; it's his 13th school," Hikade says of settling down at last. "This is the longest time I've lived anywhere since high school. I read an article that said you get 18 summers with your kids, and that hit me. So I'm trying to make the most of our time."
Hikade's new gig is certainly safer than the CIA. But she's still adjusting to civilian life — and old habits die hard. The Wisconsin native did her own research ahead of her PEOPLE interview, recognizing this reporter from a thorough Instagram investigation and waving him down as he wandered the lobby of her swank Manhattan hotel.
"I did not have to check you for a suicide vest," Hikade jokes later, adding that she's glad she no longer needs "somebody very large nearby with a weapon, just in case you made any sudden movements."
A University of Notre Dame grad who speaks four languages, she began her top-secret job after stints at the White House and the State Department. For years Hikade — who lowers her voice whenever hotel guests pass by as she recounts harrowing details of her past life — found her assignments in the Middle East, Asia and East Africa thrilling and fulfilling. But motherhood taught her a lesson in mortality.
When a suicide bomber killed a friend of Hikade's who was a mom of three, she was shaken. Still, it took a dangerous mission, when her plane nearly crashed, for Hikade to reevaluate her line of work.
"The lights went out, people were screaming, my plane was spinning toward the ocean," she recalls, tears welling. "I had three little boys at home. All I could see was their little faces, all I could imagine was them growing up without a mom. It was time for a change. I owed it to my kids."
Hikade originally launched Petite Plume as a side hustle while she was stationed in East Africa. The business has been profitable since its first year, she says, and after Prince George wore her threads, "we started to see the sales really pick up. It was a game changer."
These days Hikade has an abundance of A-list clients, including Anderson Cooper and Gwyneth Paltrow; she's expanded into maternity, home and accessories; and she plans to open a New York City store this year.
"I did not think I was launching a multimillion-dollar company. I had figured out how many pajama sets I would need to sell per year in order to replace my government salary—those aren't big salaries," Hikade says. "It's just nice to say it's more than a mom selling pajamas out of the back of my car, because I have had people come up to me and say, 'Oh, that's really cute. Do you sew them yourself?' and I think, 'Let's talk revenue numbers, a--hole.' "
Those profits have been hard-earned, and Hikade is well-equipped to handle unique challenges that arise.
"A truck [loaded with merchandise] got stolen. We've got insurance on it, but it sucks—we're going to probably lose $4 to 5 million in revenue. But I'm fine, my kids are fine. I think I have maybe more perspective than most," she says, laughing. "Somebody's going to have a lot of silk pajamas!"
While Hikade navigates entrepreneur life, she's also getting used to the public learning she was an officer. "I kept this secret so close," says Hikade, who insists "no one" but her parents and children knew about her time in the CIA until she revealed the news in a November Today segment. (The CIA declined to comment.) "One of my closest friends was like, 'Holy s---, I know you better than anybody.' What she didn't know is that at night, when she was at home with her kids, I was going to meet al Qaeda."
Still, no one was more surprised about Hikade's past job than her kids, who believed she was a diplomat — her cover — until she told them last fall. "They were shocked," she says. "My quietest one was like, 'Are you even my mom?' But by the end of it, they were part of a secret, and they thought that was really cool."
With the CIA in her rearview, Hikade finds peace in the routine (her kids' soccer schedules, bingeing The White Lotus before bed) while still taking pride in the time she spent serving the United States.
"This has been a wild ride," she says. "It's only now that I know how lucky I am."
For more on Emily Hikade and Petite Plume, pick up the latest issue of PEOPLE, on newsstands Friday, or subscribe here.
For more People news, make sure to sign up for our newsletter!
Read the original article on People.
