Meet Matilda Djerf: the Swedish influencer behind multimillion-dollar fashion brand Djerf Avenue has partnered with Hailey Bieber’s Rhode skincare – and she’s facing workplace bullying allegations

Dec 17 , 2024

Meet Matilda Djerf, the Swedish influencer who built multimillion-dollar fashion brand Djerf Avenue and has partnered with Hailey Bieber’s Rhode skincare line. Photo: @matildadjerf/Instagram

Icons and Influencers

At just 27, Djerf’s amassed millions of followers and created a wildly successful fashion brand that espouses authenticity – but she’s also faced allegations of workplace bullying and bodyshaming

Ahead of the festive season, American model and “It” girl Hailey Bieber has teamed up with Swedish influencer Matilda Djerf to launch a limited edition lip gloss that’s perfect for Christmas. The Peptide Lip Treatment Peppermint Glaze is described as the “same nourishing clear gloss you know and love, with a touch of shimmer and a crushed candy cane scent.”

Matilda Djerf in the campaign for her collaboration with Hailey Bieber’s Rhode make-up line. Photo: @matildadjerf/Instagram

To announce the collaboration, Djerf, shared photos of herself holding her Rhode lip treatment while wearing a series of festive red outfits. But who exactly is Matilda Djerf, and how has she built her fashion empire?

She’s a Swedish influencer

Matilda Djerf originally gained an online following for her bikini pics. Photo: @matildadjerf/Instagram

Born in April 1997 in Borås, a textile city in western Sweden, Djerf’s influencer journey began in 2016, while travelling in the Caribbean with her boyfriend, Rasmus Johansson. Initially, she posted blogs for family and friends, but a series of bikini photos skyrocketed her to fame, earning her 3,000 followers overnight. After further travels to Bali and Australia, her Instagram followers swelled to 100,000, prompting her to become a full-time influencer in 2018.

Now, with over 3 million followers on Instagram and 1.5 million on TikTok, Djerf’s iconic, effortlessly bouncy hair – reminiscent of Farah Fawcett’s – has set trends across platforms, accumulating over 13.8 billion views under the search term “Matilda Djerf hair” on TikTok.

She tried her hand at fishmongering

Matilda Djerf in October 2021. Photo: @matildadjerf/Instagram

Behind Djerf’s glamorous life is a story of hard work. She started working in high school to gain financial independence for her travels, holding various jobs, including at a juice store, a clothing store, and even as a hostel cleaner. But her most unexpected role came when she took a job at a fishmonger’s.

Djerf has shared that she spent hours the night before her first shift preparing for the role by watching numerous YouTube videos. “There was this video of a guy like filleting [fish], and I’m like, OK – like I was trying to recognise the hand moves, like remember it,” she said.

She’s an entrepreneur

Matilda Djerf modelling one of her Djerf Avenue holiday designs this month. Photo: @djerfavenue/Instagram

As her social media presence grew, Djerf felt the need to become an entrepreneur and build something for herself. As she told Business Insider in November 2022, “That’s when I told Rasmus I would love to create something on my own and have full control.”