After a Scandal Nearly Derailed Her Brand, Matilda Djerf Reemerges

Matilda Djerf knows firsthand how much can change in a year.

The influencer, best known for her bouncy blonde blowouts, berry-printed bathrobes and idyllic escapes in the Swedish countryside came under fire in December 2024, when Aftonbladet, a newspaper in her native Sweden, published a report citing 11 current and former employees claiming Djerf created a toxic work environment at her brand Djerf Avenue, which sells apparel, beauty and homewares. The allegation that gained the most attention: that Djerf had forced an employee to clean a toilet reserved for her use.

Djerf, now 28, published an apology soon after.

“Under a lot of stress, high tempo and naivety I failed to be the leader and colleague I wish to be along the way,” she wrote in a post on Instagram. “As for that, I am so, so sorry.”

After a few weeks angry commenters stopped swarming her and her brand’s social media. But the scandal halted Djerf Avenue’s momentum in its tracks.

While sales in December 2024 — including 11 days before the article ran — more than doubled from a year earlier, they were flat in January, according to Nanna Hedlund, Djerf Avenue’s interim chief executive since April. After hitting $36 million in sales in 2024, revenue is expected to decline slightly in 2025.

“There has certainly been an impact on sales, though the effect wasn’t immediate,” Hedlund said, adding that the brand has also faced headwinds such as currency fluctuations and tariffs.

The scandal hit particularly hard because Djerf herself is such an intrinsic part of the brand — not only does it share her name, but she appears in most of its campaigns and all over its Instagram feed. After apologising, Djerf laid relatively low on social media at the start of 2025, save for a few snapshots of her life (including a new brunette ‘do) for her 2.6 million followers. Internally, Djerf Avenue implemented policies to create a healthier work environment.

“Rather than focusing on the impact of last year’s event, we’ve chosen to view this as an opportunity to accelerate a much-needed review of the business, building on our core strengths to secure a more resilient and sustainable foundation for the future,” Hedlund said.

Now, Djerf and her brand are embracing the spotlight again. Djerf Avenue held its first public event since the scandal in September, a pyjama party for customers in New York. And next week, Djerf Avenue will open a holiday pop-up in London’s Selfridges. Running from Nov. 17 to Jan. 28, the pop-up will carry the brand’s signature printed loungewear and robes, as well as items from its everyday assortment like sweaters, blazers and trousers.

Djerf said she sees the three-month pop-up as a way to test how the brand works in a wholesale setting. If the Selfridges shop performs well, long-term retail partnerships and permanent Djerf Avenue stores would be next.

“We don’t have the capacity to do [pop-ups in] every single city, so going into different department stores and retailers makes a lot of sense,” she said. “It’s about meeting the customers where they want to be met.”

A big display at Selfridges, and the social media buzz that comes with it, will also test whether Djerf has put last December’s crisis behind her. Djerf’s most loyal customers have stuck with her. While 35 percent of purchases were from returning customers in 2024, that number increased to 43 percent this year. But the internet has a long memory: tucked in among the heart emojis and “love youuuuu”s underneath a post about the pyjama party were a handful of comments and gifs referencing toilets.

Building a Sustainable Business

Djerf remains resolute that her inexperience and the business’ fast growth played a major role in creating a negative work environment.

“We grew into this $36 million business within four years, and [we] outpaced the infrastructure that we had in place,” she said. “That brings a lot of challenges.”

The past year has been about growing the company’s infrastructure to match the buzz and sales around it. Beyond pausing the brand’s events, she’s brought in new hires across finance, operations and more.

The most significant is the appointment of Hedlund, a Swedish retail veteran as interim chief executive, replacing Rasmus Johansson, Djerf’s co-founder and fiancé, who is now acting as interim chief marketing officer. Hedlund has been behind many of the internal changes made to improve the working environment at Djerf Avenue, and has stayed longer than initially anticipated.

“She’s been in business for many, many years, while this is my first time. We have different strengths and those blend together nicely,” said Djerf. “It’s been really meaningful to learn from her.”

In terms of what that’s looked like in practice, Djerf said they’ve beefed up human resources, creating a work environment task force to manage office dynamics and offering employees regular anonymous surveys to express frustrations or discontent.

For Djerf herself, bringing in an experienced retail leader has allowed her to focus on more of what she does best — the creative. Lately, that’s meant working with Selfridges on the pop-up, from what products are included to how it’s visually staged in stores. While it’s less control than she’s used to, she said it’s been helpful to have to navigate new rules and push for what she believes in. For example, she said initially Selfridges didn’t want to include loungewear in the pop-up, but she pushed for it because it’s the brand’s bestseller.

Having more expertise to lean on, in turn, creates less stress. And that, she said, has helped her be a better leader.

“The biggest thing is really making sure I’m showing up as the best version of myself,” she said. “It sounds like a given, but when it’s just go, go, go, you can sometimes forget that.”