Djerf Avenue, the Swedish fashion label built by influencer Matilda Djerf, opened its first permanent brick-and-mortar store Saturday in downtown New York City, marking a physical retail debut for a brand that spent the past two years clawing back from a workplace scandal and a sharp financial slide. The shop sits at 25 Bond Street in NoHo, and its opening weekend leaned hard on community goodwill, bagels, and nostalgia for the label's early cult following.
Djerf, who founded the company in 2019 and serves as its founder and chief creative officer, designed the new space in partnership with retail firm Leap, according to WWD. The store features wooden fixtures, hand-painted prints, bench seating, a lounge area, and separate zones for apparel and beauty products, the outlet reports. Djerf told WWD that New York was always a given for the brand's first permanent store, calling the shop an extension of her relationship with the community that built the label.
From Blazers to Beauty, a Brand Built on Social Media
Djerf Avenue first found its audience through tailored blazers, trousers, t-shirts, and loungewear before expanding into home goods like printed bed linens and later into a beauty line covering body and hair care, per the same WWD account. The company has hosted more than 50 community events and eight pop-ups across New York, London, Los Angeles, Sweden, and Norway over the years, including a 2023 runway show at the Guggenheim. Ahead of the Bond Street opening, the brand handed out special keys to 100 community members and partnered with the Lower East Side Girls Club for bakery catering, while in-store activations during the launch weekend included Bluestone Lane coffee and bagels from Leon's Bagels.
The new flagship also doubles as the in-person debut for Djerf Avenue's fall collaboration with celebrity stylist Maren Taylor, known for dressing clients including Paige DeSorbo and Camila Cabello, according to Bustle. Shoppers can find the brand's signature Breezy Shirt, loungewear, and plush robes on the floor, alongside store-exclusive items like key chains, a deck of cards, and water bottles, per WWD's reporting. The building itself carries its own pedigree: 25 Bond Street is an eight-story luxury condominium completed in 2007, featuring a hand-chiseled limestone facade and custom granite sidewalks designed by BKSK Architects, according to StreetEasy.
A Scandal That Shook the Brand's Core Identity
The celebratory opening arrives after a difficult stretch for the company. In December 2024, Swedish daily Aftonbladet published an investigation based on testimony from 11 current and former employees alleging public scolding, favoritism, and emotional distress inside the company, leading Djerf to issue a public apology on December 17, 2024, according to AP News. Djerf accompanied that apology with a plan to improve the company's internal business practices and work culture, per WWD. The allegations struck directly at a brand that had marketed itself on kindness, body positivity, and inclusivity, making the fallout especially damaging to its identity.
The financial toll was steep. Djerf Avenue's annual turnover roughly halved in 2025 to about 175 million Swedish kronor, or roughly $16.8 million, while the company posted an operating loss of SEK 55 million, according to the Sweden Herald. That slide came after revenue had peaked at 344 million kronor in 2024. Cost-cutting measures that followed slashed the workforce from 42 employees down to 17, the outlet reports.
New Leadership Steadies the Company
Executive turnover accompanied the financial strain. Djerf Avenue appointed Johanna Axén as chief executive officer in August 2026, promoting her internally from her role leading Djerf Avenue Beauty after interim CEO Nanna Hedlund departed in February 2026, Breakit reported, a sequence also detailed by the Sweden Herald. Axén previously spent more than five years at H&M as a business controller and assistant buyer before joining Djerf Avenue. Her predecessor as co-founder and original CEO, Rasmus Johansson, had stepped down from that role during an executive restructuring in April 2025, according to Mandatory.com. Johansson and Djerf, who started the company together in 2019 while dating, announced their engagement on July 30, 2025, per the same outlet.
Before committing to a permanent New York address, Djerf Avenue tested renewed customer engagement with a high-profile holiday pop-up inside London's Selfridges department store running from November 2025 through January 2026, according to Fashionista. That approach built on a retail history that already included short-term pop-ups in London, Los Angeles, and New York. The brand's rapid early growth had once made it a standout success story: co-founders Djerf and Johansson were named to Forbes' “30 Under 30 Europe” list in March 2023 after revenue climbed from $1.8 million in 2020 to $34.5 million in 2022, according to Forbes.
Independent Ownership and Ethical Sourcing
Unlike many influencer-led fashion lines that operate through licensing conglomerates, Djerf Avenue remains independently owned. Djerf and Johansson retain 90% ownership of the company, having sold a 10% equity stake to an angel investor in 2022, according to Business Insider. The brand also manufactures its apparel exclusively across certified factories in Portugal, Italy, and Sweden, adhering to European labor standards and maintaining a strict policy against retouching model images, per Djerf Avenue's own materials.
For now, Djerf framed the Bond Street store as both an introduction and a reunion, telling WWD it represents the brand to new visitors while giving returning customers access to items that were previously unavailable to them. With Axén now steering the company and the Maren Taylor collaboration anchoring the opening lineup, the NoHo storefront marks the clearest sign yet that Djerf Avenue is betting its recovery on face-to-face retail rather than social media alone.
