By experimenting with Instagram Close Friends, Oddli built community. Then, it expanded it offline.

BY VIKTORIIA VASILEVA

Oddli founders Ellie Chen and Jensen Neff. Photos: Courtesy company

Scroll long enough on Instagram, and you’ll see someone—like singer and actress Reneé Rapp, hopping around onstage—wearing a pair of boxer shorts, their visible tag at the waistband reading, “Oddli.” Take a peek in the comments of the Los Angeles-based fashion brand’s posts, and you’ll notice Icelandic creative director Junia Lin, twin sister of the Grammy-award winning singer Laufey, among thousands of other impressive young women gushing over product launch campaigns and growth milestones. For Ellie Chen and Jensen Neff, who founded Oddli in 2021, clothing has become the medium for bringing to life their dream of building a community of like-minded young women. 

They set about that task four years ago, when shortly after their brand’s official launch, Chen and Neff decided to experiment with the Close Friends feature on Instagram. They used it as a creative playground where they posted behind-the-scenes pictures and videos of themselves trying on samples, shared inspiration behind their pieces and brand campaigns, and even asked their audience to chime in on the color scheme for their baseball tees. 

Slowly but surely, this spontaneous posting transformed into a community initiative called Oddli Club, through which members get early access to new products and exclusive club pieces as well as the chance to participate in various activations, such as a pen pal program that the brand facilitated........

© Inc.com