Rewrite
Fresh off designing Addison Rae’s Coachella merch, Wonderland sits down with OGBFF’s co-founder and creative director to unpack what it really takes to run a small business all the while being TikTok relatable.
If, like us, your TikTok screentime is eerily high, you may have seen Lauren Schiller’s recent (unsuccessful) attempt to convey emotion through her facial expressions – three successive videos that have gathered over 2 million views and a flock of praise ranging from Oscar award reclamations to highlighting the importance of always serving. Pre-emptive botox, Gen Z’s panoptic awareness resulting in a constant state of mogging, or the influx of daily world tragedies that has essentially rendered us detached from our own empathy – whatever it is that makes a stagnant face incredibly relatable, it feels so L.A., which intrinsically, feels so OGBFF.
In fact, if there was a Venn diagram that displayed the correlation between smoking Capris in fake Chanel pumps, fighting through any hangover to make it to your 9 A.M. pilates class, and queuing up four blocks to sip on an overpriced iced matcha whilst working on your fake creative director job – without, of course, forgetting to post about it – OGBFF would be bang smack in the middle of it. But Lauren is nothing short of a fake creative director – she’s as real as they get.
“I learn a lot about my customers when I’m packing orders because I’m seeing where they’re going,” Lauren tells me, as one of her clothing brand’s employees’ broken computers led her to stepping into the role of Warehouse Opps Manager. Except the warehouse in question is Lauren’s own home, where she dials in from, framing the Zoom call with her mysteriously pink curtain-covered wall. What’s hiding behind? Perhaps her summer season products. Perhaps the general, boring paraphernalia of tape and boxes it takes to run a ready-to-wear business. The secret is never unveiled.
What she does reveal, possibly unknowingly, is her understated tenacity. She brushes off the struggles she’s overcome in running her independent brand, including an accidental $4,000 monthly expense (more on that later). If OGBFF is the epitome of the hot girl walk uniform, then Lauren is like your best friend’s older sister you wish you could borrow said uniform from. You think she has her shit together, but the more you get to know her, you realise she’s, in fact, just like the rest of us, making it up as she goes along. She just so happens to do it in the most blasée way.
It’s the type of attitude that speaks to self-ascribed hot girls – and no, we’re not talking about looks here. It’s the aura of a girl who refers to Gwynneth Paltrow’s “finding the balance between tofu and cigarettes” quote religiously, and places Addison Rae at her fictitious alter. It was only natural then that OGBFF took on the task of designing the latter’s Coachella merch this year, growing its register of A list supporters that already include Rosalía, Sabrina Carpenter, Devon Lee Carlson, even a Hype House-era Addison Rae, and, most recently, Kim Petras, after having contributed to her official Detour album merch (check out the “holographic id shirt” already available for purchase online).
Below, Wonderland chats to the founder, business owner, freelance TikTok director, internet idol, and the OG OGBFF girl about the art of understanding and translating a vibe, the influencer-aided supersonic start of her brand, and her three friendship golden rules.
Via Instagram (@schillllller)
First off, congrats on the Addison Rae merch! It looks fantastic. I know you can’t talk to me too much about that, but if you had to curate an OGBFFchella lineup, what would that look like?
It would be so weird. I feel like it would be like the most exciting thing to a really small group of people. It would be a completely different crowd than the crowd that normally goes to Coachella.
I’m the type of person who, when I’m in the car with other people, I have this playlist called, “In the car with other people” because I’m like, ‘I know you don’t want to listen to what I’m listening to’. So yeah, I would lean into that.
What are you listening to in the car alone?
Well, this week I’ve been listening to Prince. So, of course, everyone wants to listen to Prince, and Prince would definitely be at OGBFFchella. You have to love.
You can’t get in the car if you don’t like Prince.
Yeah, you’re not getting in the car.
The internet has been such a central focus for your brand, from the early beginnings to, essentially, its entire identity. What’s one early memory you have of you spending time on the internet?
When I started getting an audience, I thought I was weird. And it turns out there are so many people who are the same kind of weird as me. I don’t even know how to describe it. It just kind of felt like finding my people, right? I know that that is kind of like a common experience on the internet, but it felt very exciting when it happened to me.
What app or platform did you find your people on?
TikTok for sure. That’s definitely where I found my audience. And it was fun because I was making TikToks on my personal account, and then also started making TikToks on the brand account. And they began working together. People would be like, “Oh, I thought you were this, and you’re also this.”
And then obviously you had @tinyjewishgirl (who we love) as a very early supporter. You also had Depop really supporting you in the early beginnings. Did you imagine that OGBFF would blow up this quickly?
Definitely not. I remember it was the first two months, and it was like @tinyjewishgirl, who was so popular at that time, was buying things and making videos about them. And Addison Rae posted a selfie in a tank top that we made – that was 2021 Addison Rae, like that was major. Emma Chamberlain [as well]. I remember @lilmami_lani DMing, and being like, ‘I want to buy a birthday gift for my friend Devon [Lee Carlson]’. And I was like, ‘Oh, my God’. [OGBFF was] one or two months old at this point. This is definitely not the level of success I was envisioning happening this [quickly]. It’s like, you don’t even know what to do. It all felt surreal.
I remember the first viral moment, there was no ogbff.com. There was no website. It was all happening through DMs. Our first collection sold out through DMs and [we were operating on an] honour system of people, us being like, “Okay, well, you DMed first, so the product is yours.” It was a mess, but it was a lot of fun.
That is quite insane. Obviously you’re super known for these really fun, iconic quip graphics. How do you come up with these?
I have a note in my notes app that I add to almost every day. It’s like an incredibly long note. It’s mostly just me noticing things and and then when it’s time to design something, I’ll go to that note and just kind of try to figure out what speaks to me the most. [If] I’m designing a polo, and I need something small, [I look to see] what I have on that list that’s an acronym. I’m [always] trying to fit those ideas to different products. A lot of it is just not overthinking things that are in that note. Because sometimes it really just is the simple, obvious idea.
The “hot person at work” sticker? I mean, that is actually genius. It’s on everyone’s laptops.
It is so much fun to have that on my computer. It gets me lots of looks and stares and compliments.
Your brand has often been described as clothing for hot people. How do you define a hot person, and why are they wearing your stuff?
A hot person is so much more about their energy and their confidence, rather than the way that they look. It’s just someone who’s, despite everything, got a little bit of levity, and is looking for a good time, wants to make people laugh. It’s someone who loves to be the centre of attention. Or the quiet, hilarious person that sits in the corner and only talks every 10 minutes, but everything they say is absolutely hilarious. Just magnetic people. I think when people are magnetic, it’s hot.
I would also argue that hot people care about their customers, which you obviously do – like that time you spent $4,000 on this SMS subscription.
Every month… It was a long time ago when I wasn’t as good at reading contracts. I signed up for this text subscription service because I was like, “Oh, this is such a good idea. Going live isn’t enough. Replying to DMs is not enough. I must text my customers.” So I had a baseline requirement of spending $4,000 a month on this text subscription app, for an entire year. I got creative with it, and like, had a lot of fun. And texting your customers does lead to sales, but it was a waste of money. But also it was a lot of fun.
Are you quite caring in nature, or were you very much like, “I’ve had bad experiences in the past with other customer service, so I will make it a point that my customer service is so ace?”
I don’t even think that OGBFF has incredible customer service, but it does follow the brand’s voice. So it’s like, you might not get a response for a week and a half, but it will be in my voice.
I think that the internet just makes it easy to connect with your customers in a unique way, and it’s kind of like a win-win scenario, because I’m getting to know my customers’ habits online. I can click on their profile and see what they’re like and what they consume, and then they can feel seen and taken care of by a brand that they’re supporting. So I’ve always found it really beneficial to build a relationship with my customers online, but it’s not because I think it’s good for business. I’m just on my phone. If I see someone DM something crazy, I’m gonna want to respond to it immediately.
I actually love that, because I would be like “Girl, I literally don’t know.”
Sometimes that’s the best email. I’ll be like, “I genuinely have no idea what happened to your order, but I’m dispatching another one today. So sorry.”
Keep it cute.
Yeah, keep it cute.
There’s been so much discourse around the title of creative director lately, because it’s sometimes used as a nothing title – it’s thrown around and doesn’t actually mean anything. But I see you as a true creative director, and I mean that in the best way possible.
Thank you.
Do you think that title is true to what you do?
I do think it’s a great description for my work. In a perfect world, I am only the creative director of this brand, but because it’s a small business, I do end up having to wear a lot of different hats, which I hope isn’t diluting my creative director work.
I think that I just have an opinion about everything, and I’m a very confident decision maker, so that kind of naturally puts me in this creative director position, if you will. And also I feel like I immediately, once I entered the LA scene, I was not an expert at anything, and I kept trying to get jobs by being like, “I’m just really creative.” And people are like, “Yeah, but what do you do? Are you a video editor? Are you a director?” It wasn’t until I found a way to combine all of my skills and that it made sense.
Do you think that also being so hands-on in different parts of your business informs your creative directorship? Or do you think it’s more of a distraction at times?
It’s definitely both. The person that works for me, her computer broke last week, and I had to pack orders. I learn a lot about my customers when I’m packing orders because I’m seeing where they’re going. I’m seeing what two products people are buying together, or what the most popular product last week was. That information is easy to overlook, but I’m like, “Oh, maybe I need to do another pink shirt, because people are obsessed with wearing pink shirts right now.” So, yeah, it’s definitely helpful, but if I did it too much, it would very easily become a distraction.
On top of the 10 or so roles you take on at OGBFF, you’re also, as your Instagram bio says, a “TikTok director.” Tell me what that is, because that sounds quite fabulous.
That is my freelance work that I just have not been able to let go of, because it is my passion. Before [founding] the brand, I worked in video at a record label. I did TikTok analytics and like assistant video stuff. I just have such a passion for video content creation, and when I get offered incredible jobs to direct short-form content for incredible clients, it’s really difficult for me to say no. [What] TikTok director is, [is that] I’m a video director, but I specialise in absurd short-form content that is meant for TikTok audiences, right? So people have encouraged me to just call myself a director, but I want people to know that I’m going to want to make a weird video that cannot be longer than 12 seconds, that doesn’t feel like an ad at all, and will confuse its audience.
Are your clients mainly music artists, or are they also brands?
It’s kind of all over the place. It started as mostly music artists, because when I left the record label, I started working directly with musicians, and those relationships were beneficial early on in the brand. That’s how I was able to place a lot of clothes on musicians. It very quickly led to working with more corporate clients, but still [within] the fashion universe.
And so you also do consultancy, which I think is like the ultimate compliment of having good taste.
I think that I am very in touch with like, a vibe that seems to be important and valuable to people. I understand people want to pay me for my perspective and my taste, and I think that it’s because I approach everything with a sense of humor and relatability. And a lot of companies have realised that that’s how you can push product. So they try to do it,
but their tone is so off, and it ends up missing the mark. So it’s beneficial for people to bring in someone who actually speaks the language in order to properly communicate what they’re trying to communicate. I just have a very strong vibe-o-meter and no formal qualifications. That seems to be fine with everyone.
Back to OGBFF, because I just love that name. What are your three golden rules with your own BFFs?
This is a really difficult question to ask because I wanted to take it so seriously. I am such a serious friend, and have always been. I do not play about my friends.
Number one: no competitive vibes. We are a team, and I want you to win.
Number two: learn how to take good photos of one another. That is very important for friendship retention. My sister is pretty much my best friend, and we always joke that she has graduated from the Lauren Schiller School of photography. It is always that serious.
Number three: it’s obvious, but don’t date each other’s exes.
100%. Those are great rules, actually.
Thank you.
Words — Juliette Eleuterio
in HTML format, including tags, to make it appealing and easy to read for Japanese-speaking readers aged 20 to 40 interested in fashion. Organize the content with appropriate headings and subheadings (h1, h2, h3, h4, h5, h6), translating all text, including headings, into Japanese. Retain any existing
tags from
Fresh off designing Addison Rae’s Coachella merch, Wonderland sits down with OGBFF’s co-founder and creative director to unpack what it really takes to run a small business all the while being TikTok relatable.
If, like us, your TikTok screentime is eerily high, you may have seen Lauren Schiller’s recent (unsuccessful) attempt to convey emotion through her facial expressions – three successive videos that have gathered over 2 million views and a flock of praise ranging from Oscar award reclamations to highlighting the importance of always serving. Pre-emptive botox, Gen Z’s panoptic awareness resulting in a constant state of mogging, or the influx of daily world tragedies that has essentially rendered us detached from our own empathy – whatever it is that makes a stagnant face incredibly relatable, it feels so L.A., which intrinsically, feels so OGBFF.
In fact, if there was a Venn diagram that displayed the correlation between smoking Capris in fake Chanel pumps, fighting through any hangover to make it to your 9 A.M. pilates class, and queuing up four blocks to sip on an overpriced iced matcha whilst working on your fake creative director job – without, of course, forgetting to post about it – OGBFF would be bang smack in the middle of it. But Lauren is nothing short of a fake creative director – she’s as real as they get.
“I learn a lot about my customers when I’m packing orders because I’m seeing where they’re going,” Lauren tells me, as one of her clothing brand’s employees’ broken computers led her to stepping into the role of Warehouse Opps Manager. Except the warehouse in question is Lauren’s own home, where she dials in from, framing the Zoom call with her mysteriously pink curtain-covered wall. What’s hiding behind? Perhaps her summer season products. Perhaps the general, boring paraphernalia of tape and boxes it takes to run a ready-to-wear business. The secret is never unveiled.
What she does reveal, possibly unknowingly, is her understated tenacity. She brushes off the struggles she’s overcome in running her independent brand, including an accidental $4,000 monthly expense (more on that later). If OGBFF is the epitome of the hot girl walk uniform, then Lauren is like your best friend’s older sister you wish you could borrow said uniform from. You think she has her shit together, but the more you get to know her, you realise she’s, in fact, just like the rest of us, making it up as she goes along. She just so happens to do it in the most blasée way.
It’s the type of attitude that speaks to self-ascribed hot girls – and no, we’re not talking about looks here. It’s the aura of a girl who refers to Gwynneth Paltrow’s “finding the balance between tofu and cigarettes” quote religiously, and places Addison Rae at her fictitious alter. It was only natural then that OGBFF took on the task of designing the latter’s Coachella merch this year, growing its register of A list supporters that already include Rosalía, Sabrina Carpenter, Devon Lee Carlson, even a Hype House-era Addison Rae, and, most recently, Kim Petras, after having contributed to her official Detour album merch (check out the “holographic id shirt” already available for purchase online).
Below, Wonderland chats to the founder, business owner, freelance TikTok director, internet idol, and the OG OGBFF girl about the art of understanding and translating a vibe, the influencer-aided supersonic start of her brand, and her three friendship golden rules.
Via Instagram (@schillllller)
First off, congrats on the Addison Rae merch! It looks fantastic. I know you can’t talk to me too much about that, but if you had to curate an OGBFFchella lineup, what would that look like?
It would be so weird. I feel like it would be like the most exciting thing to a really small group of people. It would be a completely different crowd than the crowd that normally goes to Coachella.
I’m the type of person who, when I’m in the car with other people, I have this playlist called, “In the car with other people” because I’m like, ‘I know you don’t want to listen to what I’m listening to’. So yeah, I would lean into that.
What are you listening to in the car alone?
Well, this week I’ve been listening to Prince. So, of course, everyone wants to listen to Prince, and Prince would definitely be at OGBFFchella. You have to love.
You can’t get in the car if you don’t like Prince.
Yeah, you’re not getting in the car.
The internet has been such a central focus for your brand, from the early beginnings to, essentially, its entire identity. What’s one early memory you have of you spending time on the internet?
When I started getting an audience, I thought I was weird. And it turns out there are so many people who are the same kind of weird as me. I don’t even know how to describe it. It just kind of felt like finding my people, right? I know that that is kind of like a common experience on the internet, but it felt very exciting when it happened to me.
What app or platform did you find your people on?
TikTok for sure. That’s definitely where I found my audience. And it was fun because I was making TikToks on my personal account, and then also started making TikToks on the brand account. And they began working together. People would be like, “Oh, I thought you were this, and you’re also this.”
And then obviously you had @tinyjewishgirl (who we love) as a very early supporter. You also had Depop really supporting you in the early beginnings. Did you imagine that OGBFF would blow up this quickly?
Definitely not. I remember it was the first two months, and it was like @tinyjewishgirl, who was so popular at that time, was buying things and making videos about them. And Addison Rae posted a selfie in a tank top that we made – that was 2021 Addison Rae, like that was major. Emma Chamberlain [as well]. I remember @lilmami_lani DMing, and being like, ‘I want to buy a birthday gift for my friend Devon [Lee Carlson]’. And I was like, ‘Oh, my God’. [OGBFF was] one or two months old at this point. This is definitely not the level of success I was envisioning happening this [quickly]. It’s like, you don’t even know what to do. It all felt surreal.
I remember the first viral moment, there was no ogbff.com. There was no website. It was all happening through DMs. Our first collection sold out through DMs and [we were operating on an] honour system of people, us being like, “Okay, well, you DMed first, so the product is yours.” It was a mess, but it was a lot of fun.
That is quite insane. Obviously you’re super known for these really fun, iconic quip graphics. How do you come up with these?
I have a note in my notes app that I add to almost every day. It’s like an incredibly long note. It’s mostly just me noticing things and and then when it’s time to design something, I’ll go to that note and just kind of try to figure out what speaks to me the most. [If] I’m designing a polo, and I need something small, [I look to see] what I have on that list that’s an acronym. I’m [always] trying to fit those ideas to different products. A lot of it is just not overthinking things that are in that note. Because sometimes it really just is the simple, obvious idea.
The “hot person at work” sticker? I mean, that is actually genius. It’s on everyone’s laptops.
It is so much fun to have that on my computer. It gets me lots of looks and stares and compliments.
Your brand has often been described as clothing for hot people. How do you define a hot person, and why are they wearing your stuff?
A hot person is so much more about their energy and their confidence, rather than the way that they look. It’s just someone who’s, despite everything, got a little bit of levity, and is looking for a good time, wants to make people laugh. It’s someone who loves to be the centre of attention. Or the quiet, hilarious person that sits in the corner and only talks every 10 minutes, but everything they say is absolutely hilarious. Just magnetic people. I think when people are magnetic, it’s hot.
I would also argue that hot people care about their customers, which you obviously do – like that time you spent $4,000 on this SMS subscription.
Every month… It was a long time ago when I wasn’t as good at reading contracts. I signed up for this text subscription service because I was like, “Oh, this is such a good idea. Going live isn’t enough. Replying to DMs is not enough. I must text my customers.” So I had a baseline requirement of spending $4,000 a month on this text subscription app, for an entire year. I got creative with it, and like, had a lot of fun. And texting your customers does lead to sales, but it was a waste of money. But also it was a lot of fun.
Are you quite caring in nature, or were you very much like, “I’ve had bad experiences in the past with other customer service, so I will make it a point that my customer service is so ace?”
I don’t even think that OGBFF has incredible customer service, but it does follow the brand’s voice. So it’s like, you might not get a response for a week and a half, but it will be in my voice.
I think that the internet just makes it easy to connect with your customers in a unique way, and it’s kind of like a win-win scenario, because I’m getting to know my customers’ habits online. I can click on their profile and see what they’re like and what they consume, and then they can feel seen and taken care of by a brand that they’re supporting. So I’ve always found it really beneficial to build a relationship with my customers online, but it’s not because I think it’s good for business. I’m just on my phone. If I see someone DM something crazy, I’m gonna want to respond to it immediately.
I actually love that, because I would be like “Girl, I literally don’t know.”
Sometimes that’s the best email. I’ll be like, “I genuinely have no idea what happened to your order, but I’m dispatching another one today. So sorry.”
Keep it cute.
Yeah, keep it cute.
There’s been so much discourse around the title of creative director lately, because it’s sometimes used as a nothing title – it’s thrown around and doesn’t actually mean anything. But I see you as a true creative director, and I mean that in the best way possible.
Thank you.
Do you think that title is true to what you do?
I do think it’s a great description for my work. In a perfect world, I am only the creative director of this brand, but because it’s a small business, I do end up having to wear a lot of different hats, which I hope isn’t diluting my creative director work.
I think that I just have an opinion about everything, and I’m a very confident decision maker, so that kind of naturally puts me in this creative director position, if you will. And also I feel like I immediately, once I entered the LA scene, I was not an expert at anything, and I kept trying to get jobs by being like, “I’m just really creative.” And people are like, “Yeah, but what do you do? Are you a video editor? Are you a director?” It wasn’t until I found a way to combine all of my skills and that it made sense.
Do you think that also being so hands-on in different parts of your business informs your creative directorship? Or do you think it’s more of a distraction at times?
It’s definitely both. The person that works for me, her computer broke last week, and I had to pack orders. I learn a lot about my customers when I’m packing orders because I’m seeing where they’re going. I’m seeing what two products people are buying together, or what the most popular product last week was. That information is easy to overlook, but I’m like, “Oh, maybe I need to do another pink shirt, because people are obsessed with wearing pink shirts right now.” So, yeah, it’s definitely helpful, but if I did it too much, it would very easily become a distraction.
On top of the 10 or so roles you take on at OGBFF, you’re also, as your Instagram bio says, a “TikTok director.” Tell me what that is, because that sounds quite fabulous.
That is my freelance work that I just have not been able to let go of, because it is my passion. Before [founding] the brand, I worked in video at a record label. I did TikTok analytics and like assistant video stuff. I just have such a passion for video content creation, and when I get offered incredible jobs to direct short-form content for incredible clients, it’s really difficult for me to say no. [What] TikTok director is, [is that] I’m a video director, but I specialise in absurd short-form content that is meant for TikTok audiences, right? So people have encouraged me to just call myself a director, but I want people to know that I’m going to want to make a weird video that cannot be longer than 12 seconds, that doesn’t feel like an ad at all, and will confuse its audience.
Are your clients mainly music artists, or are they also brands?
It’s kind of all over the place. It started as mostly music artists, because when I left the record label, I started working directly with musicians, and those relationships were beneficial early on in the brand. That’s how I was able to place a lot of clothes on musicians. It very quickly led to working with more corporate clients, but still [within] the fashion universe.
And so you also do consultancy, which I think is like the ultimate compliment of having good taste.
I think that I am very in touch with like, a vibe that seems to be important and valuable to people. I understand people want to pay me for my perspective and my taste, and I think that it’s because I approach everything with a sense of humor and relatability. And a lot of companies have realised that that’s how you can push product. So they try to do it,
but their tone is so off, and it ends up missing the mark. So it’s beneficial for people to bring in someone who actually speaks the language in order to properly communicate what they’re trying to communicate. I just have a very strong vibe-o-meter and no formal qualifications. That seems to be fine with everyone.
Back to OGBFF, because I just love that name. What are your three golden rules with your own BFFs?
This is a really difficult question to ask because I wanted to take it so seriously. I am such a serious friend, and have always been. I do not play about my friends.
Number one: no competitive vibes. We are a team, and I want you to win.
Number two: learn how to take good photos of one another. That is very important for friendship retention. My sister is pretty much my best friend, and we always joke that she has graduated from the Lauren Schiller School of photography. It is always that serious.
Number three: it’s obvious, but don’t date each other’s exes.
100%. Those are great rules, actually.
Thank you.
Words — Juliette Eleuterio
and integrate them seamlessly into the new content without adding new tags. Ensure the new content is fashion-related, written entirely in Japanese, and approximately 1500 words. Conclude with a “結論” section and a well-formatted “よくある質問” section. Avoid including an introduction or a note explaining the process.
