The allure of the It-Girl has always lived in the intangible: the effortless aura and buzz you can’t manufacture or reverse-engineer. For breakout personality Olandria Carthen and fashion designer Brandon Blackwood, this energy is rooted in authenticity impossible to fake and even harder to define. Their latest collaboration offers a glimpse into that formula, blending personal style, confidence, and cultural influence into something instantly magnetic.
“Ola has been rocking the BB bags so well, and I love who she represents,” Blackwood tells Teen Vogue. “It’s a collab that does not feel forced at all and I think it shows throughout.”
Blackwood and Carthen’s creative chemistry feels less like a strategic partnership and more like fashion soulmates finding each other at the right moment. In an industry that often treats newcomers with skepticism — despite the internet’s obsession with overnight success stories — both Blackwood and Carthen understand what it means to push past the side-eyes and prove you belong. For Carthen, Blackwood’s early support carried real weight. “Brandon was actually one of the few designers that supported me in the very beginning because a lot of people were scared to take a chance on a reality star,” she tells Teen Vogue. “One thing about me: the people that supported me when nobody else wanted to will always have my support and I will always be in their corner.” Bonded by the experience of having to earn trust before industry approval, mutual understanding became the foundation of something bigger than fashion. This fondness and loyalty carried over into the candid campaign imagery.
On the day of their photoshoot, “the vibes were up” Carthen says. The two laughed and danced to Megan Thee Stallion, Rihanna and Beyonce all day and the whole team moved in sync, feeding each other's creativity. “I was super excited because I do want to have a breakthrough in an editorial space and I thank goodness for Brandon coming up with this amazing concept,” Carthen says. Blackwood’s vision for the campaign imagery was inspired by “hyper-feminine, polished and almost doll-like” aesthetics. “The bags are intentionally small and sculptural, so we leaned into exaggeration and contrast in the visuals,” he explains. He wanted this bag to read as an extension of identity rather than just an accessory. Behind the scenes, Carthen's makeup artist, Ngozi Esther Edeme, aka Painted by Esther topped off the vision with her signature rosy blush — perfectly mirroring the ultra-feminine palette of the collection itself.
The products include the O-Zip Mini Trunk, O-Top Handle Bag, O-Vantity Case and the O-Lipstick Case Bag Charm, which all come with matching pink dustbags that feel like a love letter to Carthen’s sweet spot between bold glam and statement fashion. For Blackwood, the design and collaborative process felt refreshingly effortless. “We did a round of prototypes and Olandria’s ideas were very straightforward, which I love when co-designing, with someone, that is like your dream situation," he says.
That creative alignment shows up in every detail. From mirrors engraved with Carthen’s name to the collection’s joint brand emblem, the partnership feels so personal. Carthen gushes over these details, “I've had so many partnerships and this one has been like the one that my name is actually a part of. And it's very sweet for Brandon to share this collection with me and allow me to actually put my name on this bag as well as his.”
More than just another celebrity collab, with Blackwood’s level of credibility and cultural cachet, the collection feels like a symbolic passing of the torch — a literal and figurative stamp of Carthen’s fashion It-Girl status.
Blackwood, who has an academic background in neuroscience, knows exactly what it feels like to be on the frontier of fashion — carving out space in an industry that rarely rewards people for doing things differently. But according to him, the breakthrough came the moment he stopped chasing approval altogether. “I think when I first started, I wanted to be, like, everyone else, and I wanted the same kind of attention. I wanted the same accolades and all that stuff,” he says. “But the more authentic I was, the more I literally just had fun with it, the more attention I got. Like, when I really just kind of almost strayed away from the normal trajectory of a fashion designer, that's when I had fun. So I really had to, like, unlearn wanting to be, you know, part of a group. Because that's literally how I became part of a group.”
That mindset is exactly what makes the collaboration with Carthen resonate beyond just chic bags. Both Blackwood and Carthen built their identities by leaning into what made them distinct, rather than shrinking or staying siloed in their respective industries. And in doing so, they’ve proved their legitimacy, creating something far more powerful than a viral collection: they’ve created their own definition of cool which is the true lore of the It-Girl.
