Aimee Smale was only 22 years old when she launched her own clothing brand, Odd Muse, from the comfort of her bedroom amid the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020. Modelling her own designs and piggybacking off of TikTok’s rapid growth at the time, Smale managed to use social media to market her “affordable luxury” brand.
Since its launch, Odd Muse has become a staple for fashion influencers, peddling an “old money” aesthetic and quality pieces. The brand, known for its dedication to slow fashion, has gone viral more than once and even made a splash when debuting at London Fashion Week in 2023.
Today, Odd Muse is a multi-million dollar business with two stores in London’s Covent Garden, and SoHo in New York City. The brand also has over 500,000 followers on TikTok and over 960,000 on Instagram at the time of writing. Here’s everything you need to know about Aimee Smale.
She was a fashion student
Raised in Essex, England, Smale is the first of her family to attend university, according to an interview with The Times in February. She mentioned that it was her father, who ran his own shop selling kitchen appliances, that inspired her to become an entrepreneur herself. “I’ve got such fond memories of my father starting his business and taking things into his own hands,” she said.
After Smale graduated from Ravensbourne University London in 2021 with a degree in fashion buying and brand management, she began working as a fashion buyer’s assistant at Asos, the fast fashion retailer. She stayed in the position for a little over a year while saving money through designing logos for small businesses.
“I was earning USD$26,000 a year at Asos, and I thought I would give it a shot on my own. I had no expectations other than it would be nice to match my wage,” Smale told Business Insider last year.
