How Oslo's most powerful It-girls conquered the fashion world through camaraderie and collaboration

In an expansive villa-cum-studio in central Oslo, covetable designer wares line the white walls – a Chanel 22 denim tote bag, a Louis Vuitton splattered with Yayoi Kusama’s signature dots, flame-covered Miu Miu flats, a relaxed pair of Loewe anagram jeans, quilted Chanel loafers, a large black Hermès Birkin. No, these are not the items called in for today’s cover shoot but the everyday street clothes worn by our four cover stars, Norwegian influencers and It girls Marianne Theodorsen, Janka Polliani, Darja Barannik and Nina Sandbech.

In the adjacent room, the four women bask in the blaring studio lights of our Vogue Scandinavia makeshift gameshow, jostling to arrange themselves so everyone’s ‘good side’ is facing the camera. They’re less concerned with their faces, more concerned with the way their outfits will appear. Sandbech, for instance, needs to sit on the right so the thigh-high slit in her strappy black Jacquemus dress is on full display. The premise for the video is simple: draw a card, read the question, answer truthfully or put on a horrific item of clothing from the nearby rack (for these women, a true punishment).

A few rounds go by when at last, Sandbech draws the number one question: “What’s the most you’ve been paid for a partnership post?” She doesn’t miss a beat, heading over to the rack and selecting a ghastly pink synthetic tunic to throw on atop her designer dress. She’ll never tell. While there are countless – endless – influencers all over the globe, these Norwegian women have their own particular flavour, one that’s seeped in colour, joy and a sisterhood rarely seen on the cut-throat landscape of Instagram. “We’ve been playing with open cards,” says Barannik. “We care for each other and we’re lucky – even in other Scandinavian countries it’s much more competitive.” If one receives an invite to a Christian Louboutin lunch during Paris Fashion Week, for example, she’ll sweetly ask their PR representative if the other girls can come along. If another is looking to connect with a particular brand, she can always request to be put in touch. Their contact books are wide open.

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For Theodorsen, 40, and Polliani, 44, the relationship goes beyond kindness and professional courtesy. Having met on the fashion circuit some years ago, they’ve become best friends, a relationship that shines through in their fun-forward collab posts ranging from outfit swapping to eating pizza in bed. “Our relationship has grown very organically over the years,” says Theodorsen, who’s sporting freshly-dyed crimson hair. “I still remember the trip to Copenhagen where we really bonded...” Janka interjects, “...Where we sat in the bathtub, drinking beer together.”

Both women got their start during the Scandi blogging boom of the early aughts. Polliani posted under her own name while Theodorsen went by ‘The Style Devil’. “In my headline picture, I was blonde and wearing a bowler hat. I had a vest that I was holding like this,” she places her hands on the ruffled lapels of her Christopher Esber top. “I looked very devilish.” For both women, blogging was a side project; Polliani was working in television – local hosting gigs, mostly – and Theodorsen was dabbling in modelling and street style photography. But as their page views continued to grow, blogging soon became a full-time job. “I came home to my husband, told him I was pregnant and said, ‘I’m going to stop working as a TV producer now and I’m going to be a full-time blogger’,” Polliani, who now has two children, recalls. “He thought it was a horrible idea.”

At the time, being an influencer wasn’t considered a career – in fact, the title didn’t even exist – but the tides in Norway were changing. “There was definitely a blooming scene – there was Fashion Week and events,” says Theodorsen. “Some of the Norwegian girls started doing international fashion weeks and getting pictured on the street style blogs.” Both Theodorsen, who eventually changed her handle to her own name, and Polliani made the leap to Instagram. Along the way, Theodorsen married her high school sweetheart and, like Polliani, had two children. Today she has 218k followers who tune in for her power clashing, more-is-more aesthetic (not to mention her enviable, Chanel-heavy bag collection). Polliani, whose aesthetic also veers towards loud luxury, has 241k.

Barannik, 33, and Sandbech, 34, are born of the next wave of social media stars. Like Theodorsen and Polliani, neither set out to do this full-time, with Barannik pursuing fashion journalism by way of a gig at the publication Style Mag (eventually she ran her own fashion blog at the magazine) and Sandbech pursuing a career as a makeup artist while running a ‘just for fun’ fashion and lifestyle blog on the side. Coincidentally, Sandbech did some makeup work for Style Mag during the same era Barannik worked there. When both girls started seeing their numbers grow on Instagram, they seized the opportunity to make it a career. “I said I’ll give it one year, and if it doesn’t work I’ll just do something else,” Sandbech says. “And then suddenly, bang! It went up.” Today she has 483k followers – the highest count in the group. Not bad considering only about 600,000 people live in Oslo.

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While Sandbech’s aesthetic is just as bright as that of Theodorsen and Polliani, she veers more towards monochromatic looks or clever colour blocking. A plum leather biker jacket paired with a poufy Barbie-pink skirt, for instance. “I did my colourful style differently than the others,” she says, on why her account found success. “I had my niche”. Theodorsen chimes in, “In the beginning, you were so good at doing DIY.” Sandbech, who has been sewing her own clothes for years, nods, “I love to make my own stuff.”

Barannik, meanwhile, champions a minimalism more traditionally aligned with Scandinavian style. Smart black and white tailored separates and cosy cashmere sweaters punctuated by an unexpected material mix or striking detail. The aforementioned Birkin is hers. “Janka, Marianne and Nina are definitely more playful, more colourful, and that’s their style,” she says. “I am more minimalistic and classic and have a more timeless wardrobe that’s easy to use day and night.” A former Norway’s Top Model contestant, Barannik has 258k followers and, like her fellow cover stars, is a front row fixture at international fashion shows. Her first significant invitation? “Chanel,” she says, smiling.

While they may not be willing to disclose their annual income, our cover stars are willing to reveal their primary income source: brand partnerships. Though their organic posts favour high fashion, sponsored collabs can also veer towards the mass market: Barranik’s ongoing partnership with Bik Bok, Sandbech’s work with H&M, Polliani’s work with Zalando. There are ad tags for online retailers from Farfetch to Matches. Sandbech has a good thing going with both Samsung and L’Oreal Paris. “I don’t think people know how much work it takes to keep your relationships with the brands,” says Polliani. “All the work it takes to keep everyone happy.”

Despite their global appeal, all four girls call Oslo home. “It’s nice to have Oslo as a base,” says Barannik, who has spent stints in St Petersburg (though she’s born in Oslo, she’s half Russian and half Ukrainian), Copenhagen and New York. “I truly love Oslo, it makes me so balanced. We have the mountains, we have the ocean, we have the forest – all these things that keep me grounded.” Sandbech, who lived with an ex-boyfriend in New York in her late twenties, agrees, adding, “I’m super close to my family, so I like to be close to them.” She’s not the only public figure from the Sandbech household; her brother, Ståle, is a professional snowboarder who claimed a silver medal at the Sochi Olympics.

Many influencers showcase more intimate details from their private lives on their feeds, but these Norwegian girls are full-on fashion with a dash of interior and travel content. You won’t find Theodorsen or Polliani’s children. You won’t be able to decipher who’s single and who’s attached (“I’m single!” Barannik exclaims for the record). “A lot of people don’t understand that what you choose to show on social media is just a small fraction of the complicated human being that you are,” says Theodorsen. “Social media can be very toxic in that way – you’re expected to meet everyone else’s expectations for who you’re supposed to be.” Polliani nods, adding, “It’s one percentage of your life.”

Meeting expectations has been especially challenging for Polliani. With a long-running culture podcast, Janka og Marte, and regular Norwegian TV appearances (she was a presenter on Top Model Curves, which exclusively featured curve models), Polliani is expected to be more than just well-dressed. “I’m not a size zero, so I’ve been put into a box as a body positive influencer,” she says. “But the thing is, I just put clothes on my body.”

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After she walked in Rotate’s autumn/winter 2023 show, Polliani, who was instrumental in getting Norway’s anti-retouch law passed (the law states retouched Instagram images must be clearly marked), came under fire from the Norwegian tabloids. “I was put in an outfit that showed my body in a different way than I otherwise show my body, so people were thinking that I was editing myself,” she says. The criticism became so loud, Polliani eventually issued a response. The toll it took on her mental health was significant. “People think, ‘You’re a public person, you just have to take it’,” she says. “People forget that there’s a person behind it.” When we meet, she’s fresh off a one-week Instagram detox, spurred by the emotional repercussions of being constantly online. In Norway, where Jantelagen reigns supreme, Polliani and her cohorts – with their unabashed love of in-your-face fashion – are easy targets for online vitriol.

None of this is to say that this group of women aren’t using their platform to do more than just show off their looks. Shortly after war broke out in Ukraine, Barannik founded Shapka Cashmere, a not-for-profit cashmere beanie brand that donates all profits to Ukrainian refugees coming to Norway. “That’s been a very nice way of using my voice, my network – with all these ladies – helping out, giving back,” says Barannik. To date, Shapka has sold approximately €300,000 worth of beanies. Naturally, Theodorsen, Polliani and Sandbech were among the first to be seen wearing Shapka on Instagram.

For these women, if one succeeds, they all do. At Copenhagen Fashion Week, the Norwegian contingency can be seen strolling down the street arm in arm towards a show from a mile away, a sea of vibrant colour and smiles, street style photographers trailing in their wake. “I think you can see that we have fun with it,” says Theodorsen. “The relationships that we have are real. We respect each other. We admire each other.”

So how much do these women get paid for a partnership? It’s a question often posed on Instagram, where the comments section is flooded with curious followers wondering how they afford so many handbags, so many shoes. “Why can’t we just be successful women?” Theodorsen says. “If we were men, no one would ever ask that question.”