Student dedicates brand to inclusion and accessibility

With 23,000 YouTube subscribers and 64,000 Instagram followers, Dallas Otigba is rapidly making her name known in the fashion and beauty influencer community. On top of running her highly popular social media accounts, Otigba, a junior majoring in business administration, began her own business last summer selling faux eyelashes under the company name Denimthelabel.

After her influencer account, @state.of.dallas, took off in 2019, Otigba’s followers consistently asked where her makeup and clothes were from.

“I thought, why not have a place where my supporters could directly shop from me,” Otigba said. 

From there sprouted Denimthelabel, a brand dedicated to bringing accessibility and inclusivity to the beauty industry.

“I thought eyelashes were a great way to start because you don’t need to be a makeup expert in order to wear lashes,” Otigba said. 

Denimthelabel carries nine different eyelash styles, ranging from natural to dramatic in appearance. The lash styles have names such as Bell Bottom or Dark Wash, a play off of denim as a symbol of accessibility and comfort.

When she began Denimthelabel, Otigba wanted to include young Black women as the faces of her beauty line.

“Brands didn’t really market towards people who look like me,” Otigba said. “Beauty was very, very segregated and not inclusive, so I thought I would have a brand that would include everybody.” 

Regarding diversity in the beauty industry, creators often look to launch foundation or blush products with expansive shade ranges. However, Otigba explained that she chose eyelashes specifically because they don’t have any shades or limits, making them an easily inclusive product. 

While her YouTube and Instagram followings helped catalyze the start of Denimthelabel, Otigba knew she wanted to create her own company since she was young. Her mother, Kita Lee, said she began seeing Otigba’s entrepreneurial side as young as age 8.

“She used her money to buy bulk variety packs of candy, then sold them at school during lunchtime,” Ms. Lee wrote in an email to the Daily Trojan. “Dallas was organized at an early age … When she wants to achieve something, she will take the initiative to obtain it.”

Though her passion for business and organization started at a young age, Otigba hasn’t lost any momentum since coming to USC. From drafting emails to handpicking product designs to shipping orders, Otigba runs Denimthelabel completely independently.

“It’s a one woman show,” Otigba said. “Hopefully in the future we can grow and have a team of people and maybe even USC students, but it’s just me right now, learning literally all the aspects of running a business.”

Denimthelabel’s photographer, Danielle Pankey, a graduate from the Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandising, said Otigba independently manages the company’s creative direction on top of overseeing business operations.

“She has mood boards, she gets models, she has the clothes ready and makeup ready,” Pankey said.  “Everyone has room for growth and learning, but to start, [the creative direction] makes sense.”

With Otigba posting biweekly on her Instagram, running a YouTube channel and managing Denimthelabel all herself, it’s easy to forget that she’s a full-time business student at one of the most rigorous universities in the nation. But Otigba explained that she’s “always been a person to just do it.”

“For my classwork I keep up with my agenda book, do what I need to, and listen to the lectures and then after I’m just logged off, I can go into what I’m really passionate about which is my social media brand and my business brand,” Otigba said. “You just got to know when to turn one thing off, even though it’s quite hard for me because I’m always thinking about how to improve my personal brand and Denimthelabel so my brain is kind of working twenty-four-seven.”

Otigba’s friend Twanisha Terry, a USC graduate student studying entrepreneurship and innovation, credits Otigba’s entrepreneurial drive as setting her apart from other college students.

“Most people, when they get to college, are young and not worried about making connections. They just want to enjoy college and have a nice time, but Dallas is very mature and knows what she wants and goes after what she wants,” Twanisha said. “It feels great to see her exploring and branching out and doing everything she had listed on her list and achieving all her goals.”

Behind Otigba’s striking fashion Instagram posts and growing company lies a great deal of sacrifice, time and effort.

“I have not been able to enjoy all the college luxuries that most people at USC have. I don’t really come from a rich background either so all the money that goes into my brand and products literally has to come from me working at some other place,” Otigba said. “A lot of people go to parties, and I wouldn’t say I enjoy parties that much, but if I did want to go I wouldn’t because I know I have other things to work on like photoshoots and getting models.”

Despite her busy schedule, Otigba said that seeing her customers happy with their Denimthelabel lashes lights her up and keeps her going. Additionally, the prospect of setting an example for other young Black women entrepreneurs drives Otigba’s determination to keep working.

“There are people who look like me who feel like they can’t do it,” Otigba said. 08:18 “I know it’s kind of difficult with the odds that we’ve been dealt, but I just feel like, since I’m seeing other people do it, that gives me a little bit of hope, and I hope I can be the person to give other people inspiration.”