By NAVARDO SAUNDERS
(EDITOR’S NOTE: Navardo Saunders was one of the reporters who worked with me when I was Editor of The Freeport News.)
FREEPORT, Grand Bahama — A young Bahamian is taking the fashion industry in China by storm with his recently launched clothing line selling out twice in a matter of weeks.
Benn Adriann is making a name for himself with his clothing line “BENN by Benn Beneby,” which came out on Sept. 15.
“I would say it’s resort wear. But it’s definitely Androgynous. I wanted to create pieces that anyone can feel comfortable wearing. I was aiming for timeless pieces,” Beneby said in an interview from China, where he has lived for the last 11 years.
The 28-year-old designer said, “I used inspiration from my country which would be the blues and the Hombre effect to reflect the ocean with hint of Asian inspired details.”
Now that his collection is being well received in China, Beneby says he plans on launching the collection in The Bahamas real soon.
“I will stock them on every island,” Beneby says, adding that he is optimistic about Bahamians embracing his clothing line because Bahamians are fashion forward.
Asked what inspired his collection, Beneby said he was inspired after a recent incident.
“Well I had an incident where I almost lost my left eye,” Beneby says. “It was a wake-up call. What happened was very random and sudden. I always heard people say that things can happen in the blink of an eye and for me that was pretty literal. It made me realize life is fragile and not to waste time.”
Beneby, who has a degree in Engineering from Changsha University of Science and Technology, noted that his first few pieces were designed for his birthday.
“It was to test the water. Once I realized that I was able to bring my visions to life, I couldn’t stop designing,” Beneby says. “I did it more and more. I wanted to use different textures and fabrics to tie into my engineering background and created my own prints. I started with a few pieces. Once I found the vendors I sold them on the Chinese version of Amazon and within two hours they were sold out.”
Beneby added, “I really just wanted to see if anyone else would appreciate my sense of style or would’ve liked what I had to offer. I pitched the idea in inception to a few people that told me it wasn’t for them. So I decided to self-title label. I started working on the collection and once I designed, edited it and chose the fabric, I had the factory make the collection on a larger scale for the second time! It sold out almost instantly again.”
Beneby said he is also inspired by his passion for fashion.
“Many people search to find something they love and for me I finally found it,” Beneby said. “Now, I just want to share it with the world. I wanted to include my father in the collection being that it’s self-titled. He died on Valentine’s Day and the last thing I made him was a card in the shape of a heart. You’ll see that featured in one of the T-shirts along with the printed pants that has my left eye and abstract imagines of my face from photos I took on my phone.””
To see Benn’s full collection, check out his Facebook and Instagram @benn.thelabel
