Read more about Don’s work with boohoo and his summer plans.
This past Wednesday, I got the chance to visit boohoo’s USA headquarters and sit with the new face of their men’s collection Don Benjamin. The clothing brand is an online shop based in the UK with a wide range of styles at affordable prices. The brand is seeking to venture out to the US and is opening a boutique in New York City this summer! I got the chance to visit and take a look at some of the clothes available for sale on the site.
Don Benjamin stopped by to speak with us about his work with boohoo and gave us some information on his next steps for the summer and his career. Read the interview below.
How long have you been with boohoo?
I’ve been working with boohoo now the past few months.
How has that been?
It’s been amazing. The team is great, everybody is like family, the clothes are amazing, I’m always getting complimented on the clothes, so it’s a good look.
What are some highlights of your partnership with boohooMAN?
I think them just taking me in as family more than like oh ‘you’re modeling for us’. It’s like you’re part of our crew now. Everybody is real personable; the styles vary so much from high fashion looks to your everyday throw something comfortable on looks. So, it gives me a wide range of what I can wear on a daily basis.
What are you looking forward to in the near future working with boohoo?
Just looking to build and eventually, if it’s up to me, give some input on what I think could be added or what I may like. Just building and being able to continue to go out in style with their clothes on and add to what I wear on a daily basis, showing up to events and rep it. And know that it’s a good foundation rather than a clothing line that I put on really quick.
For the summer, do you feel like you’ll pull out some boohoo pieces?
Oh definitely. I was out at Coachella and I had on some of like the shorts and tank tops, so I’m looking forward to the summer collection. I think I’m definitely gonna be at some events in some boohooMAN.
That’s exciting, how was Coachella?
Coachella was crazy. The whole team was out there, I caught Kendrick’s show. It was fun.
Do you have any more plans for the summer?
I plan on traveling the world. I have a couple projects I’m working on. I’m dropping an EP, so I’m gonna be doing a lot of touring, a lot of shows, pushing the EP. The summer is gonna be crazy.
Do you have any health or fitness tips?
Well, I’m allergic to gluten, so I automatically cut gluten out of my diet. With that being cut out, I cut out a lot of carbs, and I feel a lot better not eating carbs. I stay a little more fit, my abs show a little more so I don’t have to do as many sit ups. That’s a secret right there. But definitely you feel better when you work out, even if it’s 30 minutes or an hour a day. Whether it be walking or doing a quick jog, just getting your blood flowing the right way. You feel more energized and you feel more ready to do things.
You said you were working on music, what exactly is it about? Can you give us a little sneak peak?
Well my project is called M.P.L.S., it’s the abbreviation for the city that I’m from, Minneapolis. It also stands for money, power, love, and stress. I feel like they all kind of tie into each other. So I have some records that are touching on love, love stories, I have some songs touching on getting to the money, some hustle records. I tried to put in some uplifting records, I tried to put a little balance since it’s only 7 records. But I’m trying to give people a variation because people are still getting familiar with the artist side of me. They know me as a model, but they don’t know about the artist side.
Now that you are getting into your music, do you still want to pursue modeling, or is that something that’s for right now? Do you want to pursue music in the future or do you want a balance of both?
I was doing music before modeling, and the modeling took off. Now it’s bringing a platform to where I can bring it back. I feel like nowadays you can balance everything. Fashion and music are really tied in together right now. Me being able to have the ability to model, I feel like a lot of artists are trying to model, so now that I have that ability I can keep doing modeling and I can book campaigns, be the face of a clothing line and give them a couple songs to use in a commercial, you know?