Bunnie Benton’s career as a stylist, fashion designer, and self-proclaimed creativepreneur is the culmination of all her childhood dreams!
She expressed her love for fashion from an early age by reimagining her Barbie doll’s clothes. Her ability to stand out in a world where many strive to look and be the same drew criticism from friends and family, but Benton never let that stop her from being true to herself. Today, her creative endeavors continue to pay off.
Source: Courtesy of Bunnie Benton / Courtesy of Bunnie Benton
Benton recalled a moment of humiliation during her teen years, during which she vowed never to shrink herself to be accepted by others, no matter how much the world attempted to get her to operate from a place of normalcy.
“I was more into styling throughout high school,” Benton told MadameNoire, recounting how she wasn’t made aware of a fashion course offered by her school until her senior year. “ I was more about revamping. I could take something and flip it or add to it, and when it was time to go to prom like I said, I’m the only girl, my mom was like, ‘So, can you wear like one color,’ because she already knew what I was. I was like, ‘No, I want to wear a rainbow dress like I want all the colors. I want glitter, sparkly, and crazy.’ And she was like, ‘Okay, but you know your classmates are expecting that. What if you shake them up?’”
“She was just trying to, I don’t want to say sedate me, but she was just trying to calm me down and get me to pick something a little simple, which, looking back, I shouldn’t have let happen, but I was like, ‘Okay mom, sure,'” said Benton. “She picked out a dress for me; it was pretty simple. She picked out my hair and jewelry, and when I got to prom, someone was wearing almost the same dress, with the same hair, jewelry, shoes, and a very similar bag. And I wanted to throw up.”
Through her fashion brand, Veljrè, Bunnie Benton helps other people avoid the same prom fiasco she faced as a teen
Now, this moment comes full circle as Benton uses her platform to help prom-goers of today’s generation find outfits to match what most deem one of the most important nights of their high school careers by encouraging them to think outside of the box from the dress that they generally show her as inspiration for their look.
It is also a testament to the dopamine dressing movement she’s discovered, which, in her words, is “wearing things that spark joy for yourself.”
Bunnie Benton has been practicing the art of dopamine dressing long before she knew there was a term for it
“I, to some degree, have always been dopamine dressing; I just didn’t know the terminology for it,” Benton explained, recalling how she first learned of a similar term called dopamine decor while she was visiting her landlady’s apartment and wondering how the aesthetic always brought her a lot of joy.
“Her apartment makes me feel happy. I just love being in her apartment, so I started implementing little design elements in my office,” she said. “Then I started applying that to how I was dressing. I need to put on bright earrings today… I need to put on colored eyebrows or something. I started looking it up and discovered it was called dopamine dressing. I started researching it and found out that scientifically, it’s proven that if you wear things that spark joy in yourself, it helps your mental and emotional health and that was important to me recently because I felt like myself, especially after the pandemic, all of us, my mental and emotional health were not great. I got to a point where I realized I was sedating myself, the way I dress, and the way I was operating my business.”
Courtesy of Bunnie Benton
For Benton, this practice of creating with other people in mind led her to dilute her dress to satisfy others who weren’t comfortable with the way she’d always loved to express herself through clothing. This made Benton sadder and sadder, but it wasn’t long before she changed her perception along with the people she was surrounding herself with, and returned to herself by maximizing any chance she got to play dress up.
“I don’t get out a lot, and if I have an excuse to be on camera or outside for a second, I’m gonna make the moment count,” she beamed. “I’m gonna put on a look because that makes me feel good. It’s gonna make me feel happy and at ease, and it’s been working for me. I feel like I’m just at a lot more peace. Life is gonna life, and it’s gonna get difficult sometimes, no matter what, but I feel like if you’re grounded a certain way, you’ll be alright.”
Benton added, “That’s where I’m at right now. Things are coming my way, and I’m alright because I’m finally coming to myself with this dopamine dressing and understanding that I have to feel good about myself. Otherwise, it’s all going to be crap. Everything’s going to suck.”
As the founder of Veljrè, a clothing brand that focuses on creating clothing items that speak to her admiration for her biggest supporters, Black women, Benton aims to leave an impact in the fashion space by zeroing in on how the way a person feels mentally can have a direct impact on how they show up in the world.
“I want to continue improving my journey with fashion and mental health and use my knowledge to share that with others,” Benton expressed. “I want people to know that it doesn’t have to look like my dopamine dressing. To other people, it’s crazy that I wear colored eyebrows and little flowers on my hat. That’s not what your dopamine dressing has to look like; your dopamine dressing could just be a clean, fresh pair of white sneakers. It doesn’t matter; whatever your dopamine is or makes you feel good, put it on, and don’t wait for a reason. I just want to keep sharing that message through my brand.”
Courtesy of Bunnie Benton
Bunnie Benton’s younger self would think the adult version of herself is so cool and that’s all that matters
If given the opportunity to sit down with her 7-year-old self, Benton says that first, they’d look at one another and burst into tears, but more importantly, her words would be: “Girl, it’s us. We did it!”
“I would tell her that it’s okay to feel the feelings you feel now,” said Benton as she held back tears. “The loneliness you feel, the feeling excluded and stuff like that, because that’s going to be the thing that teaches you the most about yourself.”
She concluded, “The other thing I’d tell my 7-year-old self is, ‘You wouldn’t believe what you’re going to turn into. You won’t believe where you’re going to work. You won’t believe your surroundings, and you won’t believe what you get to wear.’ Little 7-year-old me thought only my Barbies could dress the way I dress now or that I’d have to work for Betsy Johnson to be surrounded by so much colored fun every day, and it’s like, ‘No, I created it for myself and 7-year-old me would like, ‘WHAT?’”
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