By: | June 25, 2025 | Local |
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Photo by Andrei Jackamets
By Emma Sylvia
The year is 2022. Sitting on a bench on the Asbury Park boardwalk – as thousands of people do every summer – Christian Benner parks himself there for several hours, gazing at the ocean, before thinking, “This is it. This is where I belong.”
It all sounds fairly dramatic, but his revelation was ultimately true, as for the last several years Benner has based his fashion design business — Christian Benner Custom — out of his showroom at 910 Main Street in Asbury Park. It’s there that he puts out some of the most rockin’ of rock ’n’ roll threads available, specializing in vividly distressed leather jackets and band tees.
But his roots in the area start decades earlier, back in the 1980s, when Benner grew up just a stone’s throw away in nearby Wanamassa. As a child, he attended the YMCA nursery school in Asbury Park.
“We used to have to run in and run out,” Benner recollects, reminiscing on a time before the modern version of Asbury Park began to flourish. “It was like the apocalypse. We never came over here,” he remembers.
As his junior year of high school approached, Benner attempted to figure out what his goals for college were. A guidance counselor approached him and said, “You’re not going to college.”
So much for encouragement.
“She basically said, ‘You might as well give up.’” Benner recalls. However, a friend in Florida urged Benner to travel south and attend art school. He did so for two years, before being offered an internship, which resulted in him dropping out of school and pursuing that before heading to Philly and to acquire a degree in fashion marketing.
And then he did what almost every person aiming to make it big in fashion does: He moved to New York City.
Benner worked for seven years in retail fashion and began to get into display work, where he finally felt like he could showcase his creativity. “But over the course of years, I either left or got fired from jobs. I couldn’t do it. I either had an ego or I couldn’t take their ego.” A former boss of Benner’s that remained as a good friend offered him a job at Victoria’s Secret, where he worked under the creative director.
“It was a big, corporate job,” Benner says, “and it was the most ruthless, cutthroat thing I’ve ever done in my life.”
He continued to search for what he believed his purpose to be, and in the meantime, stumbled upon some dark days.
“That’s when I discovered partying. I thought that was the answer to everything. It became my escape. The second I wasn’t at work, I was hanging out at these bars. As time went on, I got worse with addiction. You get to a point where you rely on it to be happy.”
Benner pondered his life and career as he turned 30, comparing himself to friends and colleagues who were beginning to get married, have kids, and as Benner puts it, “doing stuff with their lives.” It was then when he encountered a bartender that he recognized, walking down the street and holding a yoga mat. “I said, ‘You look great,’ and he said, ‘I got sober.’” He brought Benner to an AA meeting. “I saw other artists, musicians, actors, teachers, lawyers – everyday people. It was the most surreal thing I’d ever seen. These people were sharing their stories, and it was the first time I felt relatable. ‘You guys feel that way too?’”
While Benner puts his family above anything else, thanking his parents for a fantastic childhood, he feels that as a boy growing up in the 90s, he wasn’t able to express his feelings properly. “AA felt like the first time I shared my feelings and people were listening. It put everything into perspective.” With these new realizations, Benner left his corporate job and began a whole new approach to life while sober.
“I had all this energy inside of me,” Benner says, “and I needed to release it.” His main inspirations came from people-watching in NYC, as well as rock ’n’ roll (and Benner now gestures to a sign in his studio, a blaring light that reads “ROCK & ROLL SAVED MY SOUL”). As he listened to music, he would paint his own clothing.
Social media began to become prevalent in the culture, and Benner began posting some of his works – and people began to ask if his clothing was for sale.
“Within the first six months, I got a call from [Lady] Gaga,” Benner recollects. “I started getting calls from other musicians, celebrities and actors.” His main source of inspiration was the self-expression of the early days of punk rock, dating back to the late ’70s and early ’80s in NYC and London. “People were altering clothing and expressing themselves. You could portray a message through clothing.”
It was with this self-expression that Benner rejected the ideals of fast fashion and aimed to make his story a part of his work. This resonated with his clients, leading to him producing jackets for Carrie Underwood and Miranda Lambert for the Grammys.
Benner always aims to insert his client’s personality into the work. “It almost became like therapy for me and the client. I think that’s what people fell in love with; the fact that it was so personal. There's not a single person I've made a jacket for that I haven't spoken to on the phone; whether it's a celebrity or someone down the street. I've created some of the most amazing relationships because of that.”
While still working in his small NYC apartment, Benner was approached by Jason Flom, a music industry executive and philanthropist, who said: “I know nothing about fashion – but I know what a rockstar is, and you’re one of them.” Flom offered to become Benner’s business partner. The two joined teams and six months later Benner opened his first shop in the city.
“It was mind-boggling to me that people enjoyed what I was doing,” Benner says. “Some of my favorite musicians called in. Guns N’ Roses, Aerosmith, Bruno Mars, Lenny Kravitz – I never questioned it; I just kept going.”
He recollects his Guns N’ Roses gig as one of the most fun. “A woman comes in, puts six jackets on the counter, and says, ‘I work for Guns N’ Roses; I’ll take them.’” At midnight, she texted Benner and said the jackets were a hit, with the band wearing them in front of a quarter million people – and then they ordered more for future gigs. “This was the first time I had a consistent, prominent figure as a client.”
Benner attests to the fact that art is one of the most prominent ways that you can express yourself, and he used his clothing as an outlet for his feelings and voice. Though he gets frustrated sometimes with himself and his search for perfection, he knows that you hardly ever create a masterpiece when you aim to do just that. “I strive to create the best piece, and when I get frustrated or change it, people still love it.”
It was during the pandemic that Benner realized he was starting to fall out of love with his city lifestyle, isolating further as restrictions tightened in the epicenter of Covid in the United States. As his lease for his shop came up in 2022, he realized that this was his sign to leave the city. “At the same time, my friends and family said, ‘Asbury is a cool place. You shouldn’t neglect it; it’s your home.’”
It was then that Benner, with his dog by his side, went to the Asbury Park boardwalk and realized that this was where he was meant to be.
“I am the best person I’ve ever been because of it,” he says. “Mentally, I’m the best I’ve ever been. My work is better. The little stubborn kid with an ego never imagined coming back. The community here is friendly, accepting and curious. This is the rest of my life; this is home.”
His showroom began as a white-walled, empty space – now, every inch is covered in band paraphernalia, with custom leather jackets hanging on racks on the walls, incense filling the air and of course, music playing on a nearby record player.
“To show people my store and have them hear my story and see my work in a place that’s evolving? It’s the best thing that ever happened to me.”
For more info, go to ChristianBennerCustom.com
