Wearing his trademark kippah, influencer Benji Park has been a fixture on the front rows of London’s fashion scene for years. Aged just 22, he has established a strong reputation in the industry, advising big brands and social-media companies on what makes Gen Z tick when it comes to fashion. With more than 233,000 TikTok users following his @FashionBoy handle, Park has also established a fanbase for his open commentary on celebrity looks and runway collections.
Before October 7, Park – who openly celebrates his Judaism – was welcomed by the wider fashion community, and snappers loved taking his picture. “There was some fascinating exoticism around me wearing a kippah, like there was some ‘otherness’ to me looking very European and wearing this ‘funny hat’,” he says. But since the Hamas atrocities, a lot has changed for Park, who has worked with leading fashion houses including Prada, Gucci, Alexander McQueen and Burberry.
He has been told he’s not the right “fit” for a job, received an outpouring of hate and death threats on social media, and was told to remove his kippah by some photographers at London Fashion Week in February, while others lowered their cameras as he walked by. “It makes me feel quite defeated, but there is not a lot that can be done,” says the former Harrow School pupil, who is the descendant of Holocaust survivors. “I have become quite accustomed to getting death threats, I am quite desensitised to it.
” For Park, the confl.
