Why Benito Skinner’s Obsession with Dario Vitale’s Versace Could Be the Next Big Fashion Game-Changer You Didn’t See Coming
Ever wonder what happens when a comedy genius swaps punchlines for polo shirts and Chanel for collegiate vibes? Meet Benito Skinner, aka Benny Drama—a man who’s mastered the art of turning fashion into his latest stage. From nailing celeb impressions to delivering heartfelt comedy in Overcompensating, Benny’s now diving headfirst into style with a playful spirit that makes shopping feel like less of a chore and more of a thrill. Does your personal style really need a rigid label, or could it simply be about what makes you feel good in the moment? It’s a question Benny’s living out loud, mixing high fashion with a wink and a nod to nostalgic flair, guided by icons like Robin Williams and surprise sample-sale alter egos. Ready for some serious (and seriously fun) fashion inspo? Stick with me as we peel back the curtain on his quirky buys, regrets, and dreams in this quick 4-minute read that’s anything but ordinary. LEARN MORE
4 min readThe Good Buy is a podcast from Harper’s Bazaar in which editors Leah Chernikoff and Lynette Nylander invite celebrities, designers, models, and tastemakers to talk shop: what they buy, where they got it, and why it matters. Come down the fashion rabbit hole and take a peek inside the closets and shopping carts of the world’s most stylish people. Learn how they use style to tell their stories.
Benito Skinner—a.k.a Benny Drama—is, undeniably one of this generation’s funniest public figures. Known first for his celebrity impressions and later for his heartwarming comedy series, Overcompensating, the actor-writer-producer has a podcast with Mary Beth Barone (Ride), a Las Culturistas award (for Best Beef), and a handful of brand partnerships under his belt. Now, he’s talking all things fashion.
Between sitting front row at Haider Ackermann’s Fall 2026 Tom Ford show, embracing his preppy side for J.Crew and Ralph Lauren campaigns, and diving into collegiate apparel on screen, Skinner has been playing around with his style over the past year. At the heart of it all? A sense of fun.
We caught up with the star to discuss everything from his love for Dario Vitale’s Versace to why Robin Williams is his ultimate style inspiration. Read on for highlights, and watch the show in full above.
On his shopping philosophy:
“For me, it’s stop thinking so much about what your personal style is and just do what feels right. If the top feels good to you, that’s it, and your personal style will reveal itself. I used to get so caught up in what that was or how I would describe it, like ‘I think it’s Americana, sporty, but gay boy in the ’80s whose dad works in finance.’ I had all these stories and now, it’s just, if I like the top I’ll buy it. You don’t have to try to force it so much and you definitely don’t have to force certain trends to work for you.”
On his style inspirations:
“One of my first ones, I remember seeing photos of Robin Williams on red carpets and I was like, ‘oh that’s so fun.’ I saw the JPG muscle shirt on him or he’d wear a lot of Issey Miyake and the Oakley sunglasses, and I just thought he was having fun. (I have the shirt, Mary Beth bought it for me after Season 1, that was my wrap gift.)
“He has been playful always and I try to do that, because I think sometimes it’s always this conversation around being taken seriously or if you want to pivot in your career and all these things, and lately I’m just like, ‘I don’t know I think I just want to do the thing that I want and wear the thing that I want.’ Why does everything have to be some kind of serve?”
On his sample-sale alter-ego:
“I remind myself we’re animals at a sample sale. If I meet someone and we haven’t been close enough for too long, I don’t let them see me shop for a while because it’s been described as athletic, aggressive, some people say it’s like a completely different person and that I have an alter-ego. I’m just so fast and I know so fast and I’m ready to go.”
On his Overcompensating Season 1 premiere look:
“[ERL’s Eli Russell Linnetz] always supported me. As you’re coming up, people really won’t dress you… but he would always send… so when [stylist Jake Sammis and I] were thinking about the premiere, I was just like, ‘it has to be ERL.’
“One day, [Linnetz] was like, ‘I’m seeing JFK Jr. for it, what if we screen-printed his face or his body as your body and then did a pant?’ And I was like, ‘totally, how do we also do a tie?’ And he was like, ‘wait no, let’s go JFK.’
“I cried on the way home, it was exactly what I wanted to wear and I felt so good at it. It really confused people why JFK was on the tie. He was my senior quote in high school and to me it just felt so funny and overly serious like a college student would be and just a nod to what we were doing.”
Shop Benito’s Good Buys
HIS FIRST BUY:
“My brother and his now wife had gotten me a Thom Browne shirt when I was in high school. He had a job in finance and he knew how much I loved it and obviously it was so expensive. And I still have the shirt. I would never part with it, I love it. I call it my ‘gay assistant audition shirt’ because I probably audition for 50 gay assistants a month in TV and film.”
HIS REGRET BUY:
“I have so many. One of those Raf Simons jean shirts that were massive. And to me, I was like, I’m going to rock the fuck out of it, and it just never clicked. But if it’s Raf, I buy it.”
Raf Simons Fall 2021
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HIS REPEAT BUY:
“Other than Dario’s Versace…loafers. And also the ERL puffy sneakers. I love them, I wear them on set. And flannels, ERL flannels.”
ERL
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HIS DREAM BUY:
“There’s one shirt, I think if I ever found it in a store I would just be like, ‘alright I have to get it.’ It’s called the ‘Impossible True Love’ shirt from Prada and it has Richard Burton and [Elizabeth Taylor as] Cleopatra. It was so that era, 2018. A$AP Rocky wore it, I know Virgil wore it… it was just kind of the shirt.”
Prada Fall 2016
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HIS MOST RECENT GOOD BUY:
“I just had a little haul that I did at the Society Archive in New York. I just went and got a bunch of vintage pieces, some old Armani… some old Abercrombie. I was a greeter at Abercrombie. I’d be out front, they oil you, obviously, shaved, full dolphin, spiky hair.. but it was one day and then I was like, ‘please can I work in store? I did see people I knew today and I just can’t live like this.’”
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