Exeter Alumna Opens Sustainable Fashion Store NYC

Millie Dunstan '15 opened Mindblown, her sustainable fashion company's first retail location, on Eldridge Street in Manhattan's Lower East Side. She co-founded the streetwear line in 2019 with Ben Lucas Jones, an Australian musician and graphic designer who is now her husband.

The store serves as a working studio where Jones airbrushes designs and Dunstan upcycles vintage and thrifted garments into what she calls "streetwear couture." Mindblown uses damaged or discarded clothing and deadstock fabric—material no longer needed for original purposes—to create everything from corsets to miniskirts.

Dunstan developed her upcycling methods as a fashion student at Parsons School of Design, where she graduated in 2019. "The fashion industry can be very unsustainable and unethical in the way things are produced," Dunstan says. "It made me want to start my own company and create new systems to make fashion more sustainable."

The brand has attracted celebrity followers including pop star Tyla, rapper Lizzo, and British singer-songwriter Lola Young, who wore a custom Mindblown outfit on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon. Dunstan and Jones produced two New York Fashion Week shows in 2024 and 2025.

Dunstan first explored fashion design at Exeter under instructor Tara Lewis. In a Print to Fit challenge, she created wearable garments from scratch. For another project, she made clothing from candy wrappers and decorated pieces with tumbled glass bottles. "I was upcycling even back then," Dunstan says.

The company is preparing for a New York Fashion Week show in September and launching unisex pants made from deadstock denim. "We developed what we consider the perfect fit," Dunstan says. "We named them the Forever Denim Pant because they should last forever."