Today we’d like to introduce you to Andrea Weinbrecht.
Hi Andrea, please kick things off for us with an introduction to yourself and your story.
I grew up in Louisiana, which has such a vibrant culture and more than a touch of magic about it. As a girl, I always loved dressing up in costume for Mardi Gras and going through the closets at my grandparent’s house looking for any old clothes I could repurpose into something cool. I wore uniforms to school, so I was really into fashion and trends because it was something that I never got to explore as a teen. It was like a mythical world that existed outside of my plaid skirt and bucks.
My granny used to take me to the theater with her growing up. The first big musical she took me to was Oklahoma at age nine, and I remember being absolutely mesmerized… I was obsessed! This is what sparked my love of theatre and inspired me to get involved in theater, as an actor at first, throughout the rest of my teenage days until college.
When I started college, I was still heavily involved in theatre. I knew at that point that I didn’t want to be an actor, but I loved the world of theatre, but truthfully, I didn’t have a clue what I wanted to do and where that would lead me as at that point, many different disciplines interested me -writing, literature, fine art, photography…but I loved the collaborative creative environment of the theatre. During the long and winding road of college, changing majors and exploring many different disciplines in the arts, it was becoming clear that I needed to embrace a creative field that could still be a marketable skill set…or so I was reminded by my parents!
When I graduated from LSU I was working in a full service media production house in Baton Rouge. I would work in the tape room and assist the editor or the office coordinator and just bounce around wherever they needed me. After working there for a few months, a stylist we used to hire for our shoots approached me on set one day and asked if costumes/styling for tv/film was ever something I had considered because I had great style. This seemed like the dream opportunity I’d been looking for… It combined both my love of fashion and my love of theatre. I jumped at the chance to work as her assistant on a few jobs, which would lead me to pursue continued graduate work in theatre with an emphasis in costume design.
Back then, costume design was a lesser-known career path than it is now, especially in Louisiana, so I had never even considered this as an option. It was the perfect fit for me… storytelling through a visual medium and getting to stay in that theatre-ish sort of world I loved so much… Working closely with actors, but all the while safely tucked away behind the scenes. I kept up all of the contacts I had made at the production house while I was at grad school and it didn’t take long before I started getting calls for small jobs. So, after my second semester, I didn’t re-enroll in the grad program and set out working on indie films and commercials all around the Southeast. It wasn’t easy and work was spotty… it was very hard to make ends meet because back then, those types of places didn’t have film incentive programs and tax breaks to bring the work in the way they do now.
After four years of working on any job I could get…including making drag costumes and Mardi Gras costumes in my downtime for extra cash, I decided to move to LA. It was time to go big or go home. So my BFF and I packed it up and headed west.
Moving here was not as easy as you think – even 20 years ago. Everything was so much more expensive than it was in New Orleans. We couch-surfed for the first month while we looked for an apartment. Once we found a place and signed.a check for all of our money…we slept in sleeping bags on the floor and lived out of an Igloo cooler because the place didn’t come with a fridge (California..Who knew?). We lived like this for the first few months until we got jobs and saved enough money to buy a used refrigerator and some 2nd (maybe 4th) hand furniture. My roommate and I were so broke we just pooled our money to make it work any which way we could.
Looking back it seems so crazy, but I really believe when you are making your dreams come true you just have to do whatever it takes… Jump in! It’s not always easy, and nothing is guaranteed, but it makes for some good stories and gives you the grit to keep moving forward.
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
Few things in life are ever a smooth road or even a straight one! After being here for nearly two years, I was still going back home or working on location often because that is where my work contacts were. I finally got into the union on an indie film that “flipped” (a term used when a non-union production turns union), called “The Heart is Deceitful Above All Things” with the help of a producer that I knew from back home(We are still friends all these years later.) Getting into the union was key, it was a game changer. That is when things really started falling into place.
I heard about a set customer job on a sketch comedy show for MTV through a friend of a friend. I faxed…Faxed!… My resume is over to the production office if you can believe that, and I interviewed with the costume designer later that week and got the job! It was my first real job locally. I was so excited- I didn’t have to leave LA to work. It was a huge step and a big opportunity where I made lifelong friends and gained a true mentor in the costume design world who mentored me and continued to give me advice until her passing a few years ago from breast cancer.
From that one job, I was able to make contacts and leverage that experience to continue working on bigger and bigger shows…moving up the ranks within the department. It certainly didn’t happen overnight, but over the course of many years with continued hard work, tenacity, and a fierce can-do attitude. I went from being on set to becoming a costume buyer, a key customer, an assistant costume designer and eventually after nearly 15 years of hard work and doing every single job in the department I got my own show as a costume designer.
The entertainment industry has many hurdles- it is very competitive, there are a lot of different personality types you have to be able to navigate with a good attitude. Some jobs will be easy and some will just be more difficult. There is really little rhyme or reason to it so you have to be adaptable. I’d say one of the bigger struggles I have is being my own worst critic, which I think is true for many creative people. I don’t think I’ll ever get over the “stage fright” even though I’m not on camera- my work is, the characters I bring to life are, so sometimes when I watch something I’ve designed, I see things I would have done differently but you have to learn not to beat yourself up over it. The most recent show I costume designed, “Life by Ella” for Apple TV + launched in 100 countries on the same day. When you think about it in that capacity, how many people have access to seeing what you put out there, you have a real responsibility to the show and the viewer to strive to do your best. It does keep you humble and you are constantly learning from job to job. There are always changing trends, new technologies, more efficient ways of working so that keeps it fresh and fun.
Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
I’ve been very fortunate in my 20 years in the industry to have worked in many genres from sketch comedy and period to fantasy and sci-fi, but lately I’ve been designing a lot of young adult/teen shows and it has been a blast! You are constantly studying the history or the origin story or the trend forecasts or going down a tic-tok rabbit hole to see what the kids are into. I love the challenge of digging in to the research to create characters that are reflections of real life and I love the creative problem-solving and collaboration that comes with it. I designed the sweetest show for Apple TV + called “Puppy Place” based on the books by Ellen Miles. The show chronicles the adventures of dog-loving siblings Charles and Lizzie Peterson and the puppy pals they foster in search of forever homes. It was not the usual work environment because we were working under strict Covid Protocols, but each episode we had a new dog looking for its forever home (on the show and IRL) which brought us all so much joy and many of the pups were adopted by crew members.
Working on content for younger people has been really fulfilling because costume design informs trends and vice versa. And the shows I have designed in this space have all had positive messaging which I think is really important when taking on a project specifically for kids. Young people consume so much media and they are very honest critics so you really have to be on point- haha. It’s kind of fun to be the” cool mom” who designs the shows my son’s friends are watching! But all of that aside, I’d say I’m most proud of finding the balance of having a successful career in a very demanding industry while first being a wife and mom.
What quality or characteristic do you feel is most important to your success?
You have to have a good attitude and you have to stay positive. Joe Nussbaum, a producer/director I worked with on Just Add Magic, once told me that my best quality was adaptability and I have to say I agree! You have to be able to roll with it and not get rattled when you have to make a quick change because something isn’t working on set – it happens and there is always a fix.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.andreaweinbrecht.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ar_sweet/?hl=en
- Other: https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0842235/?ref_=fn_al_nm_1
Image Credits
J.R. Hawbaker (photo of me only) Puppy Place images courtesy of Apple TV + PR dept. Life by Ella images courtesy of Apple TV + PR dept.
