Meet Samantha Kuester of Los Angeles

Today we’d like to introduce you to Samantha Kuester.

Hi Samantha, please kick things off for us with an introduction to yourself and your story.
I grew up in Portland, Oregon and as a young girl I was mesmerized by the magic of films, in particular, the costumes. I didn’t realize there was a professional costume design path for me until I went to college. I was actually a Political Science Major with Spanish and History minors when Professor Ty Marshall let me into his Costume Design class for Theater. As you can imagine, Political Science is a pretty heavy workload including research papers, theory, and philosophy; I wanted a creative escape. As it turns out I excelled in my Costume Design class and my professor encouraged me to pursue an MFA (Master of Fine Arts) in Costume Design. To me, an MFA sounded like more fun than Law School so I applied to UCLA for grad school.
My portfolio was met with less than rave reviews and the interviewing professor suggested I work on my drawing and reapply the following year. That wasn’t good enough, so I contacted Professor Dunya Ramicova, whom I was also supposed to interview with, but was sick the day I was there, and asked her what I could do now to get into the program. Dunya recommended that I buy the book “Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain,” complete all the drawing exercises as well as submit 35 original designs. I sent everything in and was accepted on the spot. One of the proudest moments of my life.
That was the beginning of my Costume Design journey and 21 years later with over 100 projects under my belt, I’m still going.

Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
There are always struggles in anything you do and my career has been no different. As we know the Entertainment Industry is in a constant state of flux. Between strikes, the pandemic and even seasons you have to be prepared for the lulls. I’ve learned to build up my savings when I’m busy to prepare for when the industry is slow.

Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
I am a Costume Designer. I work in film, television, commercials, as well as the occasional stage production. I love designing period and character driven contemporary pieces. I enjoy creating characters through clothing; giving the audience a subtle look at who these people are through their clothing and accessories.
I’d like to think I’m known for giving each of my characters their own unique identity. I lean toward realism in everything I design, even when I’m mixing prints, patterns, and textures, or creating stereotypical trope characters, I like to keep their clothing grounded in reality.
I’m grateful and proud that I have been twice nominated for CDGA’s in the Excellence in Short Form Design category. The first was for my work on the Killers music video “Caution” and the second was for a Six Flags Halloween promo short called “Tick, Tick, Tick.”Having your work recognized by your peers is an incredible honor.

We’d be interested to hear your thoughts on luck and what role, if any, you feel it’s played for you?
I believe everything happens for a reason, luck happens by being in the right place at the right time, meeting the right people and things working out in your favor. However, the end of the day I truly believe hard work, persistence and talent makes a person successful. Circumstances or luck can open doors, but you have to be able to walk through them on your own merit.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.designwardrobia.com
• Instagram: @samanthakuester
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/samantha-kuester-0a3690330?utm_source=share_via&utm_content=profile&utm_medium=member_ios

Image Credits
Mid August photo (my headshot)