We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Rosa Lopez. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Rosa below.

Rosa, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Did you always know you wanted to pursue a creative or artistic career? When did you first know?

Growing up as a first generation Mexican American in Los Angeles in the early 80’s was more than colorful. My youth was filled with great Latin American music and amazing home cooked meals made by my abuelita and mom. Watching shows with my favorite Latin American actors, singers or groups were always so vibrant with colorful costumes, dances, and styles from each of their Latin American countries. Watching them on screen and creating looks like those for artists was most definitely my drive to become a designer at a very young age.

As the years passed all those memories with cultural influences built the person I am today. While still in college my first costume design job was designing for a theater in LA, for a show called “Tropical America”. It told a story of the history of the Indigenous people before the Spanish conquest and the struggles we have gone through collectively through current times. I was finally in my element. I was able to gather all the colorful memories and influences from my life and also the history of my people to create beautiful costumes and from then on I knew that I was born to be a Cosume Designer.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

As soon as I finished high school, I knew I wanted to to go a design school. I applied at many and I found my home at FIDM studying fashion design. From there I wanted to further my education and I transferred to Woodbury University and received a BFA in fashion design with a emphasis in costume design. Upon my graduation I was able to join the Motion Picture Costumers local 705 in 2004 and I began my career in costumes. A few years would pass before I joined The Costume Designers Guild and have been a duel IATSI card holder since, working on many hit shows such as Entourage, Weeds, Dave, and Straight out of Compton to name a few..

My heritage and lifestyle have always been a huge influence in my knowledge of design. I always seem to manifest jobs that entail Latino/ Chicano culture, and through my knowledge and expertise I am able to create an authentic looks for the character. Not only am I a Costume Designer but I create custom wedding dresses, I paint murals and airbrush with all the vibrant passion and colors of my culture. My expertise is definitely my knowledge of Latino/ Chicano historical fashion past and present, which is displayed in all forms of my art.

I know I’m living my ancestors wildest dreams. I can’t wait to share more of my skills in design with the world, and doing it with all the passion, fire and drive instilled in me by my ancestors and cultural influences.

What do you think is the goal or mission that drives your creative journey?

Being a first generation Mexican American and making my family proud and reaching my goals to become a successful Costume Designer and artist, helps me to strive to never give up. Growing up in the 80s and 90s I rarely saw any representation of my culture on the screen. I knew that I was destined to design and I want to share my skill of creating characters with authenticity and knowledge through my personal experiences education and culture. It’s our time now as a Latino community to be recognized and be represented on TV and on film. And I want to be the person to create these authentic characters for the world to see.

What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?

As a Costume Designer the most rewarding aspect is seeing all the hard work done collectively by the Costume department. To actually see her hard work being played out for the world to see on the screen is pretty amazing and exciting.

Contact Info:

• Website: Rolocostumedesign.com
• Instagram: Lopez_custom_designs
• IMDB: Rosa Lopez https://www.imdb.com/name/nm1867128/bio/?ref_=ext_shr_lnk