Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Samantha Rei . We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Samantha, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. What was it like going from idea to execution? Can you share some of the backstory and some of the major steps or milestones?

When I was in high school I decided I wanted to be a fashion designer. I got into fashion in Middle School and my mom had always sewn our fancy clothes and costumes, so I had knowledge of construction. The main reason I wanted to make it a career was I couldn’t find exactly what I wanted to wear and I knew people probably also had the same issue. I started my first business when I was 20 and I did most of my advertising on Yahoo message boards and Livejournal because it was in the infancy of the internet being used in that type of way. I’m an illustrator so I made all of my own flyers and left them at places like coffee shops and independent clothing stores. I mostly bought small business books because there weren’t really that type of resource readily available on the internet and a lot of the local college fashion programs didn’t advertise in a way that I was able to see them. I ended up going to fashion school in my mid twenties a few years after I had gotten started, so my teachers were incredibly supportive and impressed with my progress.

I’ve mostly done custom garments for people as well as creating seasonal collections and letting people buy those items to their size. In the last several years I’ve focused more on putting out collections as a way to show what I can do, but I mostly make special occasion garments like wedding dresses. It’s really important to me to work with clients on making something that makes them feel comfortable. Potential clients know to come to me since my focus is creating something for your style and your body type within my style.

For the first 13 or so years of my business I wanted to get into boutiques and scale up to go into production so that I could just make the first garment and hand it off to somebody to make a run in many sizes. I realized that I had more fun working one-on-one with clients to create something really special. All of this was trial and error and I was constantly educating myself. I always tell my helpers that the second you stop learning then you need to reassess because you should always be learning.

I’ve been doing this for 24 years now and I learn something new everyday. The most important thing I learned in my career is if I have a new idea to pivot my business in a different direction I need to look into every option to figure out if it’s feasible or not and not just jump into it guns a’blazing. I don’t want to end up falling a lot of backtracking. I had to reassess my business quite a bit during and after lockdown and my business now looks a lot different than it did before covid.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

When I got my start I was a boisterous goth kid who liked spooky things and fun things. I wanted to find the middle and in doing so I really fell in love with Japanese street fashion, very specifically Lolita fashion. I started one of the first Lolita labels in the United States (Blasphemina’s Closet) and did that for 13 years. One of the main reasons people came to me was I dealt with more diverse body sizes and that became my specialty. As someone who has been a size 10 through a size 22 my whole life I know how important it is to find things that fit you well and make you feel confident. I came to be known as someone who was really good at tailoring to all body shapes. That’s why when I rebranded I started to do a lot more weddings. I’m known as someone who doesn’t really make white wedding dresses and someone who you can come to if you want to play with silhouettes or experiment with gender presentation. Plus almost all of my dresses have pockets where possible! I’ve gotten to do so many fun and interesting garments over my career, from the inauguration dress and wedding dress of Minnesota’s current lieutenant governor Peggy Flanagan to dressing musicians, and trying my luck on Project Runway.

In doing what I do I have also gotten to play with reviewing costumes through a lens of Worldbuilding on my YouTube channel Cinemattire which has been led to some fun costume work with plays and coming soon, screen. I’m an artist and I’ve always wanted my job to be art, so I find ways to incorporate all of my knowledge into how I help my clients.

How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?

During covid lockdown clearly everyone was canceling and rescheduling their weddings and special events so I had to think of a way to keep the lights on. I felt weird about selling masks in the beginning so I made them for free and gave them out to a lot of people, but then people started giving me money as a way to say thank you without me asking them to and once I felt comfortable doing it I started to sell them in my web shop. The cuter they were the more likely people were to wear them so I offered them in adorable prints. Once people started buying clothing again I offered the option to make matching masks where I could.

Where do you think you get most of your clients from?

It’s kind of interesting how much media plays an intrinsic part in my business because the things that brought me the largest new amounts of clients was my time on Project Runway, an instructional book on subculture and cosplay fashion design and my involvement in the Our Flag Means Death fandom.

My business is me so I am pretty front-facing and accessible. Even more so after being on television. People saw someone who was nice to others and really just wanted to make clothing for everybody. To this day I get lovely emails from people who watched me or parents of people who watched me as kids. People who bought my book for their children who are now making their own prom dresses in high school.

I’m also somebody who is very vocal about my hobbies and the things I’m into so when I became active in the Our Flag Means Death fandom, I brought along my fashion skills which were easy to share with other people. I was able to take this fun and silly thing I was into and incorporate it into my business which made my job even more fun. I created fabrics and a line of makeup inspired by the show. I’ve gained followers on social media and client because of genuine connection and mutual interests, having fun and just doing ridiculous things. And in all this time I haven’t compromised my professional ideals.

Contact Info:

• Website: SamanthaRei.com
• Instagram: @Samanthareiofficial
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/SamanthaReiClothing
• Twitter: @thesamantharei
• Youtube: https://youtube.com/@SamanthaCrossland
• Other: https://www.contrado.com/stores/samantharei https://linktr.ee/SamanthaRei

Image Credits
Megan Bishop, Chloe Krenz Samantha Rei, Francisco Escobar Mendes