Meeting Salvador Perez at WCFW! (Mindy Project Costume Designer)

Hey everyone! Happy Monday! Last Saturday night (Sept 26), Western Canada Fashion Week came to a close. I attended three nights and they were all full of stylish talent. This last night though only had a few designers, however, they brought in 2015 Emmy award nominated costume designer, Salvador Perez!To be honest, I became a fan of his when I started obsessing over The Mindy Project and Mindy Kaling. His resume for costume design has included: Think Like A Man 1 & 2, Pitch Perfect 1 & 2, Mr. 3000, Drumline, and so much more. He’s also president of the Costume Designer’s Guild. Anyways, after learning he styled for my fave movie (Think Like A Man), I just HAD to meet this dude!

My interesting chat with Mr. Perez…

Salvador mentioned in his speech that he was from a farm-town. This sparked my curiosity, myself being from a small town also, so I asked him if he had any backlash from where he’s from, since his career-path is out of the “norm”. He said “well, being from a town where everyone is a farmer, or some kind of trade, you can imagine the reactions I got when I decided I was into fashion.” He told me about his start in home economics, when a high school teacher took him into her class while he was only a junior, and the only boy, and that when he won his first big-time award he was thinking of that teacher and where she was at the time. Coincidentally, she had emailed him congratulations!

On stage, Salvador had great advice for pursuing your dreams. One thing he mentioned was that while chasing your ultimate goal, perfect your skill and make it able to earn you an income until your big break. His example was that he learned how to sew and did freelance sewing as a job for five years at the start of his design career. Technically he was “unemployed” but he realized one morning that he’d gone five years doing what he loves and working for himself. During his freelance career, he learned a lot from being able to take apart other designers’ clothing and learning their technique. Salvador also mentioned that while you are in school for whatever, get experience. People will hire somebody with 5-10 years of experience (even if they’re the same age as you) rather than a fresh graduate who thinks they know what they are doing (I think all of us recent grads have learned this first hand LOL).

Back to our conversation, I also went the life-advice route, rather than fashion, and asked him if he’s kept any friendships from his small-town, since he pursued a career so out of the “norm.” He said no. Basically, there is no point in putting effort into keeping people around that are not supportive of you (this goes for anyone from anywhere). His advice (paraphrased) was: “Don’t keep people around that aren’t into the same things as you. You’ll find great people wherever you go… Don’t worry about it.”

This goes to show that no matter where you are from, what resources you have, or who is telling you that your dreams are “unrealistic,” you can still make them come true with enough determination. Enough of my cheesi-ness…here is a pic of us after our chat:

During the fashion show, Salvador, Sandra, and Gue from Covet (man to the right of Sandra) were introducing a really cool new app. It basically let’s you engage in TV Commerce. So basically, for example, say you’re watching The Mindy Project and you love her outfit. The app would let you pause the scene and a screen would pop up showing each piece of the outfit, with where it’s from, it’s price, and a link to purchase it. How cool is that? You’re literally shopping while watching your fave fashionable show! I’m not sure on the status of this app or when it’s being released, but it’s very cool.

Here was my outfit for the night. It was kind of chilly out, so I kept to pants and a loose-structured blazer over a crop top. Outfit details are below! 🙂
Outfit Details:
Indigo blazer – Dynamite
Black satin crop top – Dynamite
Black loose jogger pants – Dynamite
Black heels – Aldo
Off-white Clutch – Guess
Silver watch – Fossil
Every season, at the end of each fashion week, all the photographers lay on the runway and take get a photo taken of them from the ceiling. It’s a very cool photo, but here’s a sideview!