Luis Sequeira Wiki: Costume Designer, Net Worth, 'The Strain', 'Mama' & Facts To Know

If you haven’t watched “The Shape of Water” yet, then you need to get to your nearest movie store and buy the DVD. The fantasy drama movie directed by Del Toro was one of the hit films of 2017. Set in 1962’s Baltimore, the movie follows the story of a mute custodian as she tries to save a creature from the government lab. Del Toro was helped by a team of perfectionists to make the film a reality, one of them being the costume designer, Luis Sequeira. Sequeira is the one who created the costume that the creature wore. So who is Luis Sequeira? Like mentioned above, Luis Sequeira is a costume designer. Luis grew up interested in art, and his entry into Hollywood was a big achievement for him. Sequeira has been nominated a couple of times as a costume designer, but he has never won any prestigious award. His biggest break was for the film, “The Shape of Water,” which he was nominated for an Oscar 2018. Sequeira has been praised for the creature’s costume. Other movies that Sequeira has worked on are “The Strain”, “Mama”, “Special Correspondents”, and “The War Next Door” and built his net worth from that.

The film managed to pull 13 Oscar 2018 nominations, to everyone’s surprises. Many people are expecting it to win the Best Picture and Best Director awards, but not many people are predicting it will win the Best Costume Designer. Just like in the other categories, Luis Sequeira stands a chance of winning the award. Pulling out that costume the creature wore was not an easy one. Sequeira is going against another nominee, Durran who made the Beast’s costume and Emma’s yellow dress. It’s going to be a tough one for Sequeira, but he might win. For Luis Sequeira, joining del Toro and his creative team on the film as a costume designer was a life-changing opportunity. He also stated that being nominated for the film was the highest moment of his 30-year professional career as a costume designer. It gave Sequeira the enormous pride to know that his work was recognized because he always put much effort into what he was doing. Sequeira’s mother was a wedding dress designer in Portugal and it’s where he got the inspiration to be a costume designer.

Sequeira started from the bottom as a wardrobe assistant helping in creating some costumes ‘for Mean Girls” and “Cinderella Man.” He rose to the top by taking calculated steps up the ladder. Sequeira designed costumes for films like “The Thing” and “Carrie” before he got del Toro’s attention. He was the costume designer of the “The Strain,” a TB series by del Toro. While on his daily routine, he got a call from del Toro in 2016 asking him if he would work on his fantasy drama film, “The Shape of Water.” Luis Sequeira started the journey by looking at textiles, photographed them in color before doing the same in black and white before del Toro told him that they would do it in color. He then picked out the colors of the clothing because different color palettes were required and so he also considered the intensities of the hues to decide whether the cloth would be used to get the look they wanted, or they would have to desaturate the film. To cut a long story short, it was so much work for Sequeira, and he deserved to be awarded.

Sequeira’s parents are Portuguese living in Toronto Canada. Since his mother was a costume maker herself, he trained Sequeira as he grew up. Passionate about clothing, Sequeira opened a store in the heart of Toronto where he dealt with both men’s and women’s collection. But he wanted something more and it was a very quiet life at his store. Sequeira had friends working on a Cronenberg movie and so they absorbed him. That was the first time Sequeira got a chance to work for a movie and today, he can say he has been successful since then.

Sequeira is in his hometown Toronto working on Chris Columbus’s movie, “Christmas Chronicles.” The Christmas film is expected to be released sometime before the end of this year, perhaps before the festive season. Sequeira said that working for the movie is not easier than what he did for “The Shape of Water.” He confirmed that he would be back to America to take part at the Oscars ceremony.

Sequeira was working late the night before the announcement. He wasn’t sure whether to go to bed and sleep then wake up and to the news, or just sit down and watch to get the good news. By 8:30 he had chosen to sit down and watch instead. Then suddenly his phone rung. Can you guess who was calling? The bearer of good news, of course!

According to Net Worth Post, the costume designer has a net worth of $1.1 million. Sequeira has made his net worth form creating the costumes for the characters in the films like “The Strain”, “Mama”, “Special Correspondents”, “The War Next Door”, and “The Shape of Water.”

His chances are minimal, but perhaps Sequeira will win the Oscar 2018 award and surprise everyone in the hall. Life is full of surprises after all.