Jeriana San Juan on Dressing M3GAN, Breaking Barriers, and Honoring Her Abuela’s Legacy
For Emmy-nominated costume designer Jeriana San Juan, storytelling doesn’t begin on the page. It starts in the seams. Whether she’s dressing Jennifer Lopez in the Netflix thriller The Mother or constructing four decades of fashion for Halston, San Juan isn’t just designing costumes. She’s building a language.
“My purpose on this planet might just be to story tell through clothing,” she told FIERCE in a recent interview. “To use clothing as a quiet language to talk to the audience.”
What Sci-Fi Taught Jeriana San Juan About Creativity
In her latest project, M3GAN 2.0, San Juan stepped into the world of sci-fi horror. While the genre may seem like a departure, it was a welcome challenge.
“Each project is completely different,” she said. “Sci-fi is such an interesting challenge… you’re free from the bonds of reality in a lot of ways.”
San Juan used that freedom to create a visual homage to late 90s tech. M3GAN’s futuristic outfit nods to the transparent plastic of the Game Boy era. “We were able to look through her plastic shell and see the circuit boards,” she explained. “Sort of fetishize it a little bit.”
At the same time, the costume offered San Juan a space to reflect on our relationship with technology. “My relationship to [tech] as an artist is very conflicting,” she admitted. “The root of creativity is something very organic… programming is in direct opposition to that.”
The Latina Identity Driving Jeriana San Juan’s Work
When asked how her Latina identity shows up in her work, San Juan didn’t hesitate.
“It’s in my character,” she said. “The character that my ancestors built. The shoulders that I stand on.”
Her Cuban roots run deep, and so does her sense of inheritance. Her grandmother, a seamstress, was the first to teach her how to project character through clothes. “It was about the power of clothes,” San Juan recalled. “About inhabiting the image of a middle-class American, before she even had her citizenship.”
She described this legacy as inextricably linked to her creative approach. “It’s in the DNA of how I process things, how I approach my projects, and the passion with which I approach each script.”
Motherhood Changed Her Art
San Juan’s creative evolution isn’t just rooted in heritage. It’s also shaped by motherhood. She brought her young daughter with her on the set of M3GAN 2.0.
“Motherhood really is what honestly attracted me to this project,” she said. M3GAN is a robot designed to protect a child. For San Juan, the parallel hit close to home.
“The gift I can give [my daughter] is the gift of seeing that she can be anything she wants,” she said. “Breaking that wall for her allows her to see how dreams are made.”
Her daughter’s favorite part? Watching the collaboration behind the scenes. “From a fitting to the hair room, to see how the look came together as a whole… that gave her such a thrill.”
Why Jeriana San Juan Cares About Representation
Throughout her career, San Juan has broken barriers in an industry that hasn’t always made space for Latinas behind the camera.
“I did not grow up seeing people who were Latino or Latina in positions of power in film or television,” she said. Now, she sees her presence as part of something bigger. “My work is for the generations that come after me.”
She wants young designers of color to see themselves reflected in her journey.
“The idea of expanding what we are able to do, who we’re able to become… representation matters,” San Juan said. Her grandmother didn’t live to see her name on the big screen, but San Juan continues to carry that legacy forward, one costume at a time.
