At first glance, Samantha can look intimidating with her long wavy locks, perfectly tanned and tattooed skin, dainty yet prominent features, and svelte figure. She seems timid, yet after chatting with her, you know she’s a no-nonsense lady who works hard to get what she wants.

She graduated as an art major in the United Kingdom before pursuing fashion design in New York, then later moved to Los Angeles and interned for various fashion houses while studying at the Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandising. She worked for Haus of M as a stylist, then as a menswear designer before heading the women’s wear RTW line. Currently, she’s working on her eponymous label in Manila.

She’s usually seen in minimalist and structured tailoring, slightly oversized and ’50s and ’60s-inspired. When it comes to shoes, she prefers to look at them as art.

“I started to really appreciate shoes in high school,” says Samantha. “Living in London, I was surrounded by a lot of street fashion, and was exposed to women in interesting shoes, whether funky or sexy or just plain awesome.”

Her shoe collection consists of “everything,” from heels and flats to a “good pair of Nike sneakers,” but if there’s one thing they have in common, they’re all “sleek, sexy, and never chunky.”

As a self-confessed shoe hoarder with roughly over 200 pairs, she even had her interior decorator build a shoe closet with shelves for her heels and multiple drawers for her flats, and which takes up half of her bedroom.

“I have my favorite pairs here in Manila, while some of my older shoes are in LA,” shares Samantha. “I find it hard to part with my shoes, and I’ve even kept my son’s shoes from when he was a baby!”

Even when she travels, she brings an “absurd number of shoes” of “every kind, just in case,” taking up most of the space in her luggage.

Though she owns pairs in almost every style imaginable, she makes sure she “doesn’t look like an idiot walking in them,” with comfort as her priority.

As a mainstay in the fashion scene, she believes that one should be true to her personal style, and “understanding your body and what works best for you is very important.”