St. Louis, Missouri
I met my friend and designer Sam DeMichieli for coffee on The Gelateria patio back in February. We talked her upringing, influences, and the making of her fashion presentation, Kairat, Notes on Entropy.
Writing this six months later in August, Sam and I
Interview Billie Huang
Photo Billie Huang
Sam DeMichieli: My name is Sam DeMichieli. I just turned 21 two weeks ago. I am from Kazakhstan but now live in St. Louis, that’s real tea. Hobbies are sewing, DJing, and posting gay porn on IG. Right now, I work at Marc Jacobs, selling bags and shit. Really state of the art. But hopefully I find something better soon... no shaaaadeeeeeee.
What was your introduction to fashion?
Archival fashion research and looking through books and monologues of fashion creators. Studying past works while focusing on the present as well. Observing the kind of culture that’s happening online, going through Instagram, Twitter, everything. Almost becoming a digital artifact myself. I see other scenes online and I love to post things from ours. My main hobby is posting on close friends... that’s real tea.
I love looking at your instagram, you're making a digital legacy.
Yeah OMG, like making sure I’m not forgotten tea. And my legacy is talking about my good ass Chipotle bowl and on close friends.
How did you get into fashion?
I grew up in the middle of nowhere Indiana after I was adopted from Kazakhstan. I would see my sister playing with Barbies and shit like that. I didn’t like any of the Barbie clothes, so being a little gay boy I'd make my own out of tissues or plastic bags. That’s representative of this weird creativity I possess. As far as actual runways, I think my mom had a part in my obsession. She would play America’s Next Top Model or RuPaul’s Drag Race, the early seasons.
The first designer I fell in love with was Alexander McQueen, his older shows. I loved when he did Bjork’s Homogenic look, the geisha look. I was always obsessed with the weird avant garde stuff.
Growing up in the countryside, there wasn’t much visible fashion. I wasn't seeing magazines or crazy ads or city streetwear. It was just so rural. My first references were Middle America. I don’t wanna call it Ethel Cain core like all the girls do now, but it’s that very Middle America, churches, Catholicism. Very Americana. It’s that red white and blue kind of thing, and I use a lot of Midwest Americana references in my show.
Is your family still in Indiana?
No, my family moved to St. Louis around 2013. I got really lucky with my family. My mom is a white woman from the middle of nowhere Indiana, but she’s my biggest supporter about me being trans. Even when I was a little gay boy, she was very encouraging. She loved creativity.
In 2011 when Born This Way came out, my mom did not play about Lady Gaga. I can say I was an OG Gaga stan. We had the original Born This Way CD at my house because my mom loved it. She loved the girls, pop music, pop culture.
You have that mom, that support system, that most queer people dream of.
It’s one of the best survival tactics to have a good support system. Cause girl you need something to lean on, don’t you?
Is she coming to the show?
Oh she will be at the show. She will be gagging, she will be clapping. Like she’s gonna record on her phone and probably do it wrong. She’ll end up having the flash on or some shit, it’ll be really good, I just love her.
What is Kairat?
In 2004, I was born in an orphanage outside of Oskemen, Kazakhstan. Kairat (cuh-rot) was my male given birth name. My birth mom was really young when she had me and I’m pretty sure the orphanage named me. My full name was Kairat Zhanuzakov, but I was obsessed with that name. Names are a weirdly important aspect of being transgender. People change their names all the time, but being able to choose your name is a privilege. Everyone’s given a name they don’t choose. There’s a sort of power in being able to reclaim that.
For a long time I thought Kairat was such a male name, like I would never want to be called that. But in recent years I’ve kind of reclaimed Kairat. There’s still so much beauty in your official name. I love being different, that’s my favorite thing. Walking into a room, overdressing, being louder than everyone else. I need the eyes. Right now my name is Sam DeMichieli, but in a way it will always be Kairat.
I love the name Kairat. Also kind of serves up that enbie tea…
Yeah she drank that enbie tea.
How long have you been putting together the pieces for the show? How did you get into sewing and constructing garments?
I started college in the fall of 2022. Before college, I had that love for fashion and culture, but didn’t focus on it in high school. Then I went to college, which ended up being this creative push I needed, especially when I met Theta. Theta is another designer that’s helping me work on the show. We instantly hit it off when we met. We both had this love for fashion and attention. We got to thinking about how we could put those two things together.
We had this mentor, Buchta. She would talk to us about fashion and how there aren’t really any shows here. When you think of fashion weeks, there’s not much for the Midwest girls. We wanted to wake that up here.
We were going to call our original idea in 2022 something so crazy like ‘Orb.’ If we wanna talk about enbie tea, like Orb… girl that’s crazy. But meeting Theta was a pivotal point in the direction of creating anything. We had the same shared experiences, both dolls at the time, not on hormones or anything, just baby queens. We had always talked about doing a show. At the time, Theta was rooming with one of the directors of The Luminary, so we had a few connections. But we never got anywhere because we’re just as much lazy as we are creative. The procrastination was real, we’d always put it off. There would be times we would do photo shoots or make a blazer, but we never did anything for real until July 2024. It was then we met Ky, who was the third piece of the puzzle. Ky was another doll who had just moved to St. Louis.
How did you meet?
I had known of Ky for a while, I had seen her out with B at a Materia. But I originally met her the day after the umru show at The Luminary, which is kind of crazy and full circle, because now we’re doing our show there.
On the first day we met, we told her about our ideas. She mentioned she sewed and could help. There was this instant click. Theta and I had this creative influx of so many ideas, but did not have that execution. Meeting Ky pushed us since she was an amazing seamstress. She motivated Theta and I to get on our little hot glue guns and sewing machines. I have the utmost appreciation for her. Without her, I don’t think we would be doing our show.
Also on first day we met, we did a photo shoot. The click really happened there, bouncing ideas off each other. After a few more hangouts, we decided on the name Kairat. We were trying to think of a unique name. The only things in pop culture that are Kairat is this one old Kazakhstan president and there’s a Kairat soccer team. So Khia girl, all the chops. We’re gonna be the Kairat after this.
We needed all three doll powers to work the Kairat machine. We needed to be in that sweatshop. It could not have happened if it was not all three of us at the same time in that same room, bouncing ideas. Us three together is when we became the most powerful.
PHOTOS HERE (SAM WILL SEND IN, CREDIT)
courtesy of Kairat/Sam
Trans rights and people have become more visible in pop culture and in our world within the past decade, so I can imagine how things must have been very different for all of your trans journeys.
I know, right? A decade ago, trans was still Laverne Cox in Orange Is the New Black, very Caitlyn Jenner on the cover of Vanity Fair. It was almost like a new concept. Even though being trans has been around since humans have been alive, the concept of transness in pop culture reinvents itself all the time. There was a time it was prominent in the 80s and 90s with ballroom and Madonna. But it had a resurgence in the 2020s. Social media had a part in connecting all of us, making it easy to find each other and find resources.
What is the message behind your show? I remember reading a statement you posted on Instagram about the accessibility of fashion through social media. Notes on Entropy – what is that?
Notes on Entropy was originally Theta’s idea. I still don’t know what entropy means, but she explains it to me all the time. I think it's some mathematical term that means like a state of craziness or randomness that has multiple pieces to it. I feel like entropy is the three of us working together. I could be so wrong with the definition.
As far as the meaning of the show, we wanted to spotlight trans women in the scene. The Midwest and St. Louis are not known for trans women, but when you dive deep into subcultures, like at Materia and around the city, you’ll see that trans women are the backbone of creativity. You’re gonna see trans girls dancing out at shows, you’re gonna see trans DJs popping up, you’re gonna see trans girls walking, you’re gonna see trans girls working at The Gelateria. They’re here. We wanted to create this show as a love letter to them, to let them know that we see them.
MAYBE PIC OF ANGEL PROST (FROST CHILDREN)
LAURA LES
Trans women have pioneered fashion throughout history. They’re trend setters, especially here in the St. Louis scene. On the internet and in pop culture, I see a lot of cis women taking after trans women. Even though there’s this appropriation of trans women, they still suffer from discrimination and hate crimes. The trans murder rate is still so high. There’s still bans on children transitioning. There are active measures by the government to strip rights away from trans people. All of these topics are important to recognize and need to be discussed more.
There’s a lot of ways to communicate something politically charged, like a protest or a powerful message. With this fashion show, we want to show that trans women matter and they influence. There’s a double meaning by doing a show, given how trans women are behind so much of clothing and trends and pop culture. You can show that visually, like we are with this show. Everyone involved in the show is trans in a way. We’re doing it for all of them and for us, because we are the dolls.
What is your experience being trans in America, being trans in Missouri?
Being trans anywhere is going to be scary and there’s this level of ‘different.’ There hasn’t been a full trans renaissance like there have been other minority movements. Trans people haven’t had their own movement. I feel like there is still so much respect and honor that needs to be given to trans women, there’s still so much erasure in America. It’s terrifying especially under the new presidency. We didn’t know how lucky we were before. Things have started to be taken away. I could go to CVS and pick up my hormones. Like it was so easy to get my passport or driver's license changed, things that were legally gender affirming. I saw in the news that Hunter Schaefer got her passport back and it says ‘male.’ Being trans in America, it doesn’t matter how privileged you are. Seeing someone like Hunter Schaefer, in movies and TV shows, struggling with something like that is alarming. In America, even trans icons, celebrities, actors, and millionaires aren’t safe.
But the current state of things in America is a scary topic. It’s a hard subject to talk about. In a way it’s fear mongering. America doesn’t welcome trans people or make them feel comfortable or relaxed to a point that it’s dehumanizing. Trans people are so targeted and it’s so easy for people to get mad at trans people and not focus on things that are actually important problems, like climate change or a potential recession.
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August 25 2025 (really the 27th)
6 months after
post kairat
I was in Columbia for True False and missed the actual runway show, but how was it? What was your biggest takeaway, what do you still think about today?
The show was better than I could have ever imagined, It was one of the Luminarys biggest events in recent years and tickets sold out a week before the show. I always knew that Kairat was going to have an impact but I could have never seen the influence that it has already left behind. To this day everytime I am out I get asked about the show and people tell me how much they enjoyed it. My biggest takeaway is just knowing I was able to help boost the importance of trans people in creative and artistic spaces, espically in places like Missouri. I think that Kairat really woke up the importance of trans power in general. To this day I still think about walking out on the runway and just being blown away at the audience, seeing friends, family, and so much of the saint louis artistic scene in attendance was something that ill always cherrish.
Do you feel more confident and seen as a member of the St. Louis community?
100%, Ive only really been going out and meeting people in this past year and I feel like im starting to finally watch myself fit into this community as someone somewhat known. I think Kairat really solidified me as an artist because the message that I was showcasing was something that really haddnt been discussed in saint louis before. Combining the trans idenity with fashion in a place like missouri was unheard of and I will forever feel honored that me and my sisters were the ones to do it.
What was the biggest challenge putting the show together?
The biggest challenge we faced during Kairat was time. Although the idea of a fashion show had been up in the air for years, we were only fully greenlit by the Luminary in late November, giving us about 4 months for full production. So that meant casting, sketching and designing looks, creating visuals and sound, and promotion all had to start immediately. The work load was made managable fully because I had my sisters Theta, Ky, and B alongside at all times during production. Even outside the four of us, dolls like Kellen, Juno, and Joanie helping the Kairat journey commence.
I don’t want to make you play favorites, but if you had to choose, which look was your favorite?
6 months later and I dont think I even have an answer, Of course I can be conginial and say “theyre all my favorite” but some I just feel more conncected to than others. For example I always find myself admiring look fourteen aka the wedding look. I think the reason im drawn to this one more than others is the story it details, a trans woman getting married. When designing this look I knew instantly I wanted a doll to wear it because even in 2025, marriage isnt something that is common for trans woman and is still almost seen as a distant fantasy. For a long time it was belived that the life expectancy of a trans woman of color was around 35 years,but when the average age of marriage in the US is 30, where is the time? So I think of it as such a moment of reclaiming power in a way and paying homage to all of the dolls that never got the chance to walk down the aisle.
PHOTO
Whats next for Kairat?
After the major success of the first presentation, There was really no other option other than a second show. I dont care if im seen as cocky or arrogant, but Kairat was really the event of the year when you think about it. Fashion needed to be highlighted in such a major way and I feel like the work of Kairat is nowhere near finnished. As the influence of ths show grows, so does the team, Alongside Myself, Theta, Ky, and B, two of our past models Juno and Josué have joined in the overall designing process for the second installment of Kairat. This season we want to focus on the art of fluidity and structure and highlight once more how trans culture is needed in artistic spaces. So keep an eye out in the nearing future for Kairat, Soulipsism.
I wasn’t there but heard you DJ’d the afterparty. That was your first set, right? How is DJing going for you currently?
OMG I was so nervous to play that night. I had been practicing on and off but never on an XDJ so I was confused bootsssss. Thankfully B and Juno are OG dj dolls and were able to get me togetherrrrr. Since then Ive actually had a real dj arc in a sense. Ive started djing under the name “Phallic” and have played a few local bars and shows and even at Materia. I think music is a big part of my creative output right next to design so its been good to kind of experiance both majorly this year.
What’s next for you? Any upcoming solo projects? What would your dream career be?
As far as solo projects go I dont see anything major other than maybe djing, I love working in collabortive settings and when it comes to full productions such as kairat I need all the help I can get lol. My dream career would to be a designer of course, but I think im still struggling with the idea of creating fashion for profit. I think the work im making exsists more in the realm of art and not consumerism. Just being able to showcase it to the world feels like enough for me.
Now... what is your favorite song from Club Shy Room 2
ohhhhh bitch you know shygirl but her whole shyussy in Wiffey Riddum like I cant even explain but I remember when the EP dropped days before the show and it was such a gag to listen to some crazy club music while hot gluing finishing touches to the garments.
Thats real tea, chile. Where can people stay up to date with you?
Well yes! the girls know I dont play about my IG so find me there @samdemichieli or the kairat page @kairat10000000 and dont forget #protectthedolls but like also #bookthedolls no shadeee