How the Hollywood strike is affecting celebrity-styling jobs: with no premieres, press junkets or promos, US costume designers and red carpet stylists say they have been ‘out of work’ for months

Sep 4 , 2023

Hollywood’s writers’ strike has affected thousands of people in ancillary jobs, like costume designers and make-up artists, such as those who got Stephanie Hsu glammed up for the Oscars in March. Photo: Reuters

Hollywood has been largely shut down for coming onto five months now, and the end seems nowhere in sight. In May, the Writers Guild of America went on strike after the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers, which represents 350 major studios and streamers, refused their demands for better wages and more job security, Forbes reported.

In July, actors’ union Sag-Aftra joined the WGA in solidarity. That’s more than 160,000 entertainment industry professionals comprising screenwriters and actors who are now not working, per CNN. And negotiations have stalled.

Given the intersection of Hollywood and fashion, that means that thousands of people in ancillary jobs are also out of work, from red carpet stylists (no premieres, press junkets or promotional appearances), to costume designers and wardrobe stylists who all suddenly find themselves without gigs they once relied on, states AP.

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Actors Brendan Fraser, Christine Baranski and F. Murray Abraham during a Screen Actors Guild rally in Times Square in New York, US, on July 25. Photo: Bloomberg

“All work has stopped for me and nobody I know is working,” says costume designer Charlese Antoinette Jones, who most recently worked on Air, the film about how Nike’s Air Jordans came into being, starring Ben Affleck and Matt Damon. “Everything is really challenging right now because even if the strike is over in September or October, then the holidays are coming, so more than likely we won’t start prepping or shooting till next year. It’s a really weird time.”

All work has stopped for me and nobody I know is working. Everything is really challenging right now

Charlese Antoinette Jones, costume designer

Jones explains that her career took off over the last few years, and costume designing for films became her primary source of income. She worked on the 2021 film Judas and the Black Messiah, which was nominated for six Oscars and won two. She also styled the 2022 film Whitney Houston: I Wanna Dance with Somebody.

Last year, she had an inkling it was time to diversify, so she began designing costumes for the Los Angeles Opera, which is helping to sustain her. She also works with Artists Equity, a studio led by Affleck and Damon. She says she gets a pay cheque from them, but the company is not allowed to produce anything under the strike rules.

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Ben Affleck as Phil Knight in Air. Photo: Amazon Studios

“I’m looking for another career outside of entertainment,” she says. “I know people who are on the verge of losing their homes.”

Stylists are having to find creative ways to stay busy. Kimmy Kertes, whose regular clients have included Jimmy O. Yang and Natalie Morales, says that she’s been able to work on projects that don’t fall under the purview of the strike – musicians’ concert tours, ad campaigns, YouTube stars.

What is especially tricky to navigate is the fact that even for TV shows and films that were completed pre-strike, the stars are not promoting them.

Stylist and costume designer Charlese Antoinette Jones. Photo: Handout

“They’re not allowed to even mention the project,” says Kertes. “We’re trying to discuss whether we want to pivot, maybe do a fashion campaign or something, but then it becomes out of pocket and not something the studio will cover, as it might have historically done. It’s a challenging place to manoeuvre work right now.”

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While she has a little downtime, Kertes is taking on work such as personal shopping and wardrobe edits.

“It’s something I can do that’s in my back pocket,” she says. “It’s not as lucrative so I wouldn’t have taken it on if not for the strike. I don’t want the strike to continue, but we all have to keep going.”

Among the most challenging repercussions of the strike, says costume designer, wardrobe stylist and red carpet stylist Lindsay Zir, is not being able to plan ahead.

Members of the Hollywood actors Sag-Aftra union walk a picket line. Photo: AFP

“Nobody knows if this is going to go on for two weeks or three months, and nobody can plan their lives,” says Zir, who had just wrapped work on a movie with Freddie Prinze Jr. and Kevin Pollak right before the strike happened.

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“I was always very busy and always working, whether it was in films or commercials, it was generally consistent. When there was talk of a writers’ strike, initially it affected me less because I still was working on commercials. But since then, it’s been dead everywhere. The strike has trickled down and branched into anything. Real estate agents say nobody wants to buy or sell property. Nobody is doing anything.”

Zir says she continues to be proactive, reaching out to all her industry contacts to see if there is any work out there.

“I hope an agreement is reached sooner rather than later. Nobody is asking for more than what the writers and actors deserve. It’s terrible that executives make as much as they do, yet if it wasn’t for their writers and actors, they wouldn’t have a project. I hope it happens soon. Otherwise, it feels like we’re all drowning.”

Fame and celebrity

The Writers Guild of America has been on strike since May after the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers refused their demands for better wages and more job security
Sag-Aftra joined the WGA in July, putting costume designers like Charlese Antoinette Jones, who worked on Air about Nike’s Air Jordans with Ben Affleck and Matt Damon, in a ‘challenging’ position