'Existential Dread, But Make It Fashion': Meet the Writers Behind PicketFits
➕ Hurricane Hilary meant no picket lines Monday
Hurricane-turned-tropical-storm Hilary forced the Writers Guild and SAG-AFTRA pickets to close for today, and as far as we know, the writers and studios are still working things out since they started talking again, so here’s a little something different in today’s Strikegeist.
Our weekend edition took the opportunity to spotlight a few of the strike businesses that have emerged over the last few months. Today, we’re looking at a different kind of statement picketers are making on the lines — a fashion statement, that is.
PicketFits’ Striking Fashion
What’s the main difference between the writers on strike in New York vs. the crowd in L.A.?
Well, when it comes to their sartorial choices at least, New Yorkers on the lines are “quite functional,” says PicketFits East Coast correspondent Jonah Weinstein, who has picketed on both coasts. “You know, people are coming from the subway. They have to carry all their stuff. You're seeing tote bags, you're seeing crossbody bags.”
And since SAG-AFTRA joined the strike lines a little over a month ago, there’ve been “a lot more statement pieces,” he says — case in point, those infamously larger-than-life, red, rubber Astro Boy-inspired boots from MSCHF.
Weinstein isn’t actually a full-time fashion correspondent. Before the WGA strike, he was a writers assistant on Awkwafina Is Nora From Queens. But between “screaming about AI and banging tambourines and drums” on the pickets, he and Nora writers Cherry Chevapravatdumrong, Teresa Hsiao, and Kyle Lau are finding catharsis in learning more about other striking writers and actors and their concerns — through their outfits.
PicketFits is the strike-focused Instagram account run by the Nora scribes. The writers room had long had its own show-focused account, WriterFits, but when they put their pencils down, they put their Insta down with it.
“At the beginning of the strike, we were just like, well, spinoff time,” says Chevapravatdumrong, who also wrote this summer’s raunchy comedy Joy Ride. “That was pretty much it. We wanted to find a way to just have fun during a very bummer time. And since then, it's become kind of like a nice motivational thing.”
Adds Lau: “It's tough to be here, and it feels very isolating at times. And so I think just having something to look forward to in the darkness makes me feel better.”
Aside from the royal blue WGA shirts and black-and-yellow SAG-AFTRA shirts that are ubiquitous on the lines, the PicketFits crew are seeing plenty of visors, full-on face shields, flowy skirts, linen, coveralls, and jumpsuits marching up and down outside Hollywood’s studios and corporate offices.
“If there's a bright-colored jumpsuit, we're stopping that person to take a picture,
says Chevapravatdumrong. “It’s such an easy head-to-toe — one big statement piece kind of thing.”
But as this hot labor summer climbed into the 90s and the days wore on, many picketers dialed down the fashion statements in favor of staying cool.
“I would say when it got hot, it was a little rougher for PicketFits just because everyone was just trying to survive and not die of heatstroke, as opposed to picking outfits that were at all personally, like, joyful,” says Chevapravatdumrong.
Weinstein says that people are “saying yes to and to the summer heat and the humidity in New York because we're not going to stop showing up despite the humidity and heat but it just has to be practical since it's so hot and humid and sweaty out here.”
As the writers strike marches on — we’re on Day 112 — it may well keep marching past Labor Day. That won’t mean much to Angelenos, clothing-wise, given the likelihood that the summer heat clings on until October. But in New York? That could mean layers and all sorts of sartorial possibilities, like smart-looking peacoats.
”If this thing has to drag on to the fall, that's what I want,” says Chevapravatdumrong.
For now, this is what’s keeping their spirits up as they slog through the fourth month of the work stoppage.
“I realize I'm very depressed,” says Lau, who is hopeful at the news that the WGA and AMPTP are conversing. “I’m cautiously optimistic but just being realistic in my own mind and expecting the worst personally, to try to mentally be ready to withstand however long this may or may not go.”
Today in Strike News
Not only are industry workers taking a financial hit; their mental health has been deteriorating, too. According to Hollywood therapists, the double strike has led to feelings of “powerlessness” and “loss of identity” for many of their clients. “The way I look at it is, everybody comes to Hollywood in search of an approving parent,” says Dennis Palumbo, a writer and psychotherapist specializing in creative issues. “I think what [the strikes] have done is illuminate for a lot of my patients that while Hollywood tries to put the creative person in the child role and the industry itself in the parent role, that’s not the role. It’s an employer-employee role, and employees have rights.” (The Hollywood Reporter)
Since the writers strike began, the Entertainment Community Fund has raised more than $7 million and distributed over $4.7 million to 2,300-plus industry workers. “Given the heightened rate of requests for emergency financial assistance due to the work stoppage, the Fund is distributing about $400,000-$500,000 per week, compared to an average of $75,000 per week in the first half of 2023,” the ECF said in an update Monday. (Deadline)
The lack of A-listers at this year’s Toronto International Film Festival will have an outsized effect on the food and alcohol suppliers, limo drivers, and extra wait staff that normally help restaurants and clubs during the packed 10 days. “A lot of people will have less work and less exciting work, because there’s work we all do because we have to, and TIFF and everything around it is always more exciting, whether you’re a waiter or in production or a driver,” INK Entertainment Group head Charles Khabouth said. “Sadly, a lot of these people won’t be needed.” (The Hollywood Reporter)
The New York Film and Television Union Coalition, which includes SAG-AFTRA and the WGA East among its members, is commending a pair of state bills that seeks to “prohibit applicants to the Empire State film production credit from using artificial intelligence that would displace any natural person in their productions.” (Deadline)
The NBCUniversal campus is coming under fire yet again for its alleged picket-busting tactics, only this time it’s against the Sheraton Universal hotel located on the studio’s campus. Unite Here Local 11, the hospitality union that’s also currently in a labor stoppage is claiming that the hotel has issued disciplinary notices and suspensions to its striking employees and has also demanded “immigration-related documents from worker leaders.” (The Hollywood Reporter)
Picket Sign of the Day
A tropical storm may have shut down the picket action today but that didn’t stop local strike captain Bill Wolkoff from posting up a sign indoors.
Additional reporting for Today in Strike News by Matthew Frank.
Disclosure: Elaine Low is an inactive member of SAG-AFTRA.