Hollywood’s Newest Red Carpet Is the WGA Picket Line

Final week, I used to be attempting to place collectively a great outfit. Not for an interview or a date, however for a picket line—Hollywood’s latest pink carpet.

Since Could 2, the Writers Guild of America has been on strike whereas renegotiating its contract with the Alliance of Movement Image and Tv Producers. The WGA is putting as a result of the AMPTP and WGA haven’t agreed on how one can deal with the existential disaster writers are going through, together with decrease pay, transparency round residuals, and the specter of AI. (Would you like ChatGPT writing the following White Lotus? I for one, don’t.) 

It’s critical stuff, however provided that I work with a bunch of comedy writers, we needed to discover pleasure amongst the chaos of unemployment and whole dread. Fortunately, we’ve discovered an outlet: Whereas my fellow writers are marching in each Los Angeles and New York, I—together with a cohort of my colleagues—have begun documenting the easiest outfits on the frontlines by @PicketFits on Instagram.  

Screenwriters aren’t typically identified for his or her trend sense, however this truly isn’t even the primary time I’ve created an IG account centered on author fashion. Again in 2019, I used to be the writers’ manufacturing assistant for Season 1 of Awkwafina is Nora From Queens on Comedy Central. Our showrunner, Teresa Hsiao, seemed across the room and stated that it was the primary time she had been surrounded by writers who weren’t simply wearing plaid or rumpled cargo pants. All of us began dressing up much more as a joke, difficult each other to step up our video games. Not would we simply put on sweatpants to work on a regular basis, as generations of writers had earlier than us. 

Out of the blue, our office apparel was excessive stakes. We started taking images of our seems throughout lunch breaks as a respite from writing. Finally, we took the bit one step additional and, impressed by @LeagueFits—an Instagram account devoted to NBA athletes’ pre-game outfits—we created @WriterFits, a showcase of noteworthy outfits from our author’s room. Subsequent factor we knew, we’d amassed 1000’s of followers, began to obtain entries from different exhibits, and even received a swag bag from the menswear label Rowing Blazers.

However when writers’ rooms closed with the strike on Could 2, there have been no @WriterFits to be taken. Similar to that, @PicketFits was born. I function the New York correspondent, whereas Nora From Queens author/producers Teresa, Cherry Chevapravatdumrong, and Kyle Lau cowl LA (together with the assistance of different trusted @PicketFits correspondents).