With the Oscars simply across the nook, you would have simply mistaken the 26th Costume Designers Guild Awards for a late-season “Barbie” occasion. But the pops of pink, magenta, and fuchsia that met honorees and visitors all through NeueueHouse in Hollywood on February 21 weren’t nodding to the billion-dollar Best Picture bid; they have been sending a message to the AMPTP.
“We’re fighting for pay equity with department creative heads that are mostly male,” Ariyela Wald-Cohain advised IndieWire. The costume designer is one in all 4 craftspeople helming the CDG’s Pay Equity Steering Committee. Her co-chairs Whitney Anne Adams, Danielle Launzel, and Daniel Selon have been additionally in attendance — donning vibrant pink designs with emblems asserting their labor combat.
“Our guild is 87 percent female, and we do believe it’s because costume design is considered ‘women’s work’ that we’re not getting equal pay,” Wald-Cohain mentioned. “Our jobs are substantially similar, and we’re specifically talking about production designers and art directors.”
“We have to do this now because the wage gap keeps getting bigger every single year,” mentioned Adams. The CDG, which expanded on its #NakedWithoutUs marketing campaign by launching the Pay Equity Now initiative in January, argues that costume designers are paid almost 30 p.c lower than male majority artistic division heads when assuming a 60-hour work week. That’s regardless of doing jobs CDG members say require related prep, work, and crew building with outcomes that massively impression a manufacturing’s success.
“One of the main things that we want to point out is how much we shape culture and how influential we are to everything that everyone buys,” Adams mentioned. “Our work is very important on the storytelling angle, but it’s also important to culture as a whole.”
The annual awards occasion — honoring the most effective in costume design throughout film, TV, and short-form storytelling, with a brand new class added this yr to honor costume illustration — befell lower than two weeks earlier than negotiations are set to start between the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP) and the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees (IATSE) on Monday, March 4.
The menace of extra strikes looms as numerous teams converge on producers to demand adjustments from the leisure business. Representatives for the AMPTP didn’t remark.
The SAG-AFTRA and WGA strikes of final yr have been extra easy than the 2024 bargaining cycle might be, however the labor disputes ought to put simply as huge a squeeze on Hollywood. The CDG is one in all 13 native guilds heading to the bargaining desk to barter the IATSE Basic Agreement subsequent month, and pay parity for CDG members is only one challenge in that dialogue. IATSE is concurrently partnering with Teamsters Local 399 and the Basic Crafts unions to collectively negotiate the Motion Picture Industry Pension and Health Plan; the teams will discount individually on different points.
Still, the disparity in pay between women and men in Hollywood took centerstage on awards evening, and the CDG delivered a transparent message. President Terry Gordon opened her guild’s ceremony with a video from SAG-AFTRA President Fran Drescher (the designer and actor labored collectively on “The Nanny”), who inspired members to remain robust of their combat and lean on their fellow unionized creatives. CDG Executive Director Brigitta Romanov echoed the actress’ statements.
“Let us recommit ourselves to the ongoing fight for justice, equality, and dignity for all workers — and a future where every worker is treated with the respect and dignity they deserve,” she mentioned. Romanov wore a shiny shell-pink gown on the podium, however a Pay Equity Now-patterned cape on the crimson carpet; Gordon wore a gown in a deeper purple-pink (a metallic shade this reporter can’t identify, however anybody there certainly might).
“We have a history of gender disparity and therefore a pay inequity among costume designers, assistant costume designers, and costume illustrators, and it’s because the costume department’s work is viewed as ‘pink collar’ work,” Selon advised IndieWire. “But that’s not true; that is old news. That is an old way of thinking, and we are moving into a new time.”
The solely male co-chair of the Pay Equity Steering Committee, Selon described an emotional connection to his craft and feeling a duty to his friends.
“What I can bring to the table is what is subconsciously given to me. What I get is exactly what my female peers are denied, and that is respect and a higher wage,” he mentioned, nodding to the continuing gendered points that persist even with the CDG. “There are many talented female costume designers, but I know they have to work twice as hard to achieve what a male costume designer achieves. And that is not right, and we are seeking to change that, and we are changing that.”
As tough conversations ramp up on the bargaining desk — and privately between producers and established designers already working above the fundamental pay scale fee over which the CDG is arguing — the stress to attract consideration to pay parity is growing.
The Pay Equity Now press launch in January explains, “A stark gender pay gap continues to widen every year with the negotiated AMPTP cost of living increases. When each IATSE scale rate gets the same percentage increase annually it compounds to a much greater disparity between positions over time.” If true, that costume designers and, for instance, manufacturing designers can’t dream of comparable retirements is a matter for creatives on the highest stage of the artwork.
“I have to admit, while I was prepping to do this show, I was astounded to learn about the inequities in pay scale for costume designers,” mentioned host Wendi McLendon-Covey. “Then, I did a little digging, and I realized, ‘Oh yeah, it’s because it’s a woman-dominated field.’ And God, I hate cliches.” The actress wore a pink swimsuit and revealed a Pay Equity Now T-shirt to applause. Notably, the CDG has an extended historical past of advocating for pay parity through fashion; designer Jenny Beavan even had a “Naked Without Us” embellishment on her sleeve when she received the Oscar for “Cruella” in 2022.
Annette Bening, who was not current, acquired the Spotlight Award for her career-long appreciation for and championing of costume design. The “Nyad” star chairs the board of the Entertainment Community Fund, which provides monetary reduction and psychological well being sources to actors and different creatives throughout labor disputes. She despatched remarks, learn by McLendon Covey.
“As IATSE goes to the bargaining committee later this year, we are here for you,” Bening wrote. “Because when it comes to costume design, it’s not just about finding the right dress for a character; it’s about having the strength of character to address the issues that ensure the ability to live one’s life as a creative professional.”
Endorsements from high-profile supporters — like, say, a Best Actress nominee — can show crucial to craftspeople getting energy over producers throughout negotiations.
“With the actors, it’s difficult because everybody is asking them to do something. Everybody is asking for their support because they have such a strong voice,” Launzel, the fourth of the committee co-chairs, advised IndieWire. “But the biggest compliment you can get is when an actor comes into the room, and you dress them, and they say, ‘Oh! Now, I know who this character is.’”
Sporting a one-legged, one-armed classic Gaultier tuxedo — with a newly customary Pay Equity cummerbund and hat — costume designer Mandi Line commented on a scarcity of labor in the course of the strikes (“I wore this eight years ago… but we have to be on budget!”) and reported higher compensation for costume designers on productions in Canada and Germany. The risk of artists fleeing Hollywood for worldwide markets is a buzzy dialog amongst producers.
“Costume designers really take the story to screen; we are storytellers above and beyond,” Line mentioned. “I am down to work 16 or 18 hours, but I want to be paid the same as a production designer. It’s just time. At the end of the day, it’s not about being angry or being ugly or fighting — it’s just time to be paid what we deserve.”
“We are paid so much less because we are a female-oriented job,” mentioned Erica D. Schwartz, an assistant costume designer who wore a large, drag queen-inspired ball robe made in Pay Equity Now cloth. “We are fighting for pay equity because it is the law, and we haven’t gotten it in decades.”
Even all through that frustration, there was nonetheless a palpable ardour for the craft.
“I wasn’t going to show up tonight because I’m so stressed out about a costume. I can barely think,” mentioned Excellence in Short Form Design winner B. Åkerlund in her acceptance speech. The designer took residence the prize for her brief movie with Madonna and Vanity Fair, carrying a pink puff robe and Pay Equity Now earrings.
“But then I thought, ‘Hey, I work really hard and I appreciate everyone that voted for me.’ And we need to remember to reward ourselves because I always put my job in front of myself. So here I am. I’m going to grab the award, and I’m going to go back to my job.”
Conversely, profitable the primary ever CDGA for Excellence in Costume Illustration, “Rebel Moon” visionary Jason Pastana punctuated his acceptance by reminding the viewers he wanted work.
Jacqueline Duran snagged the CDGA statuette for Excellence in Sci-Fi/Fantasy Film for “Barbie”— sarcastically carrying black. When requested in regards to the guild’s use of pink and the Barbie of all of it, Launzel mentioned she hadn’t actually put Pay Equity Now and the Mattel film collectively.
“But I will say, the whole conversation around America Ferrara’s monologue and character explains exactly what we do and how we feel about what we do,” the designer mentioned. “Being a woman is a beautiful thing, but it’s also really effing hard. And if I was a man, I could say fucking.”
Asked the identical, Line popped off her self-made hat. The costume designer has had brief pink hair for years and cites not Mattel however Janelle Monáe as inspiration.
“Pink,” she mentioned, “is my favorite color.”
