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Luxury fashion shines on the red carpet, but the ongoing SAG-AFTRA Hollywood strike has turned actors into picketers, rather than film promoters. As brands figure out alternative ways to fill the attention void left by the sudden drop off in celebrity appearances, the industry’s ancillary workers, including professional stylists, makeup artists and hairdressers, have found themselves in precarious work positions reminiscent of the recent Covid shutdowns. And emerging designers without the benefits of deep brand pockets are looking for new ways to break through the noise.
Brooke Pace, founder of Alta Moda Communications in Los Angeles, says she began telling her dozen luxury-brand clients — including Fendi, Dundas, Moschino, Giambattista Valli, David Yurman, and Bally — in the spring that the Venice Film Festival was likely to be a rout for fashion. Many actors are also writers and were striking before SAG-AFTRA struck last week.
“By June, the writing was on the wall,” says Pace. Some of her non-LA-based clients were less clued-in to the Hollywood labor furore and expressed surprise when she advised, “Let’s not invest in a dress that’s probably not going to be worn.”
An established fashion stylist based in Los Angeles says the impacts of the strikes began about six weeks ago, in an industry already under pressure after Netflix had cut styling rates to about $750 from $1,000 to $1,500 per day. The stylist estimated they’ve already had 25 to 30 events cancelled for three clients, largely built around summer movies.
As the summer blockbuster film premieres marched toward strike deadlines, Barbie and Mission: Impossible – Fallout mostly slid through, but Oppenheimer’s publicity tour was halted mid-stride. “At least we got the London premiere,” Pace says. The film’s entire cast left the theater midway through the film’s screening. The…
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