Hollywood’s Newest Red Carpet Is the WGA Picket Line

Last week, I was trying to put together a good outfit. Not for an interview or a date, but for a picket line—Hollywood’s newest red carpet.

Since May 2, the Writers Guild of America has been on strike while renegotiating its contract with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers. The WGA is striking because the AMPTP and WGA have not agreed on how to address the existential crisis writers are facing, including lower pay, transparency around residuals, and the threat of AI. (Do you want ChatGPT writing the next White Lotus? I for one, do not.) 

It’s serious stuff, but given that I work with a bunch of comedy writers, we had to find joy amongst the chaos of unemployment and total dread. Thankfully, we’ve found an outlet: While my fellow writers are marching in both Los Angeles and New York, I—along with a cohort of my colleagues—have begun documenting the very best outfits on the frontlines through @PicketFits on Instagram.  

Screenwriters aren’t generally known for their fashion sense, but this actually isn’t even the first time I’ve created an IG account focused on writer style. Back in 2019, I was the writers’ production assistant for Season 1 of Awkwafina is Nora From Queens on Comedy Central. Our showrunner, Teresa Hsiao, looked around the room and said that it was the first time she had been surrounded by writers who weren’t just dressed in plaid or rumpled cargo pants. We all started dressing up even more as a joke, challenging one another to step up our games. No longer would we just wear sweatpants to work everyday, as generations of writers had before us. 

Suddenly, our workplace attire was high stakes. We began taking photographs of our looks during lunch breaks as a respite from writing. Eventually, we took the bit one step further and, inspired by @LeagueFits—an Instagram account dedicated to NBA athletes’ pre-game outfits—we created @WriterFits, a showcase of noteworthy outfits from our writer’s room. Next thing we knew, we’d amassed thousands of followers, started to receive entries from other shows, and even got a swag bag from the menswear label Rowing Blazers.

But when writers’ rooms closed with the strike on May 2, there were no @WriterFits to be taken. Just like that, @PicketFits was born. I serve as the New York correspondent, while Nora From Queens writer/producers Teresa, Cherry Chevapravatdumrong, and Kyle Lau cover LA (along with the help of other trusted @PicketFits correspondents).