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). 

The strike demands are urgent. We’re all unemployed. We miss our jobs, miss working with other people, and we needed a creative outlet. Channeling all that energy and anxiety into something as intentionally tongue-in-cheek as @PicketFits has helped, at least a little. “We had to be @PicketFits,” Cherry said. “We wanted to showcase the hotness of the picket line.”

Kyle serves as the lead photographer for @PicketFits in LA. “I’m marching around in circles for hours, so I’m basically scouting people’s looks,” he said of his process. Whenever he asks to feature them, Kyle said, people are extremely flattered. 

There are rules, of course. You must honor the full outfit. The photo needs to be head to toe, and shoes must be included. There have been some photo cropping faux pas, but we’re learning as we go. We also consider blind submissions and tags, and each post often includes some context as to why the person featured is striking. 

Each LA studio’s picket line has a different aesthetic. “The Paramount and Netflix lots are like the Met Ball of picketing,” said Emily Goldwyn, a @PicketFits correspondent who wrote on the first season of NFQ.  “People’s outfits are on point.” Further west on the Fox and Sony lots, meanwhile, you have to dress for the marine layer and come prepared with a jacket. Picketers there are more often showing up with a Patagonia fleece or invoking last year’s trendy “Coastal Grandma” aesthetic. 

I recently FaceTimed with Cherry, Teresa, Emily, and Kyle as they walked an LA picket line, and it felt like they were giving me a tour of the high school cafeteria. “The pickets on the east side are hotter and younger,” Cherry explained. “Sometimes there are drums at Universal, which makes it a party, though you’re in direct sunlight, so you have to get a Big Sun Hat.” Over in the Valley, she explained, the vibe is parents wearing their babies as outfits. And, of course, this being LA, you’ll find the cutest accessory of all on every lot: Dogs, and plenty of them.

On my turf, in New York, picket lines are more of a melting pot. People take public transit to pickets and need to pack for the day, which means I’m seeing lots of New Yorker totes and crossbody bags. The WGA East’s iconic black-and-red baseball hats are everywhere, of course, and a recent Star Trek-themed day meant an excess of Trekkie paraphernalia on display. 

As our group bantered back and forth via FaceTime, riffing on the specific sartorial flavors of each picket, I felt sad and nostalgic. I hadn’t laughed like this since we were all in a writers’ room together making TV. None of us could say with confidence when we’d be working as TV writers again. 

But picketing as a community is a silver lining. At times, the picket lines feel like a family reunion, or a block party with established screenwriters and up-and-comers marching alongside each other, wielding tambourines and unruly picket signs. It can be a real who’s-who, and yet we’re all equally unemployed. 

Now, over a month in, there’s no end in sight and we’re constantly looking for ways to entertain ourselves outside of  chanting, “When I say AI, you say Bye Bye.” If ChatGPT wins an Emmy before I do, please kill me.

Working on @PicketFits has been an enjoyable way to pass the time on the lines and meet new people. Even though we can’t claim to be fashion experts, it has been rewarding to build community during this period of turmoil and uncertainty. We may be flattering ourselves, but we’re convinced that people have started to dress up for the pickets, hankering for @PicketFits recognition.

As I finished the FaceTime call with my fellow @PicketFits correspondents in LA, a picketer named Mattie walked by and identified them. “You guys are @PicketFits? I’ve been trying to get on. I want to be featured before my friend Austin.”

Get in line, Mattie. This is all very high stakes.