'I haven't had a job since March 13': How costume designers are coping with COVID-19
LOS ANGELES - It's about five months into the pandemic, and no one is dressing for the screen. This goes for both the tiny, gridded screen of your WFH videoconference (admit it, you're still wearing sweatpants), as well as the TV and movie screens of Hollywood where production abruptly halted back in mid-March as part of California's effort to flatten the coronavirus curve.
One big difference, of course, is that while your on-screen wardrobe is totally your call, what appears on those other screens is the responsibility of a Hollywood costume designer who is earning a paycheck in the process. Since shutdown production means shutdown paychecks (unlike actors, directors and writers, costume designers don't get residuals), the first half of 2020 has found some of the most high-profile costume designers in the business - Emmy and Oscar winners among them - unexpectedly out of work.
We checked in with a handful of Hollywood heavyweights to see how they're faring, what they've been doing since the Hollywood dream machine ground to a halt and what they see on the horizon.
JANIE BRYANT
Known for her work on the "Mad Men" and "Deadwood" TV series
