North Hollywood’s United American Costume Company has been dressing Hollywood since 1977. The company counts costume designers Sandy Powell, Arianne Phillips and Ellen Mirojnick among its clients, and has provided outfits for “” as well as “American Horror Story.” But with the writers and actors on strike, the business is in danger. “I could survive probably five months, but I would be left with nothing,” says the company’s owner, Diana Foster.
As that was happening, Foster was being contacted by costume designers and studios facing dilemmas of their own. “Do they return the clothes and pay for shipping and ship it back when they’re up and running? Or do they pay the extended rental?” There was no way to tell how long the strikes would last.
The strikes has hit other Hollywood suppliers hard as well — 111-year old Western Costume is among the businesses that are temporarily closed. Stash moved to a new, bigger location in Glendale just as the strikes were beginning. “I’ve more than doubled my room and haven’t had work since I moved in,” she says. “I’ve gone through all of my savings and this is the last month of rent that I have,” she confesses.