To improve wages and conditions of employment in the business, a union of designers in the UK was established.
The Celebrity Stylist Union, an affiliate of Bectu, the Broadcasting, or the Entertainment category, Communication and Theater Union, was established by fashion designer Michael Miller.
Typically earning $500 (£394) per look, stylists outfit actors for premiers, award presentations, and other promotional events. From this payment, they are required to pay for expenses like travel, shipping, and custom clothing.
Since our expenses are not covered by our rates, everything must be paid for out from our fees, according to Miller.
He also stated that when figuring an hourly rate, “More often than not, we’re either paying less than minimum wage, or we’re left with nothing.”
The union wants its customers (mainly film and television companies and streaming providers) to recognize the preparatory time required for each work and the value that stylists add to marketing efforts, and to compensate stylists appropriately.
The union argues that the wage is insufficient for a highly qualified professional with years of experience who lives in one of the priciest cities in the world, even if it had been doubled to $1,000 or triple to $1,500.
Additionally, it encourages clients to pay hairdressers on time and increased prices for after-hours or weekend labor.
“Payment terms are frequently 30 days, but they can also be 90 days or even six months later,”
He claimed that the Barbie movie, which has made over $1 billion at the box office, is the ideal illustration of the importance of fashion designing for studios.
“It wouldn’t have been nearly as popular if it wasn’t all pink and everybody wasn’t walking about in beautiful Barbie costumes. Even just with fashion publications, they receive an enormous amount of free publicity and marketing, continued Miller.
The union currently has 35 members, or almost a third of the UK’s celebrity stylists.
There are probably no more than 100 celebrity stylist who work in the industry full-time and earn a living from it, according to Miller.
The union wishes to adopt the BFMAA’s (British Fashion Model Agents Association) organizational structure.
Miller stated, “The biggest British fashion models agents have all established a cooperation where they have standardized conditions of employment, they have standardised agreements, and they talk to each other,” and he hopes people in other creative sectors would follow suit.
“The end objective, of obviously, is to be ready to establish a union for various kinds of stylists, for artists, for hair, for makeup, for art directors, or any kind of creators, to be able to demonstrate to them that you are able to establish a union.”
Miller has been in touch with renowned New York stylist Micaela Erlanger since the announcement. Erlanger has dressed celebrities like Amal Clooney, Blake Lively, and Ana armas.
“We connected her with IATSE, which happens to be Bectu’s American counterpart. She is speaking with them to determine whether they can start an association for celebrities stylists there, according to Miller.
Because a great deal of the work is done “on both ends of the pond,” it is hoped that there would be unions “on both sides of the water, where the most of the labor is, such that the studio and streamers don’t have a leg to rely on when it comes to negotiating with us.”