Costume Designers Guild Awards: Saltburn, Poor Things and Billie Eilish among honourees

Amid an awards season that is more bustling than usual, the 26th Costume Designers Guild Awards (CDGAs) took place last night in NeueHouse, Hollywood, where more than 1,200 costume designers, assistants and illustrators came together to celebrate the past year in film. American actress Wendi McLendon-Covey hosted the event, in which nine awards were given out alongside a number of special honours.

However, in typical award show style, the event wasn’t just marked by its list of winners. It also became a platform for a political statement, evident in a slew of various pink outfits that took to the red carpet prior, and continued to be donned throughout the event. While such a move could easily have been mistaken for another Barbie press circuit, it was actually in reference to the #NakedWithoutUs campaign launched by the CDG in response to the ever-present wage gap imposed on female costume designers.

Speaking to IndieWire, costume designer Ariyela Wald-Cohain, one those helming the CDG’s Pay Equity Steering Committee, said: “We’re fighting for pay equity with department creative heads that are mostly male. Our guild is 87 percent female, and we do believe it’s because costume design is considered ‘women’s work’ that we’re not getting equal pay. Our jobs are substantially similar, and we’re specifically talking about production designers and art directors.”

The Pay Equity Now initiative claims that costume designers are paid nearly 30 percent less than male majority creative department heads in a 60-hour work week. The CDGA took place weeks before negotiations between the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP) and the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees (IATSE) are to be held.

It follows a significant strike held last year by members of SAG-AFTRA, who took to the streets and halted any form of film production and promotion in a call for better pay and working conditions after AMPTP failed to secure negotiations for a new contract regulating the work of Writers Guild of America (WGA).

While it appears that it is now female costume designers that are preparing to take a stand, attendees of CGDA still had cause for celebration during the evening. Among the honourees were actress Annette Bening, who received the Spotlight Award for her enduring commitment to excellence; costume designer Francine Jamison-Tanchuck, the recipient of the Career Achievement Award recognising her career and mark on film and television; and Billie Eilish, the Vanguard Spotlight Award winner, naming her as a trailblazer who ignites imagination.

Meanwhile, the costume film award winners of the night included Saltburn designer Sophie Canale, who received the award for Excellence in Contemporary Film; Poor Things’ Holly Waddington, the recipient of Excellence in Period Film; and Jacqueline Durran, Barbie’s costume designer for Excellence in Sci-Fi/Fantasy Film. In television, the recipients were Shawna Trpcic and Elissa Alcala, for their work on Star Wars’ series Ahsoka; B. Åkerlund for the short film for Vanity Fair featuring Madonna; three costume designers that worked on Netflix’s limited series Beef; The Great’s Sharon Long; Jason Pastrana, for his work on Rebel Moon; and two costume designers behind the comedy series, A Black Lady Sketch Show.

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