Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1542297
physical location. "I was thinking about California Paerns while taking a bath, and someone texted me a screenshot of a Facebook post about somebody trying to sublet their studio. It looked like a mess, but it was really inexpensive, and so I went there the next day, because obviously! I didn't have a clue about what I was going to do at all, but I told him I would take it. And so, in February 2020, we got in there. It's completely empty, so cold. It was raining and I had this huge, empty, freezing warehouse, and I had my one industrial Juki, and my set kit, and I didn't have paern tables. I had two six footers and a couple of stingers and, and I cried and I cried. I was like, I wonder if this is ever going to work. I tried to sit there and picture what it custom made, I just thought she was so open and just sincerely and genuinely kind and talented, and she thought her team was the best team in the world. I love how that felt coming from her. She continues to be a really big inspiration to me." Fields had been the previous owner of Bill Hargate Costumes and Gaini had filmed two long-form interviews with her prior to her concussion so she had a vision of what kind of workplace she wanted to emulate, but now she needed a Above: Multiple gold cowboy jackets built for Fall Guy. Left: Ryan Gosling and Aaron Taylor-Johnson in Fall Guy. Opposite: Michael Scott, Carlos Zuniga, Natalia Gattini, Michelle McCullar and Yesenia Solis in a family crew photo by Toms One Hour Photo union, you also have to protect yourself, because no one's going to tell you." She only learned about the separation of finished and custom-made work once she got into Motion Picture Costumers. Gaini has been a member of Local 705 since 2016 and had worked on many productions before making the decision to start her signatory workroom. "Well, it all started when I got a concussion on a show. I was really stressed on this show and just working really hard and being rough on myself. The working conditions were fine, but it's the classic: no natural light, all fluorescent, you feel like a canary in a coal mine." When working on productions, Custom Made members can be tucked away in windowless spaces, sometimes basements or rooms that may have been a storage closet at some point. "I was standing at the ironing board, I fainted for some reason, and I hit my head. I got taken to the hospital with a concussion. Aer that day, I had to fight with the studio to go back into work with the provisions that the workers' comp doctor had. I could only work four hours a day." The studio production reps had called Gaini to ask her to go on disability to avoid paying her to work the shorter doctor-dictated days until she asked them to put this request in writing. "When my brain rearranged itself aer the concussion, it really feels like you're reformaing your head." Gaini went on to say, "I think it was just a combination of all of those things that I decided that there had to be a beer way of doing this, and I still believe there is a beer way of doing this, and we're doing it." Gaini soon began her plans for California Union Made Paerns, inspired by an interview she had filmed as part of a project for Local 705's Heritage Project Commiee (in partnership with UCLA's Labor Studies), recording member accounts of their history and career as Costumers in Los Angeles' film industry. "We interviewed Mary Ellen Fields, and she has just been such an idol to me. Ever since I started in MOTIONPICTUREC O S T U M E R S .O R G 47