Ruth Carter Making History in Fashion
By: Christian Hopley
Congratulations are in order to the talented and incomparable Ruth Carter. She is the costume designer who most recently won an Oscar for her work on Black Panther 2: Wakanda Forever which made her the first Black woman to ever win two Oscars in the history of the award show. She won her first Oscar in 2016 for her costuming work on the first Black Panther which made her the first Black person to win an Oscar for Costume Design. In 2021 she also became the second costume designer to be awarded a Star on the Hollywood Walk of fame, and currently has over 50 costuming credits under her belt.
The defining aspect of her canon is her focus on Black characters and most recently her central focus has been Afro-Futurism as best seen in her work on the Black Panther series. She conducts extensive historical research which informs many of the cultural references you see embedded in the film’s garments. Carter has an array of methods to effectively bringing her costumes to life on film; she draws inspiration from tribal elders of the past, and fresh African prints of the future.
Her foray into costuming started at the Santa Fe Opera where she worked before moving to Los Angeles in 1986. There she broke into the movie industry when director Spike Lee hired her for his movie School Daze. Her work with Spike Lee acted as a catalyst for the rest of her stardom in Hollywood. She went on to costume films including Do the Right Thing, Jungle Fever, Mo’ Better Blues, B.A.P.S, What’s Love Got to do With it, Crooklyn and many more.
Ruth Carter’s immaculate attention to detail and history for the Black Panther costume direction is not the only impressive thing on her resume, she has worked on several iconic films. What makes her work so profound and groundbreaking is how she effectively uses her knowledge of Black diasporic history to costume characters accurately in their totality. She is regarded as the godmother of black costuming, working on many of the classic black films that gave the black community a look at historical figures such as Malcolm X.(1993), Amistad (1998),and Sparkle (2012).
While she has worked and created costuming for many projects across the entertainment industry for decades, she has just recently received high praise and notoriety. With a career reaching 4 decades, it is hard to praise the Academy for just recently highlighting her work. However, the theme of the Oscar’s past show was giving flowers to those who should have received them years ago. With other women of color, like Michelle Yeoh who became the first Asian woman to win best actress in her 5th decade of acting, the program gave note of its history of ignoring such quality talent in the industry. This year’s past Oscars highlighted many women of color, but Carter’s second win is of paramount significance. She became the first black woman to have two oscars. Ever. In the 95 year history, every black woman who has won, while a very small number, has only received that one. Carter’s win represents change and a new foundation for women of color in the film industry no matter the role.
The outstanding work of Ruth Carter is best magnified by the Toni Morrison quote: “I stood at the border, stood at the edge and claimed it as central. l claimed it as central, and let the rest of the world move over to where I was”. Ruth Carter successfully claimed the stories and costuming of marginal Black characters as Central and deserving of critical acclaim.