Ruth E. Carter is a prolific and talented costume designer who has designed a number of period films and won the Academy Award for best costume design last year for Black Panther (she was previously nominated twice, for Malcolm X and Amistad). She’s also important because she is Black, and right now the United States is embroiled in protests against systemic racism; Carter’s work both highlights the many contributions African Americans have and continue to make to culture, and the films themselves often tell Black-focused stories, which are so important to our understandings of our own history.
Let’s take a look through Carter’s many frock flicks, with quotes from the designer about her work.
Malcolm X (1992)
“They gave me his (Malcolm X) files, and I read what he wrote. I noticed his penmanship and discovered he wanted to educate himself. He became a Muslim and embraced all people. He was more than a villain” (‘Black Panther,’ ‘Malcolm X’ costumes highlight Heinz History Center exhibit).
What’s Love Got to Do With It (1993)
“The fabrics are all different. Bell-bottoms in the 70’s were in stiff, hard fabrics. The corduroys were so thick. They don’t make fabrics like that anymore” (Hal Rubenstein, “What’s Ban-Lon Got to do with it?: The 60’s and Early 70’s were Serious Times. Many People were so Busy being Serious that they Didn’t Stop to Check Out how Ridiculous they Looked. A New Film is a Graphic Reminder” New York Times, Jun 27, 1993).
Cobb (1994)
“He [baseball player Ty Cobb] had a great tie collection. He always wore the fashionable ties of the day” (Betty Goodwin, “Cobb Sported it all” Los Angeles Times, Dec 01, 1994).
Amistad (1997)
“Steven Spielberg gave me a great opportunity with ‘Amistad.’ He sent me to Rome and London to pull from period costume rental companies” (“Carter’s Costumes Play Key Role in Films” Courier – Journal, Jul 23, 2006).
“For the ‘Amistad’ costumes, Carter studied nineteenth century etchings from a London flea market, costume archives in Italian opera houses, and David Bindman and Henry Louis Gates, Jr.,’s multivolume work ‘The Image of the Black in Western Art'” (Threads of History).
Rosewood (1997)
“I felt like we found the magic in ‘Rosewood.’ … I felt as if we were making a documentary. The set reminded me of our family history. I could almost smell my grandmother and my mother and my aunt. … In the screening room on the last day, I was watching the dailies and when I got up and said goodbye, everyone applauded. I didn’t expect that. Your journey in filmmaking is very personal. You do the best job you can do. That was an indelible mark in my heart. We were a good team” (“Carter’s Costumes Play Key Role in Films” Courier – Journal, Jul 23, 2006).
Sparkle (2012)
“It gave me the opportunity to do all kinds of things. I studied Paco Rabanne, Balenciaga, Pierre Cardin — all these people who were emerging. They were making shapes that were unconventional, and I wanted to do that with ‘Sparkle’ (Oscar Nominee Ruth Carter ‘s Costumes Shine in ‘Sparkle’).
Lee Daniel’s The Butler (2013)
Selma (2014)
“We went mostly to documentary footage, because Selma is about a march that actually happened. I focused on the details of the marchers. It was about the wardrobe, the shoes, the feet. I wanted to bring it to life” (Sartorial ‘Selma’).
Roots (2016)
Marshall (2017)
Black Panther (2018)
“African influences haven’t been well-represented. The continent is such a rich resource creatively. I felt that no one really took the dive and decided to be inspired by the Maasi or the Turkana and infuse that in the futuristic model” (How Costume Designer Ruth E. Carter Brought the Afrofuture to ‘Black Panther’).
Which is your favorite of Ruth E. Carter’s period designs?
I really love the work she did in BLACK PANTHER and AMISTAD. You felt like you were actually there. Two others are SELMA and MARSHALL. I thought the tailoring on both MKL and TM suits were debonair and showed character. BTW isn’t is time for a Coretta Scott King biopic?
Her work in Black Panther was glorious.So much detail,such a riot of colours,so much creativity and yet the costumes feeling more like clothes you could go forth and wear.Part of the reason why BL is the only superhero movie I like on a cinematic basis(everything in the movie was very balanced,with the story and the super heroey feel getting equal importance.I know FF doesn’t do superhero stuff,but wasn’t BL taking place a bit in the past?)
Ruth E Carter won an Oscar for Black Panther, so it is definitely worth a place in a discussion of her carerr.
No, it is not a historical drsma. So we saw none of the costumes.
career not carerr
drama not drsma
Aarrgh!
Black Panther is my favorite, for sure. The zoot suits from Malcolm X run second. They look sharp.
I refuse to choose, they’re all just so stunning! Go, Ruth!
I know, I was bending the rules, but it’s such an important film and the costumes are so influenced by traditional dress, which has historical roots.
What a humongous, jaw dropping talent!!! I have seen (and loved) quite a number of these films and remember thinking, with each, how beautifully they were designed/dressed: without (to my shame) looking into who had actually designed the costumes for each. Ruth E. Carter is outstanding and has an innate instinct for both period and character. I am in awe!
I feel the same way, such a pleasure and a wonder to learn!
I’m so happy to see Ruth E. Carter’s work featured here. Yes, she is a badass. My favorite film of the bunch is Black Panther because it is just excellent on every level. I’ve seen several of the movies here, and every one of them she got the whole “world” right, especially Rosewood. When I watched that movie I thought, “These people look like people out of all the old photo albums I’ve seen.” And, to the set designer’s credit, “These old homes are exactly right.”
Re: The “new” Roots: I watched all the Behind the Scenes features, and someone said that in discovering more about Kunte Kinte’s African village in the intervening years since the 1977 Roots, they discovered a connection between his village and indigo. So they wanted to make sure to have indigo colored costumes in the African scenes and to make the color blue a touchstone throughout the series.
Re: African prints: Not surprisingly, the best examples I’ve seen of African prints are at the National Museum of African Art in DC (not to be confused with the new African-American History and Culture Museum, also in DC). The Textile Museum at George Washington University sold some awesome gifts with beautiful African prints made by African companies.
Further reading: I HIGHLY recommend reading the exhibition catalog for Inspiring Beauty: 50 Years of Ebony Fashion Fair. It is the most interesting exhibition catalog I’ve ever read (and I’ve read plenty). If the exhibit comes to your local museum you MUST see it, if not, look it up online. I learned so much about so much–fashion, race relations, African-American culture, etc. I just opened up my catalog on a whim and came upon this still-timely observation, “At the extreme, wearing the wrong clothing can place a black man’s life at risk.” Thus, clothing continues to matter in black life in ways that it has never had to matter to whites. On a more upbeat note, it was so beautiful to see a fashion exhibit in which all the mannequins were black!
I’ve seen a few of these films and am in awe of Ruth’s work. As usual FF, I now have a list of new films to explore including Marshall. You are my go to source for my Netflix queue!