Hello, Beauties🌸 Today’s post is to wish the Academy Award-winning Costume Designer Ruth E. Carter a happy birthday.
By now, everyone has had their say about Ruth E. Carter making Oscar history for being the first African American Costume Designer to win the coveted gold statue. Why? The 2019 Academy Awards aired on Sunday, February 24, at 8:00 PM.
I first learned of Ms. Carter from my fashion journalist daughter’s Refinery 29 post on February 14, 2018, two days before the release of the action-adventure Marvel movie. I wanted to write about the costume designer now because her 59th birthday is April 10. You know I like to celebrate birthdays.
My Dad didn’t allow my older brother and me to read comic books as children, so I wasn’t familiar with the Marvel Black Panther superhero. I thought the live-action film was about the 1960s Black Panther Party.
Carter graduated from Hampton Institute, or Hampton University, in 1982 with a Bachelor of Arts in Theater Arts. She began her career working as an intern in her hometown of Springfield, Massachusetts, and at the Santa Fe Opera. A young Carter moved to Los Angeles in 1986. While working at Lula Washington’s Dance Theatre, she met director Spike Lee, who hired her for his second film, School Daze.
Fun Facts about Ruth E. Carter:
♣ Carter has seven siblings
♣ Special Ed. her original college major
♣ An expert in period detail
♣ Dedicated her Oscar Award to her 97-year-old grandmother
♣ Pier One placemat crafted by Carter for Wakanda headpiece
The 58-year-old spent six months extensively researching Africa’s ancient customs. She dispatched shoppers to Ghana and South Africa to find authentic artifacts, textiles, and jewelry to use as prototypes for the Wakandan clothing and trinkets.
The costumes, hair, and makeup in Marvel’s Black Panther celebrate black culture and heritage. One of the inspirations for Nakia’s character was Harriet Tubman. Many people don’t know she was a secret agent; after she traveled North via the Underground Railroad, she was in the military and worked as a Union spy.
Costume designer Carter cites the clothes of the African tribes the Masai, the Himba, the Dagon, the Basotho, the Tuareg, the Turkana, the Xhosa, the Zulu, the Suma, and the Dinka as influences on Wakenda clothing. Carter also studies the works of contemporary fashion designers Issey Miyake, Yves Saint-Laurent, and Donna Karan.
Carter oversaw teams in Atlanta and Los Angeles and shoppers in Africa, and she oversaw over 1500 costumes for Black Panther. Here’s a glimpse of the magnitude of her Atlanta headquarters. The cost to produce the movie Black Panther was a staggering $200 million. I wonder how much was devoted to costume design.
Ms. Carter has a long-standing relationship with writer, producer, director, and actor Spike Lee; she outfitted the characters in the following Lee movies:
Summer of Sam,1999
Malcolm X, 1992 (Academy Nomination)
Jungle Fever, 1991
Mo’ Better Blues, 1990
Do The Right Thing,1989
School Daze,1988
As a costume designer, Carter’s 30-year film career has 62 credited films; some others include:
Reginald Hudlin’s Marshall, 2017
Ava DuVernay’s Selma, 2014
Lee Daniels, The Butler, 2013
John Singleton’s, Shaft, 2000
Steven Spielberg’s Amistad, 1997 (Academy Nomination)
John SIngleton’s Rosewood, 1997
Honors:
2002: American Black Film Festival, Career Achievement Award
2015: Essence, 2015 Black Women in Hollywood Awards at the 8th Annual Black Women in Hollywood
2019: Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, Best Costume Design for Black Panther
2019: Critics Choice, Best Costume Design for Black Panther
2019: Costume Designers Guild, Excellence in Sci-Fi/Fantasy Film for Black Panther
2019: Costume Designers Guild, Career Achievement Award
According to an online source, a retrospective traveling exhibition of her work, “Dress Code: 35 Years of Ruth E. Carter’s Afrocentric Movie Costumes,” will travel to museums worldwide in late 2019.
By now, we all know the costume designer’s importance and role, the ultimate in visual storytelling, bringing characters to life on film.
Remember Alfred Hitchcock’s exclusive use of costume designer Edith Head? Some of my favorite Hitchcock film noir movies are Notorious, Rear Window, The Birds, To Catch A Thief, The Man Who Knew Too Much, Vertigo, and Marnie. Edith won her eight Oscars when she worked for Universal Pictures—the most honored costume designer and woman in Academy Award history to date.
Did you notice I focused only on the female characters from Black Panther? Sure, there were fictional Wakanda kings, warriors, and geniuses. You had to admire women’s front-and-center presence and many demonstrations of female resilience while portraying superhero qualities. How about Shuri’s engineering genius?
Happy Birthday, Ruth🎈Congratulations on being the first African American to an Academy Award for Costume Design. And to history-making Black Panther for Best Production and Best Original Score. It’s worth noting the movie is the highest-grossing non-Avengers film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe and the 9th highest-grossing flick of all time.
As always, thank you for reading. Have a fabulous and healthy week.
