Costume design is more than just deciding what an actor will wear.
“A costume designer is first and foremost a storyteller,” said Ruth E. Carter in an interview with GBH Executive Arts Editor Jared Bowen. “The costume designer is the orchestrator … someone who has a vision for the story that plays out visually on stage.”
For decades, Carter has designed costumes for dozens of high-profile films, from “Malcolm X” to “Selma” to “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever.”
For her work creating the iconic Afrofuturist design for the first "Black Panther" film and "Wakanda Forever," Carter won Academy Awards for Best Costume Design, becoming the first Black woman to win two Oscars and the first person to win for a film and its sequel.
Born in Springfield, Carter never forgets about her upbringing in Massachusetts, which she describes as “home.”
“Massachusetts was a place where my mother and I, my family, we stretched far and wide,” she said. “My mom and I drove up and down the Eastern seaboard doing the work that she did. … it was a beloved place.”
In Carter’s early years in the industry, she honed her craft at CityStage, a theatrical company in Springfield that closed its doors in 2018. There, she developed skills such as “developing character arcs [and] color palettes” — skills that were “really important to know so that [she] would know where to start with building costume design.”
As a designer, Carter has to balance not only crafting visually appealing costumes for the actors she works with, but also making them fit with the characters themselves. From recreating a vintage western jacket for Kevin Costner on the hit show “Yellowstone” to designing the iconic LOVE-HATE knuckle rings worn by Radio Raheem in Spike Lee’s “Do the Right Thing,” Carter’s career is one of constant collaboration.
Carter has worked numerous times with Angela Bassett, including on “What’s Love Got to Do with It,” a biopic about the late Tina Turner.
“Seeing her practice [Turner’s] mannerisms and the voice and the inflection, it’s no wonder [Bassett] landed the role. We went on the journey together of discovering how we would tell a life story of an icon,” Carter said. “There were times when I walked into Angela’s trailer and she’s rehearsing and … she doesn’t really want to break character. So, I quietly work around her and make sure … she’s comfortable. It’s an immersive experience, it’s a transformation.”
Carter and Bassett also worked together on "Black Panther" and its sequel. Translating designs from the ink-and-paper world of Wakanda into physical forms was a difficult task, but Carter rose to the occasion.
“Even though it’s fictitious, it’s really built on the inspiration of real life communities and societies around Africa,” she said. “You spend a great amount of time researching, talking to historians, asking questions, and lots and lots of illustrations. And you don’t want to misrepresent them … you want to really bring it forth in a beautiful way, in a harmonious way, in a way that tells the story. It’s a big responsibility.”
As she looks back on her storied career, Carter takes great pride in the work that she’s done to represent Black communities and culture on the big screen. By drawing influence throughout her career from Black playwrights, directors and stories, she felt that her work on the “Black Panther” series was “the sum of all [her] parts.”
“[In] the process of building a world, whether it was historic or futuristic, I had a really good foundation in what was important in the telling of Africa to the Black diaspora, the African diaspora: that we be authentic, that we show Africa is not just one monolithic place, that we show that the history of African Americans didn’t start in slavery. Even though it was fictitious, it’s really built on a strong foundation. And I was really ready for that.”
Carter’s new book, "The Art of Ruth E. Carter: Costuming Black History and the Afrofuture, from Do the Right Thing to Black Panther," is available now.
Carter will be at the Coolidge Corner Theatre on October 15th to receive the Coolidge Award, in conversation with GBH’s Callie Crossley.
