Ruth E. Carter: The Costume Designer Making History
The 2023 Academy Awards were full to the brim with history-making moments from Michelle Yeoh being the first Asian woman to win Best Actress and Everything Everywhere All At Once becoming the most-awarded film in history. However, there was one more moment that has flown quietly under the radar.
During Sunday’s prestigious awards ceremony, costume designer Ruth E. Carter became the first black woman to win multiple Academy Awards, this time picking up the Oscar for best costume design for “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever.” Born in Springfield, Massachusetts in 1960, Carter graduated from Hampton University with a Bachelor of Arts Degree in 1982. After interning at the Sante Fe Opera, Carter moved to the movie centre of the world Los Angeles where she got a job at the Los Angeles Theatre Centre. It was here that Carter would first meet legendary film director Spike Lee who subsequently hired her for his film School Daze (1988). She has worked on a total of ten Spike Lee movies!
In her career spanning over 40 films, Carter has been nominated for a grand total of four costume design Academy Awards for Malcolm x (1992), Amistad (1997), Black Panther (2018) and Black Panther: Wakanda Forever (2022). She won for Black Panther films.
While Carter has just become the most awarded black woman in Oscars history, she also became the first black costume designer to win the coveted statuette in 2019 for Black Panther. Many anticipated Catherine Martin to take home the trophy for her work on Baz Luhrmann’s Elvis after she won the BAFTA. Mary Zophres was nominated for her work on Babylon, so was three-time Oscars winner Jenny Beaven for Mrs Harris Goes To Paris and Shirley Kurata for Everything Everywhere All at Once.
Ruth E. Carter’s acceptance speech was a moment of reflection and dedication to her mother, who she revealed passed recently, “Thank you to the Academy for recognizing the superhero that is a Black woman. She endure, she loves, she overcomes, she is every woman in this film. She is my mother. This past week, Mable Carter became an ancestor. This film prepared me for this moment. Chadwick, please take care of Mom. Ryan Coogler, Nate Moore, thank you both for your vision. Together, we are reshaping how culture is represented. The Marvel family, Kevin Feige, Victoria Alonso, Louis D’Esposito and their arsenal of genius, thank you. I share this with many dedicated artists whose hands and hearts helped manifest the costumes of Wakanda and Talokan. This is for my mother. She was 101.”
