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  • - Well, the most difficult part

  • about being a costume designer

  • is that, in many ways, you're also a psychologist,

  • you're an art director,

  • you're in the background and you're in the foreground.

  • And being able to balance that

  • with all the creative input

  • becomes very difficult and challenging at times.

  • [upbeat piano music]

  • My name is Ruth Carter and I'm a costume designer.

  • There are lots of people

  • and layers to creating a costume,

  • from getting a person dressed for the set,

  • to communicating ideas,

  • that I'm constantly paring it down.

  • We all want to take the lead,

  • and show our stuff,

  • and be out front.

  • And, "Look at me, look at me."

  • But a lot of times it's, "Don't look at me."

  • And a lot of times it's let's be subtle.

  • I don't do a lot of subtle films,

  • but believe it or not,

  • there is a dialing down

  • and a constant understanding of the bigger picture,

  • the composition.

  • And I have to consistently be aware of the intent

  • and the composition of each scene,

  • and let all of the parts come together and have synergy.

  • I got into costume design,

  • kind of as a default,

  • I was studying acting in college,

  • and I didn't make the role that I was going after.

  • And the instructor who was actually directing the play

  • asked me if I wanted to do the costumes instead.

  • And it was kind of like the constellation prize.

  • I said, okay,

  • because I had dabbled in sewing as a kid

  • and I gave it a try and it stuck.

  • And I have worked on everything from School Daze,

  • to B.A.P.S, Do the Right Thing, Mo' Better Blues,

  • I'm Gonna Git You Sucka,

  • Selma, Malcolm X, and Black Panther.

  • When I first started as a costume designer,

  • I was very much focused on doing the illustrations

  • and going through the process.

  • And then as we traveled through the years,

  • costume design has evolved to be illustration process,

  • involves more people.

  • It's more digital.

  • I was, you know, working on one sheet of paper

  • with my pens or my brushes.

  • And now we're illustrating by computer.

  • We are creating costumes with 3D printing.

  • We can actually, you know,

  • really see 3D renderings of what we're creating.

  • So we can look at a costume

  • from all angles before we begin the build process.

  • So we're much more informed now

  • even though I think my original approach

  • to costume design still is alive and well.

  • There's nothing more beautiful

  • than a sketch done on a piece of art paper.

  • But now we can use our digital process

  • to reverse things that we don't like much easier

  • than it was from that first idea.

  • [mellow piano music]

  • When I was first asked to do Black Panther,

  • I thought, "Why me?"

  • I had never done a superhero film before.

  • And walking into Marvel was similar

  • to me like walking maybe into the CIA,

  • you know, doors mysteriously slammed behind you.

  • You get your eyes scanned.

  • And I walked into a room with Ryan Coogler and Nate Moore.

  • And, you know, I found myself welcomed to the team.

  • Ryan was asking me questions

  • about Malcolm X and other films that I had done.

  • And I felt like I had been designing superheroes already,

  • real life superheroes.

  • And that's what he wanted me

  • to bring to the Black Panther film.

  • Coming into designing for Black Panther

  • was definitely a multi-tiered process.

  • There was a Wakandan Bible that gave us some direction

  • for creating the looks for many of the tribes.

  • When you're building a world, you can't take for granted

  • that it's gonna be a one dimensional kind of a thing.

  • It was multi-tiered, multi-dimensional.

  • And as we delved into each individual costume,

  • for example, the costume for Okoye,

  • who is the general for the Dora Milaje,

  • we wanted to have a uniform.

  • We didn't want a cheerleader skirt and a bikini top.

  • We wanted these women to be taken seriously in a uniform,

  • because they are protecting the King,

  • King T'Challa, the Black Panther.

  • And so it was Ryan Coogler

  • who felt like they should be flat on the ground,

  • split toe boot,

  • no heels, no wedge boots.

  • And we crafted a costume

  • that really did represent all the areas of Africa.

  • You have bead work from the Turkana tribe.

  • You have a leather skirt wrapped like the Himba women,

  • who soaked the skins of the calf

  • and stretch the edges so that it ruffles.

  • When I viewed a lot of the techniques

  • that were used for a lot of indigenous African craft

  • and tribalwear,

  • I saw so many beautiful ways

  • that we could represent it on this costume.

  • We have the Ndebele neck rings and arm rings

  • that represents South Africa.

  • But we wanted the neck rings to feel like jewelry.

  • So we actually got a jewelry designer

  • to come in and create our prototypes for those pieces.

  • So there are so many ways

  • in which the Dora Milaje costume honors the female form.

  • It has a leather harness

  • that travels around the body,

  • and you'll see it wrap around the bust area,

  • and into the waist.

  • And in between there's a raised printing

  • that mimics scarification.

  • Different tribal customs use scarification

  • as identifying their origin.

  • Sometimes the scars are on the face.

  • Sometimes the scars are on the body.

  • And you'll see that represented

  • in many areas and many aspects of different tribal customs.

  • And so this Dora Milaje costume would not be complete

  • without some representation of that tradition.

  • To design for Queen Ramonda,

  • it was very stressful for me at first,

  • because in the comics Queen Ramonda is walking around

  • in yoga pants and barefoot,

  • and she has her white, beautiful dreadlocks.

  • And, you know, she's very easygoing,

  • and because we're making a movie,

  • and I really wanted you to recognize her as the Queen

  • at first glance,

  • when we see her there on the landing pad

  • when T'Challa returns to Wakanda with Nakia,

  • we know right away that that's the Queen.

  • And I think it's identifiable in her costume.

  • She has her shoulder mantle, which is 3D printed.

  • She has her isicholo,

  • which is the married woman's hat from South Africa.

  • And one of the main reasons why it was important

  • to 3D print that piece was I needed it to be perfect.

  • If Wakanda is this forward-thinking place

  • that's leading in technology,

  • the Queen would definitely have pieces

  • that represented tradition,

  • but also represented new innovations.

  • The first Black Panther suit

  • was seen in the film Captain America: Civil War.

  • I think it was added maybe well into the production.

  • And so there were a lot of things

  • that weren't really sussed out completely.

  • So by the time I came onto

  • the full-blown Black Panther film,

  • I brought the costume to my office

  • and I put it on a mannequin,

  • and I thought, "Hmm, you know,

  • the mannequins just really don't give you the magic.

  • Maybe I need Chadwick Boseman to come into my office."

  • He came in and he put the suit on,

  • and it was magical.

  • And he stretched,

  • and he did his karate poses,

  • and he did all this stuff

  • in my office and I was completely floored.

  • I wanted to step in

  • and give it my personal spin.

  • I felt like there needed to be a connection

  • between the suit and the place, in Wakanda,

  • and I saw that there was an opportunity

  • to add a surface pattern

  • to the suit,

  • which was a triangle.

  • The triangle is sacred geometry of Africa,

  • I like to say.

  • It means the father, the mother, and the child.

  • And because we needed a surface texture,

  • the triangle was developed.

  • But the suit itself,

  • it was designed by Adi Granov

  • of the Marvel visual development team.

  • And people don't realize

  • that it really does take a team

  • to create all of the beautiful things that are developed.

  • There's hundreds of illustrations that are put forward.

  • And then it comes into my world.

  • My world is one of design

  • and it's also one of materialization.

  • And the materialization of the costumes is a big,

  • it was responsibility to understand how the textures

  • will work together.

  • And once we materialize these things, we do prototypes.

  • And so I did a prototype of the Panther skin,

  • as you might call it.

  • Several prototypes were developed

  • and submitted for the Marvel executives

  • and Ryan Coogler to take a look at.

  • And so they chose the one that they liked.

  • And then we made the complete suit.

  • [mellow piano music]

  • I worked with Eddie Murphy for so many years.

  • It was a reunion of sorts.

  • It gave me an opportunity to reacquaint myself

  • with his body type,

  • and how things change as you get a little bit older.

  • Things do change.

  • So at that point,

  • I needed to go back to the first movie,

  • and really study it

  • and find the things that we wanted to extract and keep,

  • and then move it forward.

  • I mean, going from Wakanda to Zamunda,

  • it really needed to have its own signature

  • and its own look.

  • When I was on Black Panther,

  • I would tell my crew and everyone coming onto the job that,

  • "Hey, this is not Coming to America.

  • Even though it was a great film,

  • Wakanda needed to really have its own identity.

  • And here I am on Coming to America,

  • saying to everyone, "This is not Wakanda."

  • So I really examined what was really great about the design

  • on the first movie,

  • and what we really could expect in a sequel,

  • because we're much more sophisticated now.

  • We have seen African royalty,

  • and we really need to address the audience

  • and their knowledge of Africa.

  • One of the things that we...

  • I would like to say we modernized,

  • or we made different in Coming to America,

  • was we were cruelty-free.

  • If you remember, the King wears a lion on his shoulder

  • when he comes to America.

  • And Prince Akeem, he also wears like an ocelot

  • over his shoulder.

  • And in the new Coming to America

  • we decided that we would 3D print the lion on the shoulder.

  • And I like the idea of it being a piece of jewelry as well.

  • So we printed it in gold,

  • and we gemmed the eyes and the nose.

  • And as you might know,

  • even the Maasai tribe in Africa,

  • traditionally, they killed a lot of lions,

  • but now they have technology that helps them chart

  • where the lion herds are,

  • so that they won't follow their herd of cattle,

  • and they can steer away from it.

  • So that all connects to technology for me as well.

  • We 3D printed the lion on the shoulder of a Prince Akeem.

  • So we have had very little time

  • to create all of the majesty of the looks,

  • especially for the Queen of Zamunda.

  • And we actually had the embroidery done in India,

  • but we sent them a detailed sketch,

  • which included a lot of Ankara symbols,

  • or African Mass, the ankh.

  • And we had these things embroidered

  • onto her costume and her cape,

  • so that we could, you know,

  • honor these African in symbols.

  • [mellow piano music]

  • So I'm a long time collaborator with Spike Lee.

  • He gave me my first opportunity on School Daze,

  • which was his first studio picture.

  • And I really felt like I was part

  • of the 40 Acres film family.

  • We returned to New York,

  • to Brooklyn every year to do a new film.

  • And we were excited about what he had in mind with a film,

  • like Do the Right Thing.

  • It was a response to a lot of the things

  • that were going on in New York at the time,

  • in Bensonhurst,

  • the tension between the Italian-Americans

  • and black Americans in Brooklyn,

  • the Tawana Brawley case,

  • and Mike Tyson.

  • There were so many things that were happening in New York

  • and it was Spike's response to that,

  • Do the Right Thing.

  • It was done at a budget.

  • And so we had to depend on a lot of product placement,

  • and Nike was a big product placement company that we using.

  • And a lot of the sportswear,

  • the colors and the tones were saturated.

  • And it was very difficult to bring in

  • so many saturated tones,

  • and the compression shorts,

  • and the basketball shorts,

  • and the jerseys that all of the actors wore.

  • It was very hard to incorporate that

  • into the everyday look of Brooklyn, New York.

  • If you look past the Do the Right Thing set,

  • and you looked at real Brooklyn,

  • it looked a lot different than Do the Right Thing.

  • Do the right thing was stylized.

  • And part of the stylization of the look

  • had to do that with a lot of the color

  • and the color that was brought in through Nike.

  • So the other side of that coin was,

  • how do we bring in the culture of Brooklyn?

  • And we brought in a lot of the Ankara prints,

  • a lot of African materials you see.

  • We Love radio with Samuel L. Jackson,

  • and he had all of these hats that he wore.

  • When you see the people walking up and down the streets,

  • you see a lot of young people,

  • and they're wearing a lot of athleisure,

  • is what we call it today.

  • But then we were doing a balancing act

  • on pop culture, African influence.

  • So there was so many very stylized

  • aspects of the film.

  • There is even prose in Do the Right Thing,

  • where we talk about Eleanor Bumpurs,

  • and there's this dialogue that happens

  • in front of Sal's Pizzeria.

  • And it really did give it its own look,

  • its own feeling, and its own purpose.

  • And the writing was so unique,

  • and it stands the test of time today

  • with the issues that it was bringing.

  • [mellow piano music]

  • I knew that it was it's gonna be based on the autobiography

  • of Malcolm X written by Alex Haley.

  • So I had read the book in high school,

  • and I returned to the book and read it again.

  • And there are some specific things

  • that are mentioned in the book that I really felt

  • that I wanted to make sure we did,

  • like the powder blue zoot suit.

  • And also I wanted to know a lot more

  • about Malcolm X, the man.

  • I realized that since he was incarcerated

  • in Massachusetts at the Department of Corrections,

  • I did a letter writing campaign

  • to them asking to see his file.

  • And I got to know a little bit more about Malcolm X

  • through his writing.

  • And I felt that that was important

  • since I was going to be creating his wardrobe

  • in times where we didn't know him,

  • and we didn't see him in photographs.

  • And I wanted to be able to make those decisions

  • that I felt were critical to telling this story.

  • And he went through several phases.

  • There were these pivotal moments

  • in his life that I wanted to, you know,

  • separate the script and separate the story,

  • and really color those times of his life very specifically.

  • So as he was this street hustler,

  • this guy who wore these fancy zoot suits,

  • and went to the dance halls,

  • it looked one way.

  • When he became the guy who broke into a house in Boston,

  • we calmed the pallette down.

  • When he went into prison,

  • it was very blue for the denim that they are wore.

  • And it kind of cleansed the palette

  • from what he was before.

  • As he emerges from prison,

  • and he is going to see Elijah Muhammad for the first time,

  • he's very humble.

  • And that's one of the costumes I'm really the most proud of,

  • because it's an old, oversized suit,

  • that's a little rumply,

  • and Denzel is is playing the character so humble.

  • And I felt like the costume

  • didn't overshadow his performance.

  • It just worked right in there with it.

  • And so those are the things that,

  • on the journey of telling someone's life,

  • you really do have to stay connected

  • to those phases, those times in their lives,

  • when they are feeling different ways,

  • and performing different activities,

  • that you dial it in,

  • you keep dialing it in,

  • and you're constantly working with the actor

  • and how their discovery changes.

  • And you adjust with them.

  • [mellow piano music]

  • I was interviewed by Ava DuVernay for Selma.

  • I went to her home,

  • I think she calls it a tree house,

  • that overlooks the Hollywood sign.

  • And, you know, I really was so impressed with her knowledge

  • and her commitment to telling this story of,

  • I think, black America's first family,

  • royal family, the Kings.

  • And so I was excited to come together with, you know,

  • a woman as a writer, as a director, as a leader.

  • And there was a mutual respect and admiration.

  • And I felt that there was a trust

  • about the images that I presented.

  • One of them was, you know,

  • Martin Luther King was a robust man.

  • He was a, you know, kind of thick,

  • I guess you call it.

  • And he had this little roll of skin

  • that happened over the collar of his shirts.

  • And I've noticed that with other men that I've dressed,

  • you know, it doesn't mean that the shirt is too tight.

  • It's just the flesh that kind of comes over the collar.

  • And I wanted to make sure

  • that David Oyelowo had that same fit.

  • And so I made his shirt,

  • the necks of his shirts just a tiny bit smaller

  • than his actual size.

  • It worked.

  • He had the roll,

  • and it didn't bother him too much.

  • I saw him thinking, you know,

  • "Ruth has made this one.

  • Maybe the laundry caused a little tightness."

  • But I later told him about it.

  • And he agreed that it was an important detail

  • as an aspect of the look of Martin Luther King,

  • Also because they were the first family,

  • Coretta Scott King was always presented

  • with such elegance and class.

  • And I wanted to really stay in that zone with her

  • and keep what I feel is, in Black American culture,

  • a tradition of being appropriately dressed,

  • you know, especially in the church,

  • the Mother of the Church has a certain aura

  • and presence to herself.

  • So we see scenes of them at home at dinner.

  • And everyone actually is dressed for dinner.

  • And to, I guess, a different crowd maybe

  • that doesn't look natural.

  • In the South, I think there's like a proper thing about,

  • you know, when you go to breakfast,

  • you put your clothes on for the day.

  • You don't go to breakfast in your pajamas.

  • I mean, we're much more relaxed about that now,

  • but I really wanted that kind of structure

  • to be seen in Selma.

  • And then speaking of the Selma marches,

  • there are so many beautiful photographs of people marching,

  • and they're all in black and white

  • especially the march over the Edmund Pettus Bridge.

  • And we have people that were little children

  • when that happened,

  • and they were actually a part of our background,

  • and I would talk to them,

  • and they would tell me about things they remembered.

  • And I walked around to a lot of the background

  • and say, you know,

  • "Look at this posture.

  • Look how they have their hands in their pockets."

  • You know? You should do that.

  • And you know, it really connects you

  • to the filmmaking process,

  • because you have dressed these people

  • based on what you see in the research.

  • You have done all of that work.

  • And so, as they are collecting on the set,

  • you want to take it a step further

  • and see the the actual posture of the participants

  • in the research come to life in the filming process.

  • And so that became really important

  • and significant to me that,

  • because I dressed to the research,

  • I really wanted to make sure

  • even that the the ADs were moving people up front

  • that we're supposed to be up front

  • according to the photographs.

  • When Black Panther premiered

  • it kind of shot me out of a cannon

  • and everyone wanted to know more.

  • And so the need to actually tell my story

  • became a little bit more paramount.

  • Over the years, I've amassed a collection of costumes,

  • and now we have created

  • with SCAD Fashion in Atlanta an exhibition.

  • Hopefully we will be able to go back to the museums

  • and walk through them the way that we are accustomed to.

  • And so that's really exciting to be able to tell my story.

  • And I'm so proud that people want to hear it.

  • And yeah, you know,

  • it's a lot of years of blood, sweat, and tears

  • that I have experienced to be able to present that.

  • [mellow piano music]

- Well, the most difficult part

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