“I feel like Afrofuturism has been part of my life from the start, I just didn’t realize it,” said costume designer Ruth E. Carter earlier this month as she walked through the Museum of Pop Culture’s recently opened exhibition of her work.
“Ruth E. Carter: Afrofuturism in Costume Design” highlights more than three decades and over 60 costumes from the Oscar-winning designer. As you approach the exhibition, you can see costumes from Carter’s work on “Coming 2 America” before you’re met with her efforts on “Black Panther,” which resulted in Carter becoming the first Black person to win the Academy Award for best costume design. In one corner: her work on the 2016 “Roots” miniseries; in another: her work on the Oprah Winfrey and Forest Whitaker-starring “Lee Daniels’ The Butler.”
Afrofuturism weaves its way through each of these movies, even going back to one of Carter’s earliest projects, Spike Lee’s “Do the Right Thing,” the 1989 premiere of which predates the coining of the term.
Though it has been a part of Black culture for longer, the term Afrofuturism was coined in the ‘90s. Afrofuturism is a cultural and creative movement that examines the history of the African diaspora and imagines a world where those descended from African peoples played a central role in that world’s creation. It allows for Black people to share and expand upon ideas while shaping a real-world future in which Black people are able to thrive. Many times, science fiction, fantasy and advanced technology is used as a frame for this effort, as in movies like “Black Panther.”
But Carter noted that Afrofuturism isn’t confined to what’s on screen. When looking back at working with Lee on “Do the Right Thing,” she recalled his emphasis on uplifting Black people and his passion for seeing more inclusion in the industry, including encouraging more people of color to bring their authentic voices and stories to the screen.
This work, so grounded in an examination of the past and its impact on the present and future, has even made Carter look at her grandmother’s sewing machine, which sits on display at MoPOP, differently. She used to use it as a desk when she was younger, but now she also sees it as a part of a lineage of people who came before her. She pointed to folks like Ann Lowe, the Black fashion designer behind (among other numerous accomplishments) Jackie Kennedy’s 1953 wedding dress. As Vogue notes, “in the press clippings from the time … the maker was referred to only as a ‘colored designer.’”
“This has been a long time coming,” Carter said as she accepted her Academy Award in 2019. The statement encapsulates her storied career as well as a long line of Black designers throughout history whose work was overlooked or who didn’t even dare to call themselves costume or fashion designers.
“When you look at the history of women who sewed as an industry, you see all these fantastic images of sewing machines and them sitting there,” said Carter, looking at her family sewing machine. “I’m proud to be a part of this history.”
As Carter walked through the exhibit during a recent visit to the museum, she gave us a glimpse at the stories, research and history that went into some of her most memorable projects.
“Do the Right Thing”
When working on a movie, Carter said it’s her job to orchestrate. She’ll come in with ideas and sketches and she’ll balance them against the director’s ideas and the actors’ ideas. Then she’ll pull together the overall look of the movie.
As we talk, we’re standing near the costume for Radio Raheem — played by Bill Nunn, in “Do the Right Thing” — detailed down to the “Love” and “Hate” knuckle rings and an old-school boombox close at hand. But it’s actually Raheem’s death in the film, at the hands of the police, that highlighted the potential cultural commentary and impact of Afrofuturism.
“He was actually doing a film about Black Lives Matter,” Carter said of writer and director Spike Lee. “I can see him, or Ava DuVernay on the set of ‘Selma,’ realizing their intent to tell a story that leads us into the future, that brings us into a more modern sensibility based on our current events or our past.”
“Roots” and “Lee Daniels’ The Butler”
Deep historical and cultural research is a bedrock for Carter’s work. For “Roots,” after reading about slave tags — small metal badges worn by some enslaved people that identified the type of work they were allowed to do — she wanted to see one.
“I went to a jewelry smith and I had them make me one that looked really authentic,” Carter said. “Every time I felt like I looked at that slave tag, I could actually build the costume around it because it was such a tangible part of this system that restricted your whereabouts. Like an animal almost, wearing a tag that you had to display openly.”
She wound up using a slave tag in “Roots” for one of the characters, which she felt gave the costume more legitimacy. Carter said she likes to share small details from history with the audience to add more nuance to their experience.
Sometimes going through vintage periodicals can provide the perfect spark for a design. When working on the his-and-hers jumpsuits worn by Forest Whitaker and Oprah Winfrey in “Lee Daniels’ The Butler,” Carter paged through old catalogs from the 1970s. There she found an ad for matching popcorn knit outfits, the his version in all white and the hers version with half black and half white.
In front of the actual costumes on display is a photo of the clipping from “Eleganza,” a mail-order catalog, advertising Carter’s inspiration. “Makes you look g-o-o-d all over,” the ad reads. “Two-piece double whammy!”
“That’s the beauty of research,” said Carter, who opted to make both the his and hers versions half black and half white for the movie. “Sometimes things just pop off the page.”
“Black Panther”
Shortly after finishing up “Roots,” Carter was called to interview for “Black Panther.” Carter joked that, at the time, she wasn’t sure which Black Panther they were talking about. The Black Panther Party? With only a day to prepare for the interview, Carter called her brother.
“My brother had the Black Panther comics in his room [growing up], and Spider-Man and all that stuff,” said Carter, “and that was off-limits to me as his little sister.”
Not having ever done a superhero movie before, Carter went into Marvel. (“Which is like going to the CIA, you know.”) She recalled writer and director Ryan Coogler telling her that he grew up watching Spike Lee’s films and loved the Lee-directed, Carter-costumed 1992 “Malcolm X.” She said he remembered seeing the film with his dad and looking at the costumes.
“I felt like I had interviewed for ‘Black Panther’ when he was a little boy,” Carter said.
Once working on the movie, Carter was influenced by her research on African tribes and their histories. But for this to be Afrofuture and modern, she took those influences and created modern silhouettes. On top of that, she layered on technology, including work along the lines of fashion designer Iris van Herpen’s use of 3D printing and sculpting.
“I started looking at her stuff and I was like, ‘Well, if there’s a queen in Wakanda, she really needs to have the best of what technology can offer,’” Carter said. “So we 3D printed her crown and her shoulder mantle just to be that piece that gives us a sense of where we are.”
“Coming 2 America”
When working on “Black Panther,” folks would ask Carter if it was going to be like 1988’s “Coming to America,” starring Eddie Murphy. Of course, she explained to them that, no, “Black Panther” would be different because it was exploring a country that had never been colonized. Then, after she joined the team creating “Coming 2 America” — the sequel to “Coming to America” — Carter was met with similar questions, this time asking if the newest project was going to be like “Black Panther.”
Carter said it can be tricky working on a sequel to something like “Coming to America.” On the one hand, she wants to bring something new to the table for audiences to talk about, but she also knows that there’s a chance of disappointing or displeasing faithful fans of the original. She didn’t want these costumes to be a carbon copy of the original, so she tried different silhouettes for the shapes of the costumes. But it’s really the details to which Carter wants to draw attention.
Many times, Carter explained, film editing can be so quick in scenes that audiences don’t get to see many of the details in the costumes. In “Coming 2 America,” she pointed to her use of African masks on the capes, the trim of the costumes and on the headpieces. During her career, she’s had actors tell her that these small details can help them feel supported and even affect how they carry themselves.
Carter is glad all of these costume pieces, including others from “Amistad” (which also netted Carter an Oscar nomination) and “Selma,” are on display for folks in Seattle to get a closer look.
“When you come here,” Carter said, “it’s an opportunity to say, ‘Come look at the thing that you didn’t get to see.’”
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