Films That Prove Oscar-Nominated Ruth E. Carter is the Queen of Costume Design

The 98th Academy Awards are finally here! Tonight, we will get to find out who takes home the coveted gold trophy in categories such as Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Supporting Actor. While we cross our fingers for more Black Oscar history to be made tonight, costume designer Ruth E. Carter has already made history. With her nomination for “Sinners,” she has become the most-nominated Black woman in Academy Award history.

To celebrate her work, we’re looking back at some of the iconic films Carter has contributed to over her decades of experience. If she secures the win tonight, it will be her third Oscar, extending her record as the Black woman with the most Academy Award wins. We are waiting with bated breath to see if she takes home the gold.

“How Stella Got Her Groove Back” (1998)

Carter brought the rom-com “How Stella Got Her Groove Back” to life by making each character feel like a true individual through their fashion. Not only did we see fierce outfits when Stella (Angela Bassett) worked as a no-nonsense stockbroker, but we saw a softer, more colorful side of her wardrobe when she was swept off her feet by Winston (Taye Diggs) on the shores of Jamaica.

“Selma” (2014)

In Ava DuVernay’s “Selma,” the designer transported viewers back to 1965 with costume work that felt incredibly real for the era. In a 2018 interview with The Root, Carter said she was intentional about how she represented Coretta Scott King on screen.

“We (Carmen Ejogo, who portrayed King) felt very strongly about the class of this woman. And we worked very closely together to dot the i’s and cross the t’s and make sure that she represented the devotion to her church and to her husband and to her cause. And there are some scenes in ‘Selma’ with Carmen as Coretta that I think I will always just admire and be proud of,” she said.

“Jungle Fever” (1991)

Carter has collaborated with Spike Lee on many of his films, including his 1991 racial commentary “Jungle Fever.” Through her wardrobe choices, the designer showcased the subtle nuances between the characters’ vastly different worlds, making the film feel authentic.

“Marshall” (2017)

Chadwick Boseman transformed into Thurgood Marshall, the first African American Supreme Court justice, in the 2017 film “Marshall” with the help of Ruth E. Carter’s intense research for his costume designs.

Speaking to the film publication The Credits, Carter said she watched multiple “Black cat” — independent films made by African Americans in the 1930s and ’40s. These movies helped her gain a sense of how people dressed during that era, as did studying numerous photos of Marshall to capture his dignified air.

“Amistad” (1997)

Steven Spielberg’s 1997 drama “Amistad” was Carter’s second Oscar nomination. While designing costumes for the film, she said she was intentional about not stripping the characters of their humanity, as many films about slavery do, according to The Root.

“B.A.P.S” (1997)

Carter was also the genius behind the extravagant fashion that matched the glamorous nature of Nisi (Halley Berry) and Mickey (Natalie Desselle) in the 1997 classic “B.A.P.S.” Speaking to Vogue about Halle Berry’s iconic orange jumpsuit, the designer said she was inspired to create the outfit after reading the clumsy bidet scene in the script. In the scene, Berry’s character, Nisi, suffers a wardrobe malfunction when she cannot turn off the water shooting from the basin.

“I thought, Halle Berry needs to have a rubber suit. So not only can she not control the spigots, but she can’t control how slippery the whole room becomes as the water goes everywhere. So we created this orange latex unitard,” she said.

“Black Panther” (2018)

“Black Panther” marked Carter’s first collaboration with director Ryan Coogler. The 2018 film also led to her first Academy Award in 2019, making history as the first Black woman to win for Best Costume Design, according to The Root. In a 2018 interview with Forbes, the designer said she researched Afrofuturism and African tribes while taking time to study the original Marvel comics.

“Imagine That” (2009)

On the adorable family comedy “Imagine That” with Eddie Murphy and a young Yara Shahidi, Carter perfectly captured the whimsical essence of childhood. She used bright colors and fun patterns for Shahidi’s character to contrast the uptight, stressed portrayal of adulthood with the muted tones of Murphy’s clothes.

“Do The Right Thing” (1989)

Carter was tasked with coming up with cool, authentic Brooklyn outfits for Spike Lee’s “Do the Right Thing.” To help her achieve that, she worked with artists from Brooklyn on some of the costumes.

“Radio Raheem wore camo shorts and a Brooklyn hand-painted, ‘Do or Die’ Bed-Stuy T-shirt. It was painted by a local artist named Nasha whom I just happened on walking down the street in Brooklyn. I really wanted to bring more of the Brooklyn community in with the costumes,” she said in an interview with the film platform Special Features Archive.

“Dolemite Is My Name” (2019)

Capturing the eccentric personality of Rudy Ray Moore, played by Eddie Murphy, Carter designed costumes that were loud, proud, and brought Moore’s alter ego, “Dolemite,” to life. In a 2019 interview with film publication Awards Daily, Carter confessed that she only had six weeks to get the costumes together.

“It was really one of those fast preps, and when that happens, you feel the movie is prototyped. You know, try it on in the scene, and we were improving it as we went along,” she said.

“Love & Basketball” (2000)

Carter balanced the line between baggy athletic attire and more elegant looks for Sanaa Lathan’s character in “Love & Basketball.” Through the casual wardrobe in this rom-com, we really get a feel for the characters’ comfort with one another and the sweet bond they share.

“Crooklyn” (1994)

Reflecting on the making of “Crooklyn,” Carter told Refinery29 that the film was autobiographical, which made her want to ensure the costumes felt accurate to the film.

“It was Spike’s family story, so I really wanted to evoke the time and also get all of the particulars about his special family together,” she told the magazine. “We had all the kids wear vintage mismatched pajama pieces that I found in an old store in Brooklyn on Flatbush that had closed down. That’s part of the magic of storytelling: to be able to find vintage pieces and put them into the story to create this world that really did exist.”

“Malcolm X” (1992)

Spike Lee’s “Malcolm X” was the film that earned Carter her first Oscar nomination, according to The Root. And in an interview with Vogue, she said her research for the project involved scouring every file she could find on the leader at the Massachusetts State Department of Corrections, where the civil rights activist was once incarcerated.

“Black Panther: Wakanda Forever” (2022)

In 2023, Carter won her second Oscar for her work on “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever.” For the film, she designed 3D-printed headdresses and shoulder mantles to push the possibilities of Afrofuturism on-screen, according to the design and architecture magazine Dezeen.

She was also very careful with the fabrics she used. Carter told Dezeen that she refused to showcase Ankara fabric — a colorful wax-print cloth common in West African countries — because it is not authentic to Africa.

“Ankara fabric epitomizes colonization as it was brought from the Dutch; it’s still even produced by the Dutch,” she said.”You will notice that there’s not a lot of that in Wakanda. I tried to stay away from it because I know its origin and how it’s manufactured. It’s difficult for me to put it into this context.”