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t’s nearly impossible to settle on an entry point when
preparing to speak with costume designer Ruth E. Carter.
Is it when she nabbed her first Academy Award this past
February for Black Panther? Or after she earned nominations
for Malcolm X in 1993 and Amistad in 1998? Her win and nomina-
tions marked the first for a Black person in the costume design
category. Or perhaps it’s 1988, when she made her big-screen
debut with School Daze alongside Spike Lee, who happened
to win an Academy Award this past February, too? “That night
was like seeing God at work,” she remembers blissfully. Maybe
it’s when she was weaving her magic in films like Do the Right
Thing, What ’s Love Got to D o With It, The Five Heartbeats, Selma
and BAP*S? Or even the intense prep work she’s putting in
for the upcoming sequel to Coming to America?
At the mere mention of taking a stroll down memory lane,
Carter laughs and says, “Oh, my goodness! Besides driving an
ice-cream truck one summer during college, this is the only
job I’ve ever had, which is incredible to me.”
When it comes to tallying up the credits from Ruth E. Carter’s career, she’s actually
lost count, but not in a boastful way. Her history runs that deep
Dressed to Win
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ESSENCE.COM I 68 I SEPTEMBER 2019