She is Hollywood's queen of Afrofuturist costumes: For 40 years, designer Ruth E. Carter has been developing fashion for major motion pictures, including "Black Panther."
The costumes of 'Black Panther' on show at the SCAD FASH Museum of Fashion + FilmImage: Chia Chong/Savannah College of Art and Design
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African fashion in film: Hollywood's Afrofuturism
From "Do the Right Thing" to "Black Panther," designer Ruth E. Carter has defined African fashion in Hollywood for over 40 years.
Image: Chia Chong/Savannah College of Art and Design
How to dress an African superhero
Ruth Carter won her first Oscar for the elaborate costumes she designed with the help of 3D-technology for the groundbreaking 2018 blockbuster "Black Panther." The costumes now form the centerpiece of an exhibition entitled "Ruth E. Carter – Afrofuturism in Costume Design" at the SCAD Museum of Fashion + Film in Atlanta.
Image: Chia Chong/Savannah College of Art and Design
"Beautiful, positive, forward-looking, colorful"
These four words were pinned on the wall of Carter's studio as she painstakingly researched African fashion for inspiration while designing the costumes for "Black Panther." She explained about her work that she thinks that "people will now look at and appreciate African art differently. That is what we have done."
Image: Chia Chong/Savannah College of Art and Design
The brighter, the better
Carter has 40 years as a Hollywood costume designer under her belt. Back in 1989, she designed the costumes for Spike Lee's film "Do the Right Thing." Her brief from Lee, who most recently raised eyebrows with his film "BlacKkKlansman" (2018), was to make the costumes garish: "Bright ... blinding AFROCENTRIC bright!" were the instructions.
Image: Chia Chong/Savannah College of Art and Design
Of slaves and their masters
The 1976 novel "Roots" by Alex Haley was adapted into a TV series a year later. It tells the tale of Kunta Kinte, who was abducted from Africa and brought to America as a slave. For the remake, Carter designed the costumes of several generations of both slaves and plantation owners. She received an Emmy nomination for her designs.
Image: Chia Chong/Savannah College of Art and Design
Channeling Malcolm X
In the film "Malcolm X," Denzel Washington played the controversial character of Malcolm Little, who gave up his last name after a stint in prison and replaced it with an X to symbolize his African ancestry. True to form, Carter devoted herself to extensive research, even gaining access to Little's prison records to get closer to the character. Her efforts earned her a Oscar nomination.
Image: Chia Chong/Savannah College of Art and Design
Oscar nod for "Amistad" costumes
Carter worked with Stephen Spielberg on the 1997 historical Hollywood film "Amistad," based on the true story of events in 1839 aboard a slave ship called La Amistad. She received her second Oscar nomination for the costumes she created for this film.
Image: Chia Chong/Savannah College of Art and Design
Meticulous planning
For the film "Selma" directed by Ava DuVernay, which chronicles the voting rights' marches led by civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr, Carter again conducted extensive research. This is illustrated by the countless sketches and accompanying objects at the exhibition that highlight the time she invested in designing her creations.
Image: Chia Chong/Savannah College of Art and Design
From black leather jackets to goldfish platforms
"Shaft" starring Samuel L. Jackson and the 1988 parody film "I'm Gonna Git You Sucka" are both about black action heroes. While in the former, Jackson's character wears a black leather jacket that harks back to the Black Panther Party, the comedic costume designs of the latter include a pair of outrageous platforms with live goldfish in the heels.
Image: Chia Chong/Savannah College of Art and Design
The doyen of Afrofuturistic design
Carter defines Afrofuturism as the marriage of "technology and imagination," and as a "philosophy that allows black Americans, Africans and Indigenous Peoples to believe and create free from slavery and colonialism." The exhibition at the SCAD Museum of Fashion + Film in Atlanta, Georgia (USA) features 60 of her costumes and will run until September 2021.
Image: Chia Chong/Savannah College of Art and Design
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It is the most commercially successful Afrofuturistic US work to date: the Marvel blockbuster Black Panther was nominated for an Oscar in seven categories in 2019, ultimately winning three of the awards including for best picture and best costume design.
The Oscar-winning designer of the film's groundbreaking costumes was Ruth E. Carter.
Carter, who was born on April 10, 1960 in Springfield, Massachusetts, had originally planned to pursue a completely different career path: She wanted to become an actress.
But it was when she started helping out in the costume department of her student theater group at Hampton University that she found a new calling. So after graduating from university, she trained as a costume designer at the Santa Fe Opera in New Mexico, subsequently moving to Los Angeles.
For more than 40 years now, Ruth E. Carter has been designing costumes for independent films and Hollywood blockbusters alike, working with Stephen Spielberg, Denzel Washington and Samuel L. Jackson, among many others.
Using fashion to communicate African heritage
The outfits of the Black Panther protagonists are currently on show at the SCAD FASH Museum Fashion + Film in Atlanta, which runs until September 2021.
Also part of the exhibition: Carter's costumes from her 40-year career, including Spike Lee's 'Do The Right Thing' (1989)Image: Chia Chong/Savannah College of Art and Design
The 61-year-old Carter says she purposefully designs Afrofuturist costumes to convey messages on Black identities. For her, Afrofuturism means "to unite technology with imagination and self-expression to advance a philosophy for Black Americans, Africans, and Indigenous People that allows them to believe and create entirely without the barriers of slavery and colonialism.”
This approach to Afrofuturism is still relatively young and somewhat utopian, explains Natalie Zacek, a lecturer in US history and culture at the University of Manchester.
With Afrofuturism existing for over 25 years now, there are many different definitions of what image of African identities it is designed to convey: "Afrofuturism is often about imagining a world where the transatlantic slave trade has never taken place, without the European colonization of the African continent. What would have become of African cultures and societies then, artists wonder?" Zacek explains.
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Afrofuturism between Hollywood and Nollywood
These visions of African identities, however, often differ between artists from the United States and those on the African continent: For decades, African authors have been writing science fiction stories, most of which are classically set in outer space or in a futuristic city. In recent years, the theme of the climate crisis has also been added into that fold.
Costume designer Ruth E. CarterImage: Chia Chong/Savannah College of Art and Design
But American and British storytellers often still focus on the past: "For artists in the US and the UK, the experience of the slave trade is always in the foreground of the diaspora experience," Natalie Zacek told DW. The continent of Africa, she says, as a place of ancestors, is an almost mythically charged place from the past for many People of Color who live in the West. This is different, she says, for African artists, who live in Ghana or Nigeria, for example.
While African filmmakers are confidently venturing into genres like science fiction, they can often only dream of having the kinds of budgets that Hollywood productions do.
"The only film funding an African filmmaker can get usually comes from Europe, and European producers usually choose the kind of material that they think will do well at film festivals. That is content that deals with supposedly African issues like AIDS, genocide, the climate crisis and famine," author and filmmaker Dilman Dila wrote in the international science fiction and fantasy magazine Mithila Review in 2017.
At that time, his science fiction film Her Broken Shadow hit the silver screens of Africa, but was aesthetically more reminiscent of Blade Runner than of Black Panther.
Changing perceptions through art and design
In contrast to the films produced by African directors such as Dilman Dila or Jean-Pierre Bekolo, Black Panther grew into a global success, proving to Hollywood that a film in which hardly any white actors appear can make it big at the box office.
Carter was among the artists who contributed to the global success of the blockbuster. Throughout her career as a costume designer, she has primarily focused on the African-American experience, as the Atlanta exhibition makes clear, featuring 60 designs of her costumes over the decades.
Film director Stephen Spielberg hired her to design costumes for American slaves and slaveholders in the 19th century, for his blockbuster movie Amistad.
Spike Lee had her dress an African-American action hero, and in Selma, she designed the look of civil rights icon Martin Luther King.
For Black Panther, Carter says she set out to introduce a radical change of perspective to the American public: "I think people will be able to contextualize and appreciate African art very differently now. That's what we've done: We've appreciated it, we've reimagined it, we've evolved it and taken it to a different place."
12 Black superheroes from US comics
People are familiar with the comic book "Black Panther" due to the film of the same name. But what other Black superheroes exist in the Marvel and DC comics universe?
In 2011, a young Black superhero took the lead in a top-ranking US mainstream comic: Marvel Comics had Afro-Latino teenager Miles Morales slip into Spider-Man's costume, while the series with Peter Parker as the original superhero continued as well. Morales, seen here in the 2018 film adaptation "Into the Spider-Verse," acquires his abilities, like Parker, through a spider bite.
T'Challa alias "Black Panther" was the first Black superhero with supernatural powers in US mainstream comic books. He was created in 1966 by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby. T'Challa is king of the fictional, vastly developed African nation of Wakanda. The acclaimed film adaptation from 2018 with Chadwick Boseman in the leading role garnered three Oscars.
Image: Panini Comics/MARVEL 2020
Falcon (1969)
The first Black superhero in mainstream comics whose life was based in the US was Sam Wilson, alias "Falcon." Raised in Harlem, he works as a social worker after the violent death of his parents. The martial artist with mechanical wings and a telepathic connection to birds guards over Harlem. He has also been of service as "Captain America."
Image: Panini Comics/MARVEL 2020
Green Lantern (1971)
The first African American superhero to appear in DC comics was John Stewart in 1971. He is part of the "Green Lantern Corps," the intergalactic militarized law enforcement organization that keeps order in the universe. As of 2012, in the continuation of the comic series, Simon Baz is also part of corps. Baz has roots in Lebanon, is Muslim and lives near Detroit, Michigan.
Image: Panini Comics/TM & 2020 DC Comics
Luke Cage (1972)
The invulnerable ex-convict is the first Black hero with a comic series named after him: "Luke Cage, Hero for Hire" appeared in 1972 and emerged from the "Blaxploitation" genre of the 1970s. The cheap, garish productions were supposed to appeal to the previously neglected market segment of the African American population. Luke Cage now has his own series on Netflix.
Image: Panini Comics/MARVEL 2020
Blade (1973)
Eric Brooks, or "Blade, " is half-human, half-vampire. After numerous minor roles, he was given his own comic series in 1994, in which he first goes on a vampire hunt armed with wooden daggers. Later, he uses a double-edged sword for hunting — as in the three film adaptations at the end of the 90s and beginning of the 2000s, in which Wesley Snipes impersonated the hero.
Image: Panini Comics/MARVEL 2020
Storm (1975)
The descendant of an African witch priestess is one of the most popular Black comic book superheroes. "Storm," or Ororo Munroe, is born with superhuman abilities and can, as a mutant, control the weather. Since the mid-1970s, she has been an integral part of the "X-Men," who fight for peace between mutants and humans.
Image: Panini Comics/MARVEL 2020
Black Lightning (1977)
Jefferson Pierce, born in the slums of a big city, manages to break out of his environment and wins Olympic gold as a decathlete. He returns to where he grew up to work with young people as a teacher. In the process, he comes into conflict with a delinquent gang. Equipped with a belt that gives him electromagnetic superpowers, he goes on the hunt for criminals.
Image: Panini Comics/TM & 2020 DC Comics
Cyborg (1980)
Victor Stone is seriously injured in an incident in his parents' lab. His father, a scientist, saves his life by turning him into a "cyborg," a hybrid of man and machine. Victor Stone alias "Cyborg" is a founding member of the "Justice League," a team of superheroes that protects Earth against alien forces.
Image: Panini Comics/TM & 2020 DC Comics.
Icon (1993)
Due to a malfunction, the alien Arnus' spaceship explodes and his escape capsule lands in the South of the US. He then takes on human form, but retains his superpowers. He is virtually invulnerable and can fly. Due to the similarities to one of the greatest figures in the superhero comic genre, "Icon" is often referred to as "Black Superman."
Image: TM & DC
Static (1993)
As a teenager, during a police operation, Virgil Ovid Hawkins comes into contact with radioactive tear gas which gives him superpowers. He joins the "Teen Titans" and, as "Static," watches over Dakota City. There are repeated conflicts with other teenagers who have also gained superpowers during the police incident, but who do not use them to serve the public good.
Image: TM & DC
Ironheart (2015)
Riri Williams, a 15-year-old supergenius, uses stolen materials to build himself a superhero suit that resembles "Iron Man" armor. When she later actually meets "Iron Man," he helps her in becoming a superhero. Riri is found in the comic crossover story "Civil War II," in which different groups of superheroes fight against each other, along with "Iron Man."
