Ruth E. Carter is a costume designer by trade, but the label doesn’t do the Hollywood legend justice. Words aren’t enough to tell even the most compelling stories on screen, and for over three decades, Carter has been bringing them to life with wardrobes, transporting audiences everywhere from the blocks of Brooklyn to the shores of Wakanda.
“School Daze was directed by Spike Lee, but it was my first movie—first movie ever,” Carter says, opening her Life in Looks episode. “I came out of the HBCU experience,” the Hampton University alum continues, “so it was the perfect first film.” She fashioned Greek letterman jackets and cheerleading uniforms for the movie before moving onto another seminal, albeit completely different, project.
Carter was the costume designer for the Seinfeld pilot, sharing that she took the job after working with Denzel Washington on Malcolm X. (Which wouldn’t come out for several years). George Costanza told her that he envisioned his character in glasses, and she happened to have a pair she had styled Washington in. “It kind of was my Easter egg for years that George was wearing Malcom X’s glasses,” she says.
Spike Lee’s 1989 movie Do The Right Thing allowed her to write “a love letter to Brooklyn,” outfitting the cast in pieces inextricably linked to the borough, while Robert Townsend’s The Five Heartbeats in 1992 was among her earliest period films—a genre she’s returned to time and time again.
When Malcolm X eventually came out in 1992—earning Carter an Academy Award nomination—it was the culmination of extensive research. Knowing that Malcolm spent time in the Massachusetts prison system, and being from Massachusetts herself, Carter wrote to the state’s department of corrections asking for access to his files. She was invited to a facility where she spent a day poring over his records and letters from his time in prison. “I would actually get to know the man behind the face a lot better,” she says of the experience. “I could make decisions on clothing choices because I would know him better.”
Later, when working on Brian Gibson’s What’s Love Got to Do With It, Carter had the benefit of actually knowing the woman the film is based on—Tina Turner—as Turner was sometimes present on set. Her input came in handy when Carter was tasked with duplicating a leather mini dress for Angela Bassett, who played Turner in the movie, and who Carter says she’s been on “a journey and a half with” over the years.
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