Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1178754
Fall 2019 The Costume Designer 17 "People assume I became a Costume Designer because I love fashion, but that wasn't it at all. My heroes were Langston Hughes, James Baldwin, Nikki Giovanni, Sonia Sanchez—play- wrights, poets… People think I sew, but that's not really what I do. I tell stories," so reveals recent CDG Career Achievement honoree and Academy Award winner Ruth E. Carter in the second sea- son of the acclaimed Netflix documentary series Abstract: The Art of Design. "What is Costume Design?" Carter muses. "Nobody really knows what we do. I mean, they know what lighting design is, they know what directing is…" Carter describes her work from the initial wonderment of the script, steeping herself in research, to the transformative power of the fitting room, all through the personal prism of her own biography which is both charming and searing. Artist Awol Erizku weighs in, "There is a certain way that Ruth assembles her costumes that makes you feel like whoever this person is, that they are indeed the owners of this—I don't want to say costume—because I think the power is that you don't think of it as a costume, you think of it as … who they are." Black Panther director Ryan Coogler agrees, "It never feels like costumes, it feels like clothes." Actor Samuel L. Jackson notes there are times in a perfor- mance he wants to disappear and times he wants to be the thing you can't take your eyes off of. "She gets that," he says, "when I put my costume on and I look at myself, then I've come to completion." In all of her films, Carter not only weaves in broad inspirations from literature, history, and real-life observation, she also joyfully celebrates African culture. Seeing an oppor- tunity to rewrite the marginalization and negative imagery of the past, she seeks to recognize and affirm the roles of African Americans. Through her art, she feels tasked to give their experiences positive representation, from showing how pop culture collides with the inner city in Do the Right Thing to the transformation of humility in Malcolm X, from the tenacity of spirit in Roots to the first African superhero in Black Panther. For Costume Designers to be valued, their work needs to be understood. For people to be valued, their lives need to be understood. In this revealing episode, Carter takes a heart of empathy and a mind of artistry to come one step closer to both. Abstract: The Art of Design from producers Scott Dadich, Morgan Neville, Dave O'Connor, Justin Wilkes, and Jon Kamen is available on Netflix. By Anna Wyckoff Ruth E. Carter Abstract: The Art of Design