costume design Tag

Black is Beautiful (2018) 10 – Ruth E Carter


Ruth E. Carter
was born in 1960 and is from Springfield Massachusetts. In her early days of college she wanted to be an actress. Once after auditioning for a play and being passed over for the part she was offered the job of doing costumes for the play and she loved it. She loved it so much she began to design countless costumes for dance shows and theater productions at her school Hampton University. After getting some more schooling at USC and an internship for the Los Angeles Theater Center she would meet a young filmmaker named Spike Lee. In her early career she worked with Keenan Ivory Wayans, but it was with Spike that she would work on more than 12 of his projects. Films such as Malcolm X, Crooklyn, and Do the Right Thing. Carter described her process with a ton of research using photographs, oral history, and books. She uses many references to make a mood or inspiration board in her studio, set trailers, and online that is both physical and digital. Ms Carter has worked on over 40 films and TV shows to date with projects such as Being Mary Jane, Love & Basketball, Selma, The Five heartbeats, Meteor Man, Empire, Serenity, and most recently she designed costumes for Marvel’s Black Panther. She has been nominated for an oscar, an academy award, an emmy, and she has won the “career achievement” award from the American Black Film Festival. Word has it she is training new costume designers as well.


Sources:
Slate’s Represent podcast, Fashionista, Imdb, Black Reel Awards

Dig this? Check out this piece about Brenda Banks

Kindred Journey 4- Eiko Ishioka

Eiko was born in 1938 in Tokyo Japan. She began her young career in design by attending the Tokyo national university of fine arts and music, graduating in 1961 and embarking on a career of graphic design. She opened her own design studio and began working on advertising campaigns for cosmetic companies. She was hired to not only design promotional ads but commercials. She began working for films such as Dracula, The Cell, The Fall, The Immortals, and Mishima a small film directed by Paul Shrader in the ’80s. Eiko’s work also extended into theater, circus companies such as Cirque du Soleil, basketball, and design for The Olympics. Before she passed away in 2012 she was given many awards but what I loved most about her work that I saw in “The Cell” and “The Fall” was the bold color, the distinct curves and angels, and the directness of her pieces. A collection of her work is still up at the Museum of Modern Art (MOMA) in New York. 
Sources: The Cell, NY Times, Wikipedia