Costume Designer Ruth E Carter on Her Regal African Outfits for Coming 2 America

 Ruth E Carter may be a Hollywood legend thanks to her Oscar-winning work on Black Panther, but the costume designer has lent her magic touch to projects ranging from Spike Lee’s Do The Right Thing (1989) to Ava DuVernay’s Selma (2015) through the decades. Earlier this year, she became the first African-American costumer to have a star on the Hollywood Walk Of Fame. Her latest triumph: developing the lavish clothes for Eddie Murphy’s blockbuster sequel Coming 2 America, now available to stream on Amazon Prime. Below, Carter talks Vogue through the process of developing Zamunda’s Ankara-filled royal wardrobe.

When did you first watch ‘Coming To America’?

I watched the original film when it came out in the movie theatres in 1988. I had just moved to Los Angeles, and I wanted to be a costume designer, but for the theatre. When I saw the costumes in Coming to America, though, I just thought, “Wow, how do you do a film that size?” It amazed me, how Eddie Murphy and Arsenio Hall played all of those characters so well, and the scenes in the ballroom felt like an Old Hollywood production. In terms of the clothes, I always remembered the shapes of the dresses – especially the big skirts. We’d all seen Ankara used in fashion before, but never in a way that felt quite so grandiose.

How did you begin modernising the royal aesthetic for the former Prince Akeem and his family?

I wanted to show a modern Africa, and to dress these characters in looks that felt appropriate 30 years on from Coming to America, ones that could work on a red carpet today. For Lisa (Shari Headley), who goes from Queens to being the Queen of Zamunda, I incorporated some east Indian looks. In the first movie, there are saris used throughout, so I put her in one at the dinner table, and brought in some wonderful pieces made by [Indian designer] JJ Valaya. It felt essential to highlight that Zamunda has been influenced by other cultures rather than being a total bubble. In terms of KiKi Layne’s wardrobe as Princess Meeka, I had her wear a lot of athleisure pieces, to help viewers understand she’s keen to rule the country and that she’s also athletic and fashion-forward – a true warrior. I also felt like the cruelty-free aspect was important, so we 3D-printed the lion’s head for Akeem to wear on his shoulder with a scarf that was embroidered with the mane of the lion.

How is your take on royal style different from the original film’s costume designer Deborah Nadoolman Landis?

In the original movie, the framework is somewhat British, but because we know so much more about African royalty today in all of its diversity, I wanted to open it up and make it feel less rigid. Just have a little bit more fun with it. Coming to America’s depiction of royalty is highly structured – we show royalty that is much more inclusive.

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Black Panther illustrator Phillip Boutte Jr talks sketching the blockbuster movie

Phillip Boutte Jr. is part of the team behind the tribal, yet tech, costumes we see in box office smash  Black Panther. Boutte drew illustrations and collaborated with costume designer Ruth Carter to create the garments worn by heroes and villains alike in the fictional East African nation of Wakanda. Those include warrior outfits, the adornment of the Wakandian elders, their allies, the Jabari tribesmen and Black Panther's superhero costume.

Boutte is no stranger to the drawing board. He’s worked on the complete Hunger Games franchise, Star Trek, X-Men, Guardians of the Galaxy, the TV series Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., Altered Carbon and the results of his work will next be seen in the Oprah Winfrey/Reese Witherspoon film, A Wrinkle in Time. He’s also working on the upcoming Captain Marvel.

What was your vision for the costumes of Wakanda?
That was with my good buddy, Ruth Carter, who’s amazing. We started on the project together. She’s done a lot of projects. She worked with Spike Lee for 15 years. So her main focus was the nerd part of it. I was looking at it like, "the comic book is this…"

Her main focus was, "now that we know what these things look like, let’s try to infuse them with African culture so that it means something." So if there are bees on the costumes, she wanted to [explore] a specific tribe and try to figure out what that symbolises. Does it symbolise beauty? Does it symbolise strength, power, marriage, death?

So we started to research all these tribes and it was really great. It was a project where every day I was surrounded by these huge boards in the office. There was a map of Wakanda and nothing but boards of different African tribes and who they are; their names and how they make their stuff. That really helped.

We also started to look at more modern things; Afrofuturism, Afropunk, trying to figure out the hipper, more contemporary version. What I continued to bring to the table is that Wakanda, to me, is more like Timbuktu. If you know the story of Timbuktu, the king there had all the gold. He was super rich. Europe was always trying to raid TImbuktu but it’s situated in a place that’s super hot. The desert is super hot so you would just die trying to get there.

Timbuktu also had a strong military so if you did get there, you’d probably be overwhelmed by them. So to me that’s what Wakanda is, if it were never touched by European influence, if it were allowed to prosper. So we built out from there.

It’s like saying what would Africa be like if it were never touched by European influence or if it were never raided or if the world didn’t take all their resources and leave them with nothing. What happens if Africans have access to complex textiles? Then maybe they have their culture. So someone has scarification but then someone has also launched some cool jacket that has pieces cut out of it so you can see the scars on their torso. It was that type of deal. Let’s have fun with it and see that vision of Wakanda. What if they have all their resources and still have their culture? That was really exciting to me.

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Black Panther's Costume Designer on 8 Iconic Looks from the Movie

When you think of Wakanda, the futuristic African country that is the setting of Ryan Coogler’s smash-hit superhero movie Black Panther, you can’t help but picture its fabulously dressed citizens. Two-time Oscar nominee Ruth E. Carter is the costume designer responsible for Wakanda’s sartorial splendor, and she’s loving the audience response to her work: Whether it’s at Comic-Con or at the movie theater, people are dressing up as young king T’Challa (Chadwick Boseman), as well as his friends and foes.

“I think in part due to Ryan Coogler’s direction of this piece, and Marvel’s ability to support it in the way that only they could support a piece like this, I was able to touch people with the artistry of Africa,” said Carter. “I’ve been doing this for 30 years, and they’re honoring me back by being in costume, by dressing the part, and by showing me their versions of what I have presented.”

Below, Carter walks us through eight of the film’s most memorable looks, detailing her inspirations and spilling some fun secrets in the process.

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