Ruth E. Carter’s wardrobe designs were essential in defining the two identical twins, both portrayed by Michael B. Jordan, in the multi‑Oscar‑nominated film Sinners. The hats, in particular, played a key role. Stack, one of the brothers, dons a red fedora, while Smoke wears a blue newsboy flat cap. Locating those hats marked a pivotal point in the movie’s development. When director Ryan Coogler first saw Jordan try on the red fedora—procured by Carter on Los Angeles’s Melrose Avenue—he reportedly said, “That’s it,” and the news quickly spread through the studio, signaling a breakthrough moment.
The careful period construction evident in Carter’s work has earned her a place in Oscar history as the most‑decorated Black costume designer, and she now has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, an event attended by her family and streamed online. Her contributions to Coogler’s Jim Crow‑era drama, which has amassed a record‑tying 16 Oscar nominations, secured her a fifth nomination, and she is considered a strong contender in the category. Among her forthcoming assignments is a biopic of pioneering Black fashion designer Ann Lowe, famed for Jackie Kennedy’s wedding dress, a project she will co‑produce.
Our interview takes place in a well‑appointed suite at a London hotel that Warner Bros. has reserved for the BAFTAs. Carter, dressed in a white T‑shirt, high‑waisted blue jeans and chunky black glasses, arrived in the city a few hours earlier and remains focused as she reviews her latest work. The costumes for *Sinners* are striking reproductions that capture both the grit and the elegance of 1930s Mississippi.
Precision, however, does not equate to literalism. For the role of hoodoo priestess Annie—played by recent BAFTA winner Wunmi Mosaku—Carter deliberately avoided familiar clichés. “There have been a few similar characters in films, and they all tend to wear the same items—a shawl, a third‑eye motif, a turban, a long floral skirt… I wanted Annie to feel rooted in the community, because hoodoo is still a lived practice for many people in the South,” she explained.
Carter also drew on observations from her own community. “I remembered seeing candles in a corner store, or someone wearing a cluster of beads tucked under a shirt, a small talisman they’d been blessed with. Those details helped make her feel like a real person,” she said.
Annie’s costume is rendered in Haint blue, a hue that leans toward green and is traditionally believed to repel evil spirits. “The colour is meant to resemble water,” Carter added.
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