‘Black Panther’ Costume Designer Ruth Carter Makes History As First Black Woman To Win Two Oscars

The 2023 Oscars, held last night in Los Angeles' Dolby Theatre, were a joy to behold from beginning to end. The red carpet fashion was more fabulous than ever, the speeches suitably epic and emotional, Jimmy Kimmel brought a donkey on stage and there were performances by Lady Gaga and a pregnant Rihanna – the list goes on.

Of particular note, too, were the numerous history-making moments during last night's awards ceremony – chief among them, Michelle Yeoh becoming the first Asian woman to win the Best Actress Oscar for her performance in Everything Everywhere All At Once, and Ruth E Carter making history as the first Black woman to win an Oscar twice.

Carter was the costume designer on Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, for which she was awarded the Oscar for Best Costume Design at last night's ceremony. The 62-year-old won her first Oscar just four years ago in the same category, for her work on the first Black Panther film – itself a historic moment, as Carter became the first Black person to win the award for costume design.

In her acceptance speech at the 95th Academy Awards, Carter reflected on her historic win, saying: 'Thank you to the Academy for recognising the superhero that is a Black woman. She endures. She loves. She overcomes. She is every woman in this film.'

She also opened up about how she got to where she is today and shared her hopes for the next generation: 'I pulled myself up from my bootstraps. I started – single-parent household. I wanted to be a costume designer. I studied, I scraped, I dealt with adversity in the industry that sometimes didn’t look like me. I endured. So I feel that this win opens the door for other young costume designers may not think that this industry is for them and hopefully they’ll see me and they’ll see my story and they’ll think that they can win an Oscar too.'

Carter joins a (disappointingly) small group of Black actors and creatives to have won multiple Oscars, that includes Denzel Washington and Mahershala Ali.

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