Black Panther 's Ruth E. Carter Is the First Black Woman To Win an Oscar for Costume Design

At this year's Oscars, Ruth E. Carter became the first black person to ever win Best Costume Design at the Academy Awards. Carter received the honor for her work on Black Panther., but this isn't Carter's first historic Oscars moment. In 1993, she became the first-ever black person to be nominated in the category for her work on Spike Lee's Malcolm X. She was also nominated for Steven Spielberg’s Amistad in 1998. And this year, the third time was a charm.

While accepting the award, Carter acknowledged her prior nominations. "Wow, wow, I got it," she said. "This has been a long time coming." Carter also thanked her prior collaborator, Lee. "I hope this makes you proud. Marvel may have created the first black superhero, but through costume design, we turned him into an African king... It's been my life's honor to create costumes. Thank you to the Academy, thank you for honoring African royalty, and the empowered way women can look and lead onscreen."

Carter designed the film's iconic Afrofuturist looks—from the red armor worn by Wakanda's female warriors, to King T'Challa's ceremonial garb. Carter previously discussed her vision for the film's costumes with Glamour, describing the style as: "we have an African aesthetic here, and we also have a futuristic, modern aesthetic. This is a place that's advanced in technology, more advanced than the rest of the world, so you take those elements and you have to discover a culture. You have to put them together and make up your own."

She also opened up about the immense pressure she felt to get the style right. "I felt a lot of pressure, every day, to not do a stereotype. Is this going to look common, or is it going to look great? Is it going to look like something we’ve seen before? Is it being crafted in a way that looks like it’s a play or a cartoon? Or a fake thing? Or is it being crafted in a way that’s going to look like it’s real and has a real function? Does it have fashion and beauty? The overall ideal is beauty. We want it to be beautiful, because we’re honoring it if we show it in a beautiful light. We’re dishonoring it if we show it in the light it’s been shown in, which is ugly and dark."

With Carter's historical win this evening, and the incredible reaction viewers had to the costumes, it's safe to say that Carter absolutely nailed it.