The Costumes of 'Wakanda Forever' Represent a Coming Together of Cultures

When Oscar-winning costume designer Ruth E. Carter signed on to lead wardrobe once again for Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, she had a challenge ahead of her. The new film wasn't solely focused on just the world—and the wardrobe—of Wakandans, but it also introduced the surreal and vibrant underwater universe of the Talokan community as well—a society heavily inspired by the historic indigenous Mayan empire. Much like the Afrofuturisitic world of Wakanda, the details that went into creating the costumes of Talokan were immensely detailed and took months of intensive research. It was about more than just "getting it right" when it came time to crafting the costumes for the film—it was about elevating what audiences thought they knew about both of these (albeit fictionalized) worlds and showcasing how two vastly different cultures from opposite sides of the globe are maybe more alike than they are different.

"There was a growth from Black Panther one to two, in terms of the African garb, African print, African fabrics. It almost felt more normal than new on Wakanda Forever. We were dressing people in the fabrics and all the African garb mixing it up and making it Wakanda style. But Wakanda style wasn't necessarily new anymore," Carter tells BAZAAR.com. "It really did take this new underwater world to put another cultural layer on top of this. I think what people can now assess is that we are a part of a bigger picture. We are part of a full continent that has traditions from other cultures—including the Latinx community—that can also be considered Afrofuturism."

Below, we spoke with Carter about developing costumes for the highly anticipated sequel, the sartorial journey of Queen Ramonda and Princess Shuri, and how she managed to weave tributes to the late Chadwick Boseman throughout the film.

What was the research and preparation process for bringing this additional world of Tolakan into the film?

It was pretty challenging and daunting to create an underwater world that was inspired by Mayan culture, which is the historical anchor of the film. We worked very closely with historians regarding some of the images that we collected. Not only asking if they were authentic or were they Aztec or were they Mayan—we had to understand that the Mayan empire was a small coastal community that was by the water. The Aztecs were a bigger empire and there's lots more documentation done on the Aztecs than there was the Mayans.

We had to really cherry pick a lot of the imagery that we wanted to do, like the big headpieces. We had to pare that back and really understand this culture and then use the underwater world that they now migrated to and lived alongside their cousins above land and ask how would they have progressed with vibranium? What would they use? Well, the fish fins, the fish bones, the kelp and coral. And we knew that the Mayans had invented rubber and they had these codices and this pottery that told their story. And so I went into the codices and studied the figurines and dissected them to come up with ideas that I could translate underwater — along with the use of shells and other aspects of Mayan culture — to tell that story.

Mourning and grief are big themes in the film as well. Once you knew the direction that the sequel was going to go in, how did you start to plan to bring these very emotional scenes to life through the costuming?

There were lots of conversations with Ryan [Coogler] about grief and how we were going to portray it. I used more gray [tones]. I tried to keep what was established in the first film with the protective layers and the textures of [Shuri's] clothing—feeling very tech but at the same time paring back on the color until we moved along further into the story. Then we see more color coming in. Also the funeral scene and the white that's worn is something that's traditionally used in West Africa for funerals. We decided to have our white funeral for our transitional procession for T'Challa. White was used a lot. It's used in the lab. You see Riri in the lab wearing white, you see Shuri [in a later scene] in a white dress. The whole film has a thorough line of using white clothing and that is a tribute to the life of Chadwick Boseman.

Queen Ramonda is much more prominent in the sequel as well. I really loved seeing the in-between moments of her character when she was away from the throne, in her private moments. I thought those were really telling.

Yes, like when her crown came off and you saw her short hair! The journey of Queen Ramonda is one of power, the power of a woman taking over the throne, the power of her voice, and of her playing this role as the queen. She has three new vibranium crowns and also she has body armor that she wears. Then there is this softening that happens right in the middle where she wants to get Shuri out of that mode of being this scientist and come into the bush and lean into tradition and learn to let go. In those moments, her clothing is just more natural and organic. It's just a caftan and a necklace and her hair is out. But then juxtaposing that look with Shuri, you see she is still in her tech look, in her lab look, because as you know from the first film, she's bucking tradition all the time. And her mother is trying to get her to see tradition and to see how it's healing to go through these ritualistic things.

What were you aiming to convey about Shuri's journey in the film through her wardrobe?

I guess the journey of a girl. Sometimes in families when we have a loss, we are forced to assume the role of a parent. Or all of a sudden when we find ourselves in another role, we're not completely there yet. We still have our personality. We still like to play with dolls, we still want to be little girls, but we're also forced to be adults. I wanted to make sure that when we see her, we understand that she's struggling and that her humor—whether it's in the tracksuit in Riri's room and she's having this banter with her—we get to see her humanity. I feel like that came across—I felt a kinship with her as a girl. Not only was she this math scientist, she was also cool, she was hip—she understood she had to put on a tracksuit and some fresh tennis shoes to go on campus. She could do all of those things and you could relate to her.

Two films in, what has working on the world of Wakanda taught you about how Black people across the diaspora choose to present themselves and how our fashion continues to evolve?

We are part of a full continent that has traditions from other cultures that can also be considered Afrofuturism. I feel like the film really shows the audience that this story is about a coming together of cultures.

I can't believe [the film is finally] here. All of us worked so hard to be able to present this to the world and it's been such an honor and such a dream come true, honestly. We just hope that the impact for everyone is as fruitful for everyone as the first one was in terms of what it did for representation.

This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.

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