Carter was born on April 10, 1960, in Springfield, Massachusetts, in a single-parent household. Her mother is Mabel Carter,[6] and she was the youngest of eight children. At nine years old, she began attending the Boys & Girls Club. Using her mother's sewing machine, Carter learned from the organization how to read and design simplicity patterns.[7] She graduated in 1978 from Technical High School, Springfield, Ma. In 1982, Carter graduated from Hampton Institute, later renamed Hampton University, with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Theatre Arts.[1]
Career
After graduating, Carter returned to her hometown, working as an intern for City Stage's costume department and then the Santa Fe Opera. In 1986, she moved to Los Angeles to work at the city's Theater Center.[8] While working there, Carter met director Spike Lee, who hired her for his second film, School Daze (1988). She continued working on his subsequent films, including Do the Right Thing (1989), Mo' Better Blues (1990), Jungle Fever (1991), and Malcolm X (1992).[9][10]
Carter worked on the superhero film Black Panther (2018), directed by Ryan Coogler. Deriving from Afrofuturism, her costumes were inspired by many traditional African garments, including those of the Maasai and Ndebele people.[12] She traveled to southern Africa to draw aesthetic inspirations and received permission to incorporate traditional Lesotho designs into the film's costumes.[13] At the 91st Academy Awards, she won the Academy Award for Best Costume Design, making her the first Black woman to win the Academy Award in the category.[14]
In 2023, Carter won her second Academy Award for Best Costume Design for Black Panther: Wakanda Forever (2022).[5] During her acceptance speech, Carter dedicated her win to her mother, who had died during the prior week at the age of 101.[6] Also in 2023, the North Carolina Museum of Art hosted an exhibit displaying more than sixty of Carter's original garments.[16]
Kirkham, Pat; Stallworth, Shauna (2000). "Chapter 4: "Three Strikes Against Me": African American Women Designers". Women Designers in the USA, 1900-2000: Diversity and Difference. New York: Bard Graduate Center for Studies in the Decorative Arts. pp. 141–143, 258. ISBN978-0-300-09331-5. OCLC48628173.
