The excitement for Academy Awards season continues as we take a look at the coveted Best Costume Design Academy Awards category. John Cena’s stunt this year during his presentation of the award made multiple news outlets and while it was great advertising for his new movie Ricky Stanicky, it also brought further attention to a category that I personally feel deserves more accolades than historically given. Not only does wardrobe help define the setting the movie is set in, but it can sometimes be part of the plot in intricate ways. One of my favorite examples is His House, which utilized colorful wardrobes to give the audience insight into the characters’ mentalities and tell more about their cultural history. With that being said, I’m using a bit of a deep dive of past and possible future nominees. 2022 was a particularly good year recently so let’s highlight a couple of the nominees and the winner!
Ruth E. Carter for Black Panther: Wakanda Forever
To be the first of anything is a great career accomplishment and Ruth E. Carter is most deserving of the honor for this category. Carter was the first African American nominee and winner in 2018 when she won for the first Black Panther installment. Her storied career reached new heights once she started working with Spike Lee’s second film School Daze (1988) and worked across many genres including historical biopics and action films. She won the Academy Award for the first movie after diving into cultural and historical contexts in and around several African countries, and her work in the second film built upon what she established and expanded it to include Aztec influence on the Talokan people in the film. Maintaining the Academy Award-winning costume design from the first film and adding new characters that add even more vivid colors and storytelling with their wardrobes was a fun addition. I’m glad the Academy awarded Carter’s greatness twice.
Catherine Martin for Elvis
Baz Luhrmann and Catherine Martin are a power couple that has given audiences a slew of Academy Award-winning and nominated movies from Romeo + Juliet and Moulin Rouge! to The Great Gatsby and, most recently, 2022’s Elvis. When it comes to matching period-appropriate styles and maintaining the set design of a movie, Martin is a seasoned veteran who took us through both Elvis’ direct life and atmospherically important wardrobes like Beale Street, carnival life, and more. Each time the movie progressed, the outfits helped the immersive experience. Elvis Presley had an extravagant wardrobe to match his ego. While Austin Butler did a fantastic job acting as the titular character, Martin recreated his look alongside a super team of Jason Baird, Mark Coulier, Louise Coulston, and Shane Thomas for hair and makeup. Bonus points to Catherine Martin for also picking up another Academy Award nomination for Production Design for Elvis!
Shirley Kurata for Everything Everywhere All at Once
Giving creative reigns to Shirley Kurata for costuming in Everything Everywhere All at Once has to be one of the best decisions co-directors Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert made when making this film. Not only did Kurata come up with various costumes for the multiverse in this movie, but with each one came a story. Kurata designed the costumes so that with each multiversal shift, the audience sometimes picks up on the wealth, mindset, personality, and more of each version of the characters without even changing the setting. While she didn’t win for this film, I imagine Kurata has changed the costuming game forever for movies with actors playing multiple roles or versions of a role. Thanks to movies like this and Marvel’s Multiverse era, Hollywood has entered an era that sees multiverse movies come out as often as Everything Everywhere All at Once’s villain Jobu Tobaki changed outfits in the film. The audience benefits from this for many reasons, but among my favorites is watching costume design (and production design) get pushed to new heights with each scene.
The Best Costume Design award is a fun one to follow based on the wide range of parameters anyone can judge it on. You can see how historically accurate a war movie’s wardrobe is, meet multiple versions of the same character, or even follow a superhero as they save the world. I’m excited to visit and revisit past nominees, revisit some favorites that I feel could’ve been nominated, and preview potential nominees for the next awards season.
