When it came to designing the wardrobe for Sinners—which stars Michael B. Jordan, Hailee Steinfeld, Miles Caton, Jack O’Connell, Wunmi Mosaku, Jayme Lawson, Omar Miller and Delroy Lindo—it was helpful that Ruth was a self-proclaimed history buff.
“I’ve had years and years of understanding all of the layers of our trajectory as Black people in this country,” she explained. “I plunged headfirst into James Van Der Zee and the photographers of the times, looking at people and what they wore and how they layered.”
The 65-year-old’s hard work paid off, with the designer—who also worked on historical films like Selma, Marshall and the 2016 mini-series adaptation of Roots—previously being nominated for 1992’s Malcolm X and 1997’s Amistad.
She would go on to win her first Oscar in 2019 for dressing Michael, Chadwick Boseman, Lupita Nyong’o, Angela Bassett and more in Black Panther. Four years later, she took home her second Oscar for her sartorial work in its sequel Black Panther: Wakanda Forever.
