Loved What You Saw In Black Panther? Thank These Ladies #BlackPantherEvent

I was selected by Disney to attend these events and experiences. This was an all-expense paid opportunity and all thoughts and opinions are my own.

I have to say…this was hands down my favorite interview of all of the Black Panther interviews that I had. I could not stop beaming while listening to these ladies speak. A large part of my attraction came from the fact that I’ve never actually considered what goes into costumes of characters and production of sets. I mean, yes, I’m enamored and sit with my mouth gaping open while I stare at how beautiful everything is. But like many, I never consider what went into making this all happen. Costume Designer Ruth E. Carter and Production Designer Hannah Beachler took us up and away and I enjoyed every minute of it.

(image credit – Natasha, Houseful of Nicholes)

Where in Africa is Wakanda located?

Even if you don’t know much about Black Panther, there’s no surprise that Wakanda is heavily African-inspired, right? The African American History major and geek that is me immediately wondered where they drew their inspirations from. What tribes, groups of people and landmarks were highlighted in the movie?

Hannah: We kind of set it in sort of eastern sub-Saharan Africa.You can kind of place it on the border of DRC like right above Burundi and Rwanda. So there was Kibuye, Kenya, Uganda, above Uganda, Sudan. So, that’s sort of where we are. And we also took from Omo Valley tribes in Ethiopia. So you go down a little bit, but we wanted to keep it sub-Saharan. We wanted to keep it very specific. We also — I reached into Western Nigeria.

Did a lot of research in Nairobi and the bigger cities around — and Kenya and in South Africa, Joburg, Cape Town just for some of the architecture. And I looked at lotta older architecture. So, that’s really where my process started really big. Where are we? And then it was like “What is the typography of the land?” Next step is “Where does each tribe live on that land and why?” And “What is each tribe’s history.” There is a story and a reason behind every single thing you see on that screen coming from me and coming from Ruth.

(image courtesy – Walt Disney World Studios)

There’s a Wakandan manual?

At this point, I’m so invested in all things Black Panther that in my head, Wakanda actually exists. But okay…it’s a fictional place and Hannah at her team actually put together a manaul to describe and layout everything that had to do with Wakanda.

Ruth: I open it up and there’s like a map of Wakanda. It has a royal palace in the middle. It has districts of — that are explained to the hilt. I was like “How long did it take you to do this manual? Everything is written out.” I bring the manual back to my team and I’m like, “Everybody, study this!”

We were looking at Afropunk. We’re looking at modern fashion. We’re moving everything forward. Everything has to be beautiful. We are not going to lie in any stereotypes at all. Whatsoever. And we wanna this present this world as a kingdom. What if Africa was not colonized?

This is what they would honor. And you see these images of the Himba girl with her leather drape on and her Himba paced all over her skin and her costume, and she’s pushing like a grocery cart in like a little convenience store. This is a real photo that I saw. I thought, “Wow, this is really cool how you can mix ancient indigenous tribal culture with modern.” This is a futuristic place. This is a place that has the richest mineral known on earth, Vibranium. And, you know, they’re aware of it. They’re aware of their richness. So, let’s just move that forward. Looking at Afropunk, those images that you see on your phone, going through your Instagram, you see that beauty. And that’s some of the beauty that we wanted to infuse.

We’re not reinventing anything. We’re just bringing it out. And we’re just honoring it and holding it up.

How do you dress a king?

We all have our own visions of what a king looks like? T’Challa had to truly embody regality and it was interesting finding out what went into that.

Ruth: So, the king is royal. The king is the king. We decided that, you know, the panther suit, well, the new suit was going to be a newer technology, more streamline, more beautiful, less for us than the Civil War one was. And so, that translates into his everyday wardrobe. I tried to pick things that I felt that would be body conscious. You see he wears a lotta more knits and sweaters — so that you see his arms. He was fun to dress. We did the embroidery on his tailcoat. And that was a fun process.

Who wore it best?

Probably not the best question to ask since there were so many wonderful outfits but we just had to know which were these ladies’ favorites!

Hannah: Letitia. But it was just a lotta fun, you know, because she’s young. She’s a genius. She dressed fabulously. And there’s a lot to her. You know, she’s her brother’s keeper. She wants to protect Wakanda. She is loyal to her mother and her father. So, all of that went in there. And she’s smarter than Tony Stark. She’s the smartest woman on earth. She’s the smartest person. She’s the smartest person on earth, man or woman.

Ruth: You know, I had a lotta favorites in there. Lots of favorites. So I’m gonna say one of my favorites is when you first see Angela Bassett. That felt very royal and very queenly. And you knew she was the Queen of Wakanda. I would say that one.

When you see Black Panther, be sure to keep an extra eye out for Hannah and Ruth’s work!