Ruka Johnson | Costume Designer

Ruka Johnson | Costume Designer

While Ruka was still studying, she started her own business, making accessories and then actual costumes for burlesque dancers and circus performers and then opened a shop which sold lingerie that she made by hand. She then became an apprentice making costumes for music videos and by hustling hard, managed to land her first job in TV. 

Ruka loved working with the beautiful cast on Rocks, acknowledging that it was a challenge, due to the improvisational nature of the narrative, which had a big impact on the costumes and because it was filmed chronologically but also feels like it marked a significant development in her career. Her work on Blue Story is something that she’s incredibly proud of because she thinks for the first time, underrepresented audiences were seeing themselves in an authentic light on screen, in the same way that she felt when she first saw Noel Clarke’s Kidulthood. 

For Ruka, BAFTA has always been a big deal so for them to see what she’s doing and to think that she deserves to be a BAFTA Breakthrough is a very special thing, as well as being a bit scary! She has a very long list of people that she’d love to talk to and learn from including Black Panther’s award winning costume designer Ruth Carter and the woman who created the iconic looks for Clueless, Mona May.