Savage Beauty Exhibition, 2011 | |
| Established | 2014 |
|---|---|
| Location | 1000 5th Avenue, Manhattan, New York City 10028 |
| Coordinates | 40°46′48″N 73°57′44″W / 40.78000°N 73.96222°W |
| Director | Andrew Bolton |
Public transit access | Subway: Bus: M1, M2, M3, M4, M79, M86 |
The Anna Wintour Costume Center is a wing of the Metropolitan Museum of Art main building in New York City, United States. It houses the collection of the Costume Institute, a curatorial department of the museum focused on fashion and costume design. The center is named after Anna Wintour, the longtime editor-in-chief of Vogue, Chief Content Officer of Condé Nast, and chair of the museum's annual Met Gala (often called the "Met Ball") since 1995. It was endowed by Lizzie and Jonathan Tisch. As of August 2017, the chief curator is Andrew Bolton.
The center was formally opened by the first lady of the United States Michelle Obama on May 5, 2014. Guests included Sarah Jessica Parker, Diane Von Furstenberg, Tory Burch, Zac Posen, Ralph Lauren, and Donatella Versace.

In 1902, wealthy philanthropists Irene and Alice Lewisohn began to volunteer at the Henry Street Settlement House in New York, a community center that provided social services and healthcare to immigrant families. Alice, who acted in plays herself, began working as a drama teacher, while Irene devoted herself to dance productions. In 1914, the sisters bought a lot on the corner of Grand and Pitt Streets and donated it to the Settlement for building a new theater. The Neighborhood Playhouse opened in 1915. By 1920, the theater employed professional actors, and it was known for its experimental productions and its revue "The Grand Street Follies." Theater designer Aline Bernstein served her apprenticeship there from 1915 to 1924 designing costumes and stage sets.
The Playhouse closed in 1927, but the company continued to produce plays on Broadway under the management of Helen F. Ingersoll. In 1928, with Rita Wallach Morganthau, the Lewisohns established the Neighborhood Playhouse School of the Theatre at East 54th Street, where it became an actor training school and students were offered a two-year program formal drama and dance training to become professionals.
During their years of running the school theatre and producing plays, a body of knowledge was formed about acting, theater production, and costume, set and stage design. In 1937, Irene Lewisohn opened a home for this library, the Museum of Costume Art, on Fifth Avenue. Aline Bernstein served as the first President and Polaire Weissman as its first executive director. After Irene Lewisohn's death in 1944, Lord & Taylor president Dorothy Shaver worked to bring the collection to the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Shaver believed that this would strengthen the American fashion industry and raised $350,000 from New York garment manufacturers to finance the transaction. The Costume Art museum became part of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in 1946, becoming The Costume Institute, which was independently run until 1959 when it became a curatorial department in the museum. After a renovation of the Costume Institute in 1960, the reference library associated with this collection was designated the Irene Lewisohn Costume Reference Library.
Since 1946, with help from the fashion publicist Eleanor Lambert, the institute has hosted the annual Met Gala to raise money for operating expenses.
After being fired from Vogue, fashion editor Diana Vreeland became a special consultant to the Costume Institute from 1972 until her death in 1989. In 1989, art history professor Richard Martin became the Curator in Charge of the collection, with the support of Associate Curator Harold Koda. After Martin's death in 1999, Koda returned to the Metropolitan museum in 2000 after co-curating an exhibition on Giorgio Armani for the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum.
In 2009, the American Costume Collection of the Brooklyn Museum was transferred to the Costume Institute, as The Brooklyn Museum Costume Collection at The Metropolitan Museum of Art. The high costs of maintaining and displaying the collection was the main impetus for the move, which followed years of close collaboration between the two organizations. The collection of the Brooklyn museum is older, having been formed from private donations by former New York high society personalities, beginning with the donation in 1903 of an 1892 cream colored crepe dress worn by Kate Mallory Williams at her graduation from Brooklyn Heights Seminary. Prior to the move, 23,500 objects from the Brooklyn collection were digitized and these images are now shared by both organizations. At the time of the acquisition, the Met costume collection consisted of 31,000 objects from the 17th-century onwards.
At the time that the Brooklyn Museum Costume Collection was transferred to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Costume Institute space was closed for a significant multi-year renovation, the collection's first since 1992. Upon reopening in 2014, the combined Costume Institute was designated the Anna Wintour Costume Center to commemorate the long-time support of the Met Gala's fundraising campaign by Anna Wintour, who had been a Trustee of the museum since 1999. The Met Gala in 2014 marked the formal opening of the new space, with its first exhibition featuring work by British-born designer Charles James.
On September 8, 2015, it was announced that Harold Koda would be stepping down from his position as Curator in Charge of the Costume Institute. Andrew Bolton, who had joined the Costume Institute in 2002 as associate curator and was made curator in 2006, was announced as his replacement.
In May 2017, the Costume Institute featured an exhibition featuring the works of Rei Kawakubo/Comme des Garçons. The exhibit was the Costume Institute's first exhibition focusing on a living designer since Yves Saint Laurent in 1983.
In 2026, after a renovation of historic museum spaces, the museum debuted the Condé M. Nast Galleries, a dedicated 12,000-square-foot space for major Costume Institute exhibitions adjacent to the Great Hall. The first exhibition to be displayed in these new galleries was Costume Art.
The 2026 exhibition served as the first in the Costume Institute's history to be fully inclusive of all body types. The Costume Art exhibit highlighted all body types, including pregnant, plus-sized, and disabled figures.
| Year | Exhibition Title | Exhibition Dates | Notes | Citation |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1971–1972 | Fashion Plate | October 1971 – January 1972 | ||
| 1972–1973 | Untailored Garments | January–July 1972) | ||
| 1973–1974 | The World of Balenciaga | March–September 1973 | ||
| 1974–1975 | Romantic and Glamorous Hollywood Design | November 1974 – August 1975 | ||
| 1975–1976 | American Women of Style | December 1975 – August 1976 | ||
| 1976–1977 | The Glory of Russian Costume | December 1976 – August 1977 | ||
| 1977–1978 | Vanity Fair: A Treasure Trove | December 1977 – September 1978 | ||
| 1978–1979 | Diaghilev: Costumes and Designs of the Ballets Russes | November 1978 – June 1979 | ||
| 1979–1980 | Fashions of the Habsburg Era: Austria-Hungary | December 1979 – August 1980 | ||
| 1980–1981 | The Manchu Dragon: Costumes of China, the Chi'ng Dynasty | December 1980 – August 1981 | ||
| 1981–1982 | The Eighteenth-Century Woman | December 1981 – September 1982 | ||
| 1982–1983 | Le Belle Époque | December 1982 – September 1983 | ||
| 1983–1984 | Yves Saint Laurent: 25 Years of Design | December 1983 – September 1984 | ||
| 1984–1985 | Man and the Horse | December 1984 – September 1985 | ||
| 1985–1986 | Costumes of Royal India | December 1985 – August 1986 | ||
| 1986–1987 | Dance | December 1986 – September 1987 | ||
| 1987–1988 | In Style: Celebrating Fifty Years of the Costume Institute | November 1987 – April 1988 | ||
| 1988–1989 | From Queen to Empress: Victorian Dress 1837–1877 | December 1988 – April 1989 | ||
| 1989–1990 | The Age of Napoleon: Costume from Revolution to Empire, 1789–1815 | December 1989 – April 1990 | ||
| 1990–1991 | Théâtre de la Mode – Fashion Dolls: The Survival of Haute Couture | December 1990 – April 1991 | ||
| 1992–1993 | Fashion and History: A Dialogue | December 1992 – March 1993 | ||
| 1993–1994 | Diana Vreeland: Immoderate Style | December 1993 – March 1994 | ||
| 1994–1995 | Orientalism: Visions of the East in Western Dress | December 1994 – March 1995 | ||
| 1995–1996 | Haute Couture | December 1995 – March 1996 | ||
| 1996–1997 | Christian Dior | December 1996 – March 1997 | ||
| 1997–1998 | Gianni Versace | December 1997 – March 1998 | ||
| 1998–1999 | Cubism and Fashion | December 10, 1998 – March 14, 1999 | ||
| 1999–2000 | Rock Style | December 9, 1999 – March 19, 2000 | ||
| 2001 | Jacqueline Kennedy: The White House Years | May 1 – July 29, 2001 | ||
| 2001 | Dress Rehearsal: Origins of the Costume Institute | August 1 – October 28, 2001 | ||
| 2003 | Goddess: The Classical Mode | May 1 – August 3, 2003 | ||
| 2004 | Dangerous Liaisons: Fashion and Furniture in the 18th Century | April 29 – August 8, 2004 | ||
| 2005 | The House of Chanel | May 5 – August 7, 2005 | ||
| 2005–2006 | Rara Avis: Selections from the Iris Barrel Apfel Collection | September 13, 2005 – January 22, 2006 | ||
| 2006 | AngloMania: Tradition and Transgression in British Fashion | May 3 – September 6, 2006 | ||
| 2007 | Poiret: King of Fashion | May 9 – August 5, 2007 | ||
| 2007–2008 | blog.mode: addressing fashion | December 18, 2007 – April 13, 2008 | The last exhibition in the galleries of the Costume Institute prior to a multi-year closure for renovation. | |
| 2008 | Superheroes: Fashion and Fantasy | May 7 – September 1, 2008 | ||
| 2009 | The Model As Muse: Embodying Fashion | May 6 – August 9, 2009 | ||
| 2010 | American Woman: Fashioning a National Identity | May 5 – August 10, 2010 | ||
| 2011 | Alexander McQueen: Savage Beauty | May 4 – August 7, 2011 | ||
| 2012 | Schiaparelli and Prada: Impossible Conversations | May 10 – August 19, 2012 | ||
| 2013 | Punk: Chaos to Couture | May 9 – August 14, 2013 | ||
| 2014 | Charles James: Beyond Fashion | May 8 – August 10, 2014 | First exhibition in the galleries of the renovated Anna Wintour Costume Center. | |
| 2014–2015 | Death Becomes Her: A Century of Mourning Attire | October 21, 2014 – February 1, 2015 | ||
| 2015 | China: Through the Looking Glass | May 7 – September 7, 2015 | ||
| 2015–2016 | Jacqueline de Ribes: The Art of Style | November 19, 2015 – February 21, 2016 | ||
| 2016 | Manus x Machina: Fashion in an Age of Technology | May 5 – September 5, 2016 | ||
| 2016–2017 | Masterworks: Unpacking Fashion | November 18, 2016 – February 5, 2017 | ||
| 2017 | Rei Kawakubo/Comme des Garçons Art of the In-Between | May 4 – September 4, 2017 | ||
| 2018 | Heavenly Bodies: Fashion and the Catholic Imagination | May 10 – October 8, 2018 | ||
| 2019 | Camp: Notes on Fashion | May 9 – September 8, 2019 | ||
| 2019–2020 | In Pursuit of Fashion: The Sandy Schreier Collection | November 27, 2019 – May 17, 2020 | Marking the Met's 150th anniversary. | |
| 2020 | About Time: Fashion and Duration | October 29, 2020 – February 7, 2021 | ||
| 2021–2022 | In America: A Lexicon of Fashion | September 18, 2021 – September 5, 2022 | Part one of a two part exhibition. In March 2022, nearly half of the pieces in this section were rotated out ahead of the opening of the second part of the exhibition. | |
| 2022 | In America: An Anthology of Fashion | May 7 – September 5, 2022 | Part two of a two part exhibition. Part one remained on display during the course of the exhibition; the two parts closed concurrently. | |
| 2023 | Karl Lagerfeld: A Line of Beauty | May 5 – July 16, 2023 | ||
| 2023–2024 | Women Dressing Women | December 7, 2023 – March 10, 2024 | ||
| 2024 | Sleeping Beauties: Reawakening Fashion | May 10 – September 2, 2024 | ||
| 2025 | Superfine: Tailoring Black Style | May 10 – October 26, 2025 | ||
| 2026–2027 | Costume Art | May 10, 2026 – January 10, 2027 | ||
| 2027–2028 | extraORDINARY: Fashion and the Poetics of the Everyday | May 9, 2027 – January 9, 2028 | Original plans for the exhibition John Galliano: Horizons were cancelled in August 2026 |
To salute the fashion industry of New York, whose tireless efforts and financial contributions were instrumental in making the new Costume Institute a reality, the Museum will present Fashion Plate in the Costume Institute in the fall of 1971...Fashion Plate will be the first of these gallery installations – the inaugural exhibition.
The Costume Institute of The Metropolitan Museum of Art opens its second exhibition on Wednesday, January 26. Entitled Untailored Garments it presents a diverse assemblage of clothing—mostly non-European in origin—which is folded and draped on the human body rather than cut and seamed.
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