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.
History
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.Brooklyn Museum's Costume Treasures Going to the Met , New York Times article in December 2008 Prior to the move, 23,500 objects from the Brooklyn collection were digitized and these images are now shared by both organizations.Collection of the Brooklyn Museum costumes on Artstor 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.
List of exhibitions +YearExhibition TitleExhibition DatesNotesCitation1971–1972Fashion PlateOctober 1971 – January 19721972–1973Untailored GarmentsJanuary–July 1972)1973–1974The World of BalenciagaMarch–September 19731974–1975Romantic and Glamorous Hollywood DesignNovember 1974 – August 19751975–1976American Women of StyleDecember 1975 – August 19761976–1977The Glory of Russian CostumeDecember 1976 – August 19771977–1978Vanity Fair: A Treasure TroveDecember 1977 – September 19781978–1979Diaghilev: Costumes and Designs of the Ballets RussesNovember 1978 – June 19791979–1980Fashions of the Habsburg Era: Austria-HungaryDecember 1979 – August 1980 1980–1981The Manchu Dragon: Costumes of China, the Chi'ng DynastyDecember 1980 – August 19811981–1982The Eighteenth-Century Woman December 1981 – September 19821982–1983Le Belle ÉpoqueDecember 1982 – September 19831983–1984Yves Saint Laurent: 25 Years of DesignDecember 1983 – September 19841984–1985Man and the HorseDecember 1984 – September 19851985–1986Costumes of Royal IndiaDecember 1985 – August 19861986–1987DanceDecember 1986 – September 19871987–1988In Style: Celebrating Fifty Years of the Costume InstituteNovember 1987 – April 19881988–1989From Queen to Empress: Victorian Dress 1837–1877December 1988 – April 19891989–1990The Age of Napoleon: Costume from Revolution to Empire, 1789–1815December 1989 – April 19901990–1991Théâtre de la Mode – Fashion Dolls: The Survival of Haute CoutureDecember 1990 – April 19911992–1993Fashion and History: A Dialogue December 1992 – March 19931993–1994Diana Vreeland: Immoderate StyleDecember 1993 – March 19941994–1995Orientalism: Visions of the East in Western DressDecember 1994 – March 19951995–1996Haute CoutureDecember 1995 – March 19961996–1997Christian DiorDecember 1996 – March 19971997–1998Gianni VersaceDecember 1997 – March 19981998–1999Cubism and FashionDecember 10, 1998 – March 14, 19991999–2000Rock StyleDecember 9, 1999 – March 19, 2000 2001Jacqueline Kennedy: The White House YearsMay 1 – July 29, 20012001Dress Rehearsal: Origins of the Costume InstituteAugust 1 – October 28, 20012003Goddess: The Classical ModeMay 1 – August 3, 20032004Dangerous Liaisons: Fashion and Furniture in the 18th CenturyApril 29 – August 8, 20042005The House of ChanelMay 5 – August 7, 20052005–2006Rara Avis: Selections from the Iris Barrel Apfel CollectionSeptember 13, 2005 – January 22, 20062006AngloMania: Tradition and Transgression in British FashionMay 3 – September 6, 20062007Poiret: King of FashionMay 9 – August 5, 20072007–2008blog.mode: addressing fashionDecember 18, 2007 – April 13, 2008The last exhibition in the galleries of the Costume Institute prior to a multi-year closure for renovation.2008Superheroes: Fashion and FantasyMay 7 – September 1, 20082009The Model As Muse: Embodying FashionMay 6 – August 9, 20092010American Woman: Fashioning a National IdentityMay 5 – August 10, 20102011Alexander McQueen: Savage BeautyMay 4 – August 7, 20112012Schiaparelli and Prada: Impossible ConversationsMay 10 – August 19, 20122013Punk: Chaos to CoutureMay 9 – August 14, 20132014Charles James: Beyond FashionMay 8 – August 10, 2014First exhibition in the galleries of the renovated Anna Wintour Costume Center.2014–2015Death Becomes Her: A Century of Mourning AttireOctober 21, 2014 – February 1, 20152015China: Through the Looking GlassMay 7 – September 7, 20152015–2016Jacqueline de Ribes: The Art of StyleNovember 19, 2015 – February 21, 20162016Manus x Machina: Fashion in an Age of TechnologyMay 5 – September 5, 20162016–2017Masterworks: Unpacking FashionNovember 18, 2016 – February 5, 20172017Rei Kawakubo/Comme des Garçons Art of the In-BetweenMay 4 – September 4, 20172018Heavenly Bodies: Fashion and the Catholic ImaginationMay 10 – October 8, 20182019Camp: Notes on FashionMay 9 – September 8, 2019https://www.gothamist.com/amp/articles/create%3farticle_id=5cd191c7c649b40001442c142019–2020In Pursuit of Fashion: The Sandy Schreier CollectionNovember 27, 2019 – May 17, 2020Marking the Met's 150th anniversary.2020About Time: Fashion and DurationOctober 29, 2020 – February 7, 20212021–2022In America: A Lexicon of FashionSeptember 18, 2021 – September 5, 2022Part 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 exhbition.2022In America: An Anthology of FashionMay 7 – September 5, 2022Part two of a two part exhibition. Part one remained on display during the course of the exhibition; the two parts closed concurrently.2023Karl Lagerfeld: A Line of BeautyMay 5 – July 16, 20232023–2024Women Dressing WomenDecember 7, 2023 – March 10, 20242024Sleeping Beauties: Reawakening FashionMay 10 – September 2, 20242025Superfine: Tailoring Black StyleMay 10 – October 26, 20252026–2027Costume ArtMay 10, 2026 – January 10, 20272027–2028To be announcedMay 9, 2027 – January 9, 2028Plans for the exhibition John Galliano: Horizons cancelled in August 2026https://www.metmuseum.org/press-releases/john-galliano-horizonshttps://www.metmuseum.org/press-releases/spring-ci-2027-announcement References
External links
Charles James: Beyond Fashion—Link to the 2014 opening exhibition, honoring the work of Charles James Guide to the Metropolitan Museum of Art Digital collections of the Costume Institute Costume Institute Records, 1937–2011 from The Metropolitan Museum of Art Archives, New York.