.... in The Metropolitan Museum of Art

The Costume Institute houses a collection of more than 35,000 costumes
 and accessories spanning five continents and just as many centuries...
arguably the greatest such collection in the world. The matrix of The Costume Institute was 
established with The Museum of Costume Art, an independent entity formed in 1937.
 Led by Neighborhood Playhouse founder Irene Lewisohn, The Museum of Costume Art
 benefited from gifts from Irene Lewisohn and her sister Alice Lewisohn Crowley 
and from theatrical designers Aline Bernstein and Lee Simonson, among others.


  

In 1946, The Museum of Costume Art merged with The Metropolitan Museum of Art, and funds
were raised within the fashion industry to support it.
The Costume Institute became a department in 1959. Diana Vreeland, who served as Special
Consultant from 1972 until her death in 1989, created a spectacular suite of costume exhibitions—including The World of Balenciaga (1973), Romantic and Glamorous Hollywood Design(1974),
The Glory of Russian Costume (1976), and Vanity Fair (1977)—that galvanized audiences
and set the international standard for the opulent exhibition of costume,
chiefly based on loan items.

The Costume Institute continued to present exhibitions that achieved the defining stature
of the earlier Vreeland shows in developing analytical ideas about fashion from
the Institute's collections. These have included:Infra-Apparel (1993), which examined the role of undergarments and clothing's propensity to disclose its underlying structure;
Orientalism: Visions of the East in Western Dress (1994); and Haute Couture (1995).
In addition, there have been monographic exhibitions such as Madame Grès (1994), 
Christian Dior (1996), and Gianni Versace (1997).

In 2000, Harold Koda arrived to lead the Institute as Curator in Charge with exhibitions
that have continued to break new ground including: Charles James: Beyond Fashion (2014),
Dangerous Liaisons: Fashion and Furniture in the 18th Century (2004); Goddess (2003);
and Extreme Beauty: The Body Transformed (2002). Additionally, Andrew Bolton,
Curator (formerly of the Victoria and Albert Museum, London), has contributed his fresh
voice with exhibitions such asBlithe Spirit: The Windsor Set (2002), Bravehearts: 
Men in Skirts (2003), and Alexander McQueen: Savage Beauty(2010).

After a two-year renovation, the redesigned Costume Institute space opened in 2014
as the newly designated Anna Wintour Costume Center.
The complex now includes the Lizzie and Jonathan Tisch Gallery, a main showcase space
with a flexible design that lends itself to frequent transformation with a comprehensive video,
sound, and wireless system, and the Carl and Iris Barrel Apfel Gallery, an orientation space
for The Costume Institute's exhibitions and holdings.
The Center also has a state-of-the-art costume conservation laboratory, an expanded
study/storage facility to house the combined holdings of the Met and the Brooklyn
Museum Costume Collection, and The Irene Lewisohn Costume Reference Library,
one of the world's foremost fashion libraries.

The vast collection of The Costume Institute ranges from works by the father of couture,
Charles Frederick Worth, to iconic examples from the high priestess of chic, Coco Chanel;
from '60s ready-to-wear with pop iconography and disposable paper dresses (1995.178.3)
 to the '70s punk transgressions of Vivienne Westwood; and the innovations of modern
visionaries such as Elsa Schiaparelli, Christian Dior, and Rudi Gernreich to postmodern
designers like Rei Kawakubo and twenty-first-century maverick Alexander McQueen (2003.462).
No other museum in the world supports such an ambitious suite of exhibitions on fashion.
The staff of The Costume Institute tasked with the preservation of this irreplaceable resource
 is also responsible for exhibiting, interpreting, and researching this extraordinarily
comprehensive collection.

As it would be impossible to imagine art in the twenty-first century in New York without
The Metropolitan Museum of Art's presence as keystone and touchstone to ideas and sensibility, contemporary American and international fashion has been equally
enriched by The Costume Institute's exhibitions and research opportunities.

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The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York