Despite preferring to be more of a behind-the-scenes person, Andrew Bolton, the chief curator in charge at the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Costume Institute, stepped into the spotlight Tuesday night to accept the Markopoulos Award.
Ralph Pucci hosted the ceremony in his New York City showroom, where Anna Sui, Nicole Miller, Bergdorf Goodman’s Linda Fargo, Saks Fifth Avenue’s Roopal Patel, Nancy Chilton and Nicole Fischelis were among the guests. Bolton’s partner Thom Browne wasn’t in the crowd, but his designs were well-represented thanks to Amy Fine Collins, Miki Higasa and Jordan Roth. The Brooklyn Museum’s senior curator of fashion and material culture and a previous recipient of the award Matthew Yokobosky and The Met’s Mika Kiyono and Alexandra Fizer were also on hand.
Introduced in 1997 in honor of Andrew Markopoulos, a visual merchandising and store design specialist, the award celebrates such like-minded creatives whose work inspires others. His daughter Nicole Markopoulos McCullar said Bolton’s work “underlines the values” that her father “held dear — sharing design, art and history in a way that educates and inspires.”
Before presenting the award, Fargo, Bergdorf Goodman’s senior vice president of fashion, spoke of Bolton’s career. Raised in a small town in northern England, Bolton first studied anthropology before venturing into fashion, and initially embarked on what was supposed to be a two-year commitment. First named an associate curator at the Costume Institute in 2002, four years later his title changed to curator and a decade later, Bolton became curator in charge. She also spoke of some of his breakout shows like “Alexander McQueen: Savage Beauty” in 2011, “China: Through the Looking Glass” in 2015, “Camp: Notes on Fashion” in 2019 and the two-part “In America: A Lexicon of Fashion” and “In America: An Anthology of Fashion” in 2021 and 2022, respectively. Fargo also drew attention to one of the museum’s most attended shows “Heavenly Bodies: Fashion and the Catholic Imagination,” which attracted more than 1.65 million visitors to the Fifth Avenue museum and The Met Cloisters. Fargo also hailed “Karl Lagerfeld: A Line of Beauty” in 2023 and “Sleeping Beauties: Reawakening Fashion,” and noted that Bolton has authored or coauthored more than 20 books.
Fargo said, “In all my years in and around fashion and the design spheres, I have never met anyone, who comes close to putting context and perspective around fashion and its role in society the way that Andrew Bolton is able to. Every moment with him, or his books or exhibitions are a don’t-miss master class. He causes us to reconsider, recontextualize, challenge our assumptions and deepen our relationship to fashion history and cultural forces.”
Anna Sui
Thomas Iannaccone
Scholarly as Bolton is, he’s also a lot of fun, according to Sui, who said during the cocktail hour that most people don’t realize “how funny Andrew is, what a great sense of humor he has and how much fun it is to be with him. Everyone sees the academic side and the intellectual side, but he’s a hoot to be with.”
Jordan Roth and Amy Fine Collins
Photo by Thomas Iannaccone
Afterward, Bolton said the award was “so nice coming from a part of the industry that has informed my work.” He recalled how before moving to New York, he would deliberately visit New York over the holidays in order to see the store window displays overseen by Fargo at Bergdorf Goodman and by Simon Doonan at Barneys. “They have always been very informative over the years. I’ve always felt that they’ve created these almost perfect tableaux of art that almost transport you into this different world with charming characters and storylines. There are crossovers with the work that I do in terms of the fact that I’m trying to tell a story, create immersive environments or at least environments where I carry the narrative of the exhibition.”
Nicole Miller
Thomas Iannaccone
Bolton also mentioned how the Costume Institute team has worked closely with Pucci, whose company’s mannequins are often used in The Met’s exhibitions, as well as ones from Goldsmith. He also singled out Fargo and Patel, who have promoted some of his shows in window displays in their respective stores. Working on the Costume Institute’s upcoming exhibition “Superfine: Tailoring Black Style” with guest curator Monica L. Miller, Bolton already has another assignment on the agenda — the 2026 exhibition.
