The Costume Institute Team

Clarissa Agate offers administrative assistance in managing the daily operations of The Costume Institute, which includes acting as a point of contact for internal departments and external organizations, as well as serving as an assistant to Curator in Charge, Andrew Bolton. Before joining The Met, she worked as an Auction Coordinator at Auctions at Showplace. Clarissa holds a BA in Art History with minors in Music and Sociocultural Anthropology from Binghamton University.

Andrew Bolton, OBE, has curated some of The Museum's most visited exhibitions, including Alexander McQueen: Savage Beauty (2011), China: Through the Looking Glass (2015), Manus x Machina: Fashion in an Age of Technology (2016), Heavenly Bodies: Fashion and the Catholic Imagination (2018), and Camp: Notes on Fashion (2019). He has written more than twenty books, lectures widely, and contributes to many publications. Prior to joining The Met in 2002, he worked at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London for nine years. Born in Great Britain, Andrew earned a BA and an MA in non-Western art from the University of East Anglia. He has received several awards, including the 2015 Vilcek Prize in Fashion, the 2016 Fashion Group International Oracle Award, the 2022 CFDA Founder’s Award, and the 2023 Fashion Group International Superstar Award.

Photo by Pari Dukovic/Trunk Archive

Alexandra Fizer is the Senior Publicist for The Costume Institute, overseeing communications and media strategy for the department. Prior to joining The Met in November 2021, she was a publicist at Sotheby’s and PR Consulting. She holds a BA in English and minor in Multimedia Writing from Spelman College.

Joyce Fung received her MA in visual culture: costume studies from New York University, and her BS in apparel design from Cornell University, where she worked in the Cornell Costume and Textile Collection. She has assisted with installations at The Costume Institute since Goddess: The Classical Mode (2003), and became the primary dresser for the department in 2010, with Alexander McQueen: Savage Beauty (2011) serving as her inaugural exhibition. Prior to her role in installation, she worked on imaging and exhibition research for the department. Joyce first came to The Met as a high school apprentice in the Department of Egyptian Art.

Amanda Garfinkel specializes in contemporary fashion. Since joining the department in 2007, she has contributed to several exhibitions and catalogues, including Alexander McQueen: Savage Beauty (2011), Manus x Machina: Fashion in an Age of Technology (2016), Rei Kawakubo/Comme des Garçons: Art of the In-Between (2017), Camp: Notes on Fashion (2019), About Time: Fashion and Duration (2020–21) and In America: A Lexicon of Fashion (2021–22). She holds an MA in decorative arts, design, and culture from Bard Graduate Center and a BFA in crafts and art history from Virginia Commonwealth University.

William DeGregorio specializes in eighteenth- and nineteenth-century fashion. He holds an MA and PhD from the Bard Graduate Center. Previously he worked as a Conservation Technician at the Museum of the City of New York and as a research associate at Cora Ginsburg LLC. Mostly recently the co-author of The Percival D. Griffiths Collection: English Needlework 1600–1740 (2023), he has contributed to numerous exhibitions and publications, including Arnold Scaasi: American Couturier (MFA Boston, 2010), Stephen Burrows: When Fashion Danced (MCNY, 2013), Salvaging the Past: Georges Hoentschel and French Decorative Arts from The Metropolitan Museum of Art (MMA, 2013), Elegance in an Age of Crisis: Fashions of the 1930s (FIT, 2014), and Mod New York: Fashion Takes A Trip (MCNY, 2018). His academic research concerns the relationship between fashion and museums, exploring how public consciousness of the history of fashion is formed.

Kaelyn Garcia, who joined The Costume Institute in 2024, manages the conservation of new acquisitions and contributes to departmental exhibitions. She received her BFA in fashion design with a minor in art history from Columbia College Chicago and her MA from the Fashion Institute of Technology in textile conservation. Kaelyn was previously the Polaire Weissman Fund Fellow in conservation at The Costume Institute and a post-graduate fellow in Costumes and Textile Conservation at the Philadelphia Museum of Art. She has held contract conservation positions at the Art Institute of Chicago, the Museum of Arts and Design, and the Museum of the City of New York, and was also an assistant professor of textile conservation in the graduate program at FIT.

Bethany Gingrich provides support in the collections department, including creating permanent storage mounts for objects in the collection. She earned an MA in fashion and textile studies from FIT with a focus on history, theory, and museum practice, and a BFA in crafts and materials studies from Virginia Commonwealth University. Previously she worked for FIT Library Special Collections and as a museum technician in costume and textiles at the Valentine Museum in Richmond, Virginia.

Alyssa Hollander manages all administration for The Costume Institute’s patron group, Friends of The Costume Institute, works with the department to coordinate all member programming and initiatives, and supports overall donor stewardship and fundraising. She is the leading point of contact for purchases of goods and services for The Costume Institute working with The Met’s Procurement team and external vendors. Alyssa supervises the Assistant for Administration in support of departmental daily operations and administrative support for the Curator in Charge. Before joining The Met in August 2017, she worked as a merchandiser for PVH Corp. Alyssa studied at Lafayette College, graduating with a BA double major in art and sociology/anthropology and holds an MA in Visual Arts Administration from New York University.

Mellissa Huber specializes in twentieth-century fashion, and is the educational liaison for The Costume Institute. Since joining the department in 2012, she has co-curated the exhibitions Women Dressing Women (2023) and In Pursuit of Fashion: The Sandy Schreier Collection (2019) and contributed to some of The Met’s most visited shows, including Charles James: Beyond Fashion (2014), Manus x Machina: Fashion in an Age of Technology (2016), Heavenly Bodies: Fashion and the Catholic Imagination (2018). Mellissa holds an MA in visual culture from New York University, where she currently teaches in the Costume Studies graduate program, and a BFA with a minor in art history from the Fashion Institute of Technology.

Ayaka Iida provides curatorial support for special exhibitions and related catalogues. She first joined the museum in 2020 as an Adrienne Arsht intern in Asian Art and The Costume Institute, assisting with research for Kimono Style: The John C. Weber Collection (2022). Previously, she served as Assistant Curator at Japan Society, New York and contributed to exhibitions at the Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum and Asia Society Museum. Her research interests lie in the history of Japanese fashion and textile design, particularly of the twentieth century. She holds a BA from the School of International Liberal Studies at Waseda University, and earned an MA in Costume Studies from New York University, where she completed a thesis on the designer, Hanae Mori.

Mika Kiyono provides support for all facets of communications for The Costume Institute—including overseeing media shoots, handling press inquiries, and coordinating social media for @metcostumeinstitute. Prior to joining The Met in February 2018, she was an associate public relations manager at Black Frame, where she worked on the Rodarte, Opening Ceremony, and MATCHESFASHION.COM accounts. Mika holds a BA in communications with a minor in French from Fordham University.

Stephanie Kramer provides research support to the curatorial team for departmental exhibitions and related catalogues. She has contributed to several exhibitions, including Heavenly Bodies: Fashion and the Catholic Imagination, Camp: Notes on Fashion, In America: A Lexicon of Fashion, In America: An Anthology of Fashion, and Sleeping Beauties: Reawakening Fashion. Prior to joining the Costume Institute team, she was the Research Assistant on The Museum of Modern Art's exhibition Items: Is Fashion Modern? She also teaches fashion history and theory, as well as curatorial practice, at New York University.

Stephanie received an MA in Visual Culture: Costume Studies from New York University, following a career in the fashion industry as the Director of Fabric R&D at Nicole Miller. She currently combines her experience as a practitioner with her research and has a focus in youth subcultures, fashion, and identity.

Julie Lê oversees The Costume Institute's Irene Lewisohn Costume Reference Library as chief custodian of its collection containing over 30,000 books and periodicals, 1,500 designer files, and extensive special collections materials, including fashion plates, photographs, illustrations, textile swatches, lookbooks, archives, and related ephemera. Lê also curates the library's Instagram account, is a co-facilitator for The Costume Institute's DEIA Working Group, and works closely with staff from the Thomas J. Watson Library. Lê holds a BA in Art History from Hunter College and an MSLIS from Pratt Institute with an advanced certificate in archives. She joined the staff of The Met in 2005.

Kai Toussaint Marcel provides research support for Andrew Bolton and the curatorial department. Prior to becoming a Research Assistant at The Costume Institute, they were a member of the research team at The Fashion and Race Database. Kai officially joined The Met as a MuSe intern in 2019, where they worked in The Costume Institute Library with Associate Museum Librarian Julie Lê. Kai holds a BA in Art History and the Cultural History of Dress and Fashion from Sarah Lawrence College and Wadham College at the University of Oxford.

Christopher Mazza has worked at the Costume Institute since 2015. In addition to his work on in-house exhibitions, he focuses on the preventative care of the costume collection. He holds an MA in fashion and textile studies: history, theory, and museum practice from the Fashion Institute of Technology and an MFA in writing from the University of Alaska. Prior to joining The Met, he was the Andrew W. Mellon Fellow for Advanced Training in Textile Conservation at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.

Marci Morimoto has worked for the department since 2003 in multiple collections capacities. In addition to her responsibilities focused on object storage, preventive conservation, and research viewings she is extensively involved in database management, collections emergency response, and manages the offsite storage facility. Her primary area of interest is in American and European fashion of the eighteenth, nineteenth, and early twentieth centuries, with a strong interest in historic costume reproduction and social history. She holds an MA in visual culture: costume studies from New York University and a BA in history and museum studies from Earlham College.

Rebecca Perry facilitates donations and purchases for The Costume Institute's collection as the coordinator for departmental acquisitions. She previously served as the department's curatorial graduate intern, where she assisted with the exhibition research for American Woman: Fashioning a National Identity (2010), Alexander McQueen: Savage Beauty (2011), and Schiaparelli and Prada: Impossible Conversations (2012). She received her BA in art history from Skidmore College and her MA and PhD in the history of the decorative arts, design history, and material culture from the Bard Graduate Center. Her dissertation, “That Difficult In-between Age”: Fashioning Pre-Adolescent Girls in the United States, c.1930-1960, examines the origins of American mass-market pre-teen fashion and beauty culture, as well as how girls navigated the awkward years of adolescence through increasingly prescribed and commercialized dress and grooming rituals.

Glenn Petersen oversees The Costume Institute’s conservation activities for the care and preservation of its collection. His professional practice has focused on the specific issues of costume and its treatment, display, and preservation since entering the field in 1991. Prior to joining the department in 2012, Glenn held staff positions at the Museum at FIT, the Brooklyn Museum Mellon Costume Documentation Project, and the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. He received his BA in mathematics and art history from Wesleyan University and his MA in museum studies: costume and textiles conservation from the Fashion Institute of Technology.

Michelle Ralph-Fortón primarily assists with processing new acquisitions in the collections department. Her time at The Met began in 2016 as a Visitor Experience Ambassador and continued in 2021-22 as an Adrienne Arsht intern at the Antonio Ratti Textile Center and Reference Library. Before joining The Costume Institute in her current role, she assisted in dressing mannequins for Women Dressing Women (2023: catalogue) and Karl Lagerfeld: A Line of Beauty (2023: catalogue and exhibition). Her background includes domestic and international archival roles for designers and textile companies, such as the Center for Traditional Textiles of Cusco, and a conservation treatment on an opera curtain designed by Marc Chagall. Michelle earned an MA in fashion and textile studies: history, theory, and museum practice from the Fashion Institute of Technology and a BFA in fiber and material studies from The School of the Art Institute of Chicago.

Hector Serna is a passionate art handler with a rich background in the art world. With his meticulous approach and extensive knowledge, he ensures the proper handling and installation of artwork within the Museum’s collection. Hector first joined The Met in 2017 in the Registrar Department where he fabricated custom shipping boxes for all outgoing loans. In 2023, he embarked on a new chapter by joining the Costume Institute. Prior to working at The Met, he was a preparator, window display artist, prop stylist assistant, as well as a studio fabricator for artists Matthew Barney and FAILE. Alongside his professional pursuits, he remains an active fine artist and illustrator, continuously fueling his creative expression. Hector holds a BFA in Painting from The Kansas City Art Institute.

Laura Scognamiglio joined the Museum's staff in 1990 and The Costume Institute in 2015. Laura provides senior administrative leadership, under the Curator in Charge, overseeing financial management and planning, administration, and operations. She manages the administrative and collections teams, and departmental technician, collaborates with Development on fundraising, oversees the Friends donor group, serves as departmental HR liaison, and directs all maintenance and buildings projects within the Anna Wintour Costume Center facility. Laura studied fashion design at FIT and earned a BA in art history from Rutgers University with a minor in economics.

Elizabeth Shaeffer is responsible for conservation advisement on outgoing loans, in addition to working on internal exhibitions. She has contributed essays to the Sleeping Beauties (2024) and Women Dressing Women (2023) catalogues. Before joining The Met in 2019, she was associate conservator at the George Washington University Museum and The Textile Museum in Washington DC, and Andrew W. Mellon Fellow in Textiles Conservation at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. Elizabeth is a board member of the North American Textile Conservation Conference. She holds an MS from the Winterthur/University of Delaware Program in Art Conservation.

Shelly Tarter has been with the department since 2015. In her current role, she leads the assessment team’s ongoing research of the CI’s permanent collection. She holds an MA in visual culture: costume studies from New York University, and a BFA in design/technical theatre. Most recently she was selected to present her thesis, “Double—No—Triple Spanx!: Fashion-Body-Dress and Women in Contemporary Comedy,” at the fifteenth annual Richard Martin Visual Culture Symposium at New York University.

Tracy Yoshimura is responsible for the coordination and administration of all loans for The Costume Institute, including incoming exhibition loans, outgoing loans, and interdepartmental loans. She holds an MA in fashion and textile studies: history, theory, museum practice from the Fashion Institute of Technology, where she co-curated the exhibition Youthquake! The 1960s Fashion Revolution. Her thesis traces the history and innovations of New York City's Charivari boutiques, and she is an executive producer of the feature documentary Calendar Girl (2020) about Ruth Finley and the Fashion Calendar. Prior to her current role, she held research and collections positions in the department, and was an adjunct professor in NYU’s costume studies graduate program.