Curator and Author

Biography:
Harold Koda, curator and author, is the former Curator in Charge of The Costume Institute at The Metropolitan Museum of Art. There he directed an ambitious program of exhibitions and publications that extended the breadth of its audience and transformed the museological interpretation of fashion. Since 1980, he curated over 50 exhibitions primarily during his tenure at the Fashion Institute of Technology and The Costume Institute, but also at the Guggenheim Museum, The Bass Museum, and other smaller galleries. His exhibitions have been recognized by awards and citations from The Costume Society of America and the Association Internationale des Critiques d’Art. He is the author and co-author of 20 books, and lectures widely.

Under his tenure, Koda was responsible for initiating and orchestrating the transfer of the Brooklyn Museum’s storied costume collection to the Met in 2009. Additionally, he oversaw The Costume Institute’s first major capital renovation in forty years, resulting in a state-of-the-art facility that reopened as the Anna Wintour Costume Center in 2014.

A sansei born in Honolulu, Koda attended ʻAiea High School, followed by the University of Hawaiʻi where he graduated with a dual B.A./B.F.A. in English Literature and Art History. He later received an M.L.A. in Landscape Architecture from Harvard University’s Graduate School of Design. In addition, he is the recipient of Honorary Doctorates from the University of the Arts London in 2014 and Drexel University in 2016 for his contributions to the field of Costume Studies. He has been honored with awards for his professional contributions and achievements in the worlds of fashion and museums from the Council of Fashion Designer’s of America, the Fashion Group International, Hofstra University, Pratt Institute, and Bard College among others. He has participated in Hawaiian Airlines/Honolulu Magazine Honolulu Fashion Week events, first as a guest speaker and later as an informal advisor. He is currently working on a book defining the concepts of elegance and glamour.

With Made in Hawaiʻi, Koda brings the perspective of someone with a lifetime relationship to the Islands informed by his experiences in the New York fashion system. The past decade has witnessed an upheaval in the centralized structure of fashion businesses. From design houses to retailers and traditional print media, the tectonic shift in past modes of the industry practice present unprecedented openings for new alternatives to be developed and deployed. With the diffusion of influence in matters of style through social media and the fragmenting of distribution systems where products sold from almost anywhere in the world can be in a consumer’s hands within a week, the fashion system has transformed to the point that prior challenges related to Hawaiʻi’s geographic isolation are no longer as consequential or inhibitory. Instead, Hawaiʻi’s positioning at the global intersection of the East and West, always an asset, becomes even more of a compelling strength. Hawaiʻi, with its pre-existing elements of cultural diversity, commitment to environmental impact and sustainability, natural affinity for holistic approaches to health and fitness, and an evocative “branded” image of paradisiacal allure, is perfectly poised to seize the opportunities of the realignments of this moment and establish itself as a creative player in the developing contemporary fashion arena.