After 14 years of overseeing ambitious, crowd-pleasing shows like “Alexander McQueen: Savage Beauty” in 2011 and the recent “China: Through the Looking Glass,” which have helped put the Metropolitan Museum of Art at the crossroads of glamour, fashion, scholarship and art, Harold Koda is retiring as curator in charge of the museum’s Costume Institute. On Tuesday the Met board chose Andrew Bolton, his fellow curator, to succeed him.

大都会艺术博物馆(Metropolitan Museum of Art)时装学院(Costume Institute)的主管哈罗德·科达(Harold Koda)将退休。在任职的14年里，他主管过一些雄心勃勃、受观众喜爱的展览，比如2011年的“亚历山大·麦昆：野性之美”(Alexander McQueen: Savage Beauty)和前不久的“中国：镜花水月”(China: Through the Looking Glass)，帮助该博物馆成为魅力、时尚、学识和艺术的汇集地。周二（9月8日），大都会博物馆董事会任命科达的同事、策展人安德鲁·博尔顿(Andrew Bolton)接任他的职位。

Mr. Koda’s tenure included transferring the Brooklyn Museum’s costume collection to the Met in 2009; reopening the expanded Costume Institute in 2014 after a two-year renovation; and helping to host, with the Vogue editor Anna Wintour, “the party of the year” — the annual Met Gala fund-raiser, which drew a record $12.5 million for the museum in 2015.

科达在任期间的业绩还包括：2009年，他把布鲁克林博物馆(Brooklyn Museum)的服装收藏纳入大都会艺术博物馆；2014年，经过两年的整修扩张，重新开放时装学院；他和《Vogue》主编安娜·温图尔(Anna Wintour)一起协助举办“年度派对”——大都会博物馆慈善晚宴。2015年，该晚宴筹集了1250万美元，打破了记录。

“It’s been an incredible time to be in this field,” Mr. Koda said in a telephone interview. “You’re in the catbird seat of fashion. You can observe and comment on contemporary fashion without any of the risks that designers, merchants and editors have to go through.”

“如今，这个领域处于不可思议的好时候，”科达在电话采访中说，“处于时装业的有利地位。你能对当代服装进行观察和评论，且不必承担设计师、商人和编辑的那些风险。”

The Honolulu-born Mr. Koda, 65 — who will step down in January — guided his department through significant changes since the days when it was institutionally marginal, relegated to the museum basement. He said he would be leaving the institute’s collection of 35,000 costumes and accessories in good hands, having worked closely with the British-born Mr. Bolton, 49, since bringing him to the department in 2002. Mr. Bolton, who worked at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London for nine years before joining the Met, said he had learned from Mr. Koda the value of juxtaposing the old and the new. “There’s almost a tonic effect,” he said. “Historical fashion informs contemporary fashion, and contemporary fashion enlivens historical fashion.”

65岁的科达生于檀香山，将于明年1月退休。他带领这个部门经历了巨大变化。最初，这个边缘部门被排挤到博物馆的地下室。他说，他会把时装学院收藏的3.5万件服装和配饰交到可靠的人手中。博尔顿是科达2002年招进来的，从那时起，他们就一直密切合作。博尔顿生于英国，现年49岁，在加入大都会博物馆前在伦敦的维多利亚与艾伯特博物馆(Victoria and Albert Museum)工作了九年。博尔顿说，他从科达那里懂得了把新与旧放置在一起的价值。“它们相得益彰，”他说，“历史服装渗透到当代服装中，当代服装赋予历史服装活力。”

With its choice, the board of directors may be signaling more than the quiet passing of a baton. Scholarship in the field has been radically redrawn in recent years to accommodate an evolving understanding of the sociocultural and even anthropological role of costume and fashion. Mr. Bolton brought a form of Imagineering showmanship to exhibitions that looked at fashion through the prism of punk rock; paired Elsa Schiaparelli with Miuccia Prada to create a feminist dialogue expressed through design; and proposed in the 2008 show “Superheroes” that Wonder Woman may have been as influential a style avatar as any fashion editor.

董事会通过这项任命可能想表明，这不只是安静的权力交接。近些年，人们对服装和时尚在社会文化和人类学中的角色有了新理解，这一领域的学问也随之发生了彻底改变。博尔顿把充满想象力的吸引观众的才能带到展览中：透过朋克摇滚审视时装；把埃尔莎·夏帕瑞丽(Elsa Schiaparelli)和缪西娅·普拉达(Miuccia Prada)放在一起，呈现一场通过设计表达的女权主义对话；在2008年的展览“超级英雄”(Superheroes)中，他指出，神奇女侠(Wonder Woman)可能和时尚编辑一样是具有强大影响力的时尚化身。

He has also organized two of the most popular shows in the museum’s history. Crowds lined up for hours in 2011 to view “Alexander McQueen: Savage Beauty,” the critically acclaimed and creatively installed retrospective of work by a visionary yet tortured designer, who was as much sculptor as dressmaker, and who committed suicide in 2010. The exhibition drew more than 661,000 visitors (at a time before the museum decided to remain open seven days a week).

他还组织了该博物馆历史上最受欢迎的两场展览。2011年，观众排队数小时，等待观看“亚历山大·麦昆：野性之美”(Alexander McQueen: Savage Beauty)。那场展览回顾了这位充满想象力却饱受折磨的设计师的作品。麦昆不仅是服装设计师，也是雕塑家，于2010年自杀。展览布置得很有创意，广受好评，吸引了超过66.1万观众（那时候，博物馆尚未决定一周开放七天）。

More recently, Mr. Bolton shepherded “China: Through the Looking Glass,” which incorporated multiple departments. That three-floor show, which closed on Monday, drew about 816,000 visitors during its four-month run.

前不久，博尔顿策划了“中国：镜花水月”(China: Through the Looking Glass)，它结合了多个部门，占据了三个楼层。展览周一（9月7日）闭幕，在四个月的时间里共吸引约81.6万名观众。

The challenge for the institute going forward is to keep an increasingly digital world coming in the door to see three-dimensional objects. The institute’s collection represents clothing and accessories from the 15th century to the present.

时装学院面临的挑战是让生活在这个越来越数字化的世界里的人来这里观看真实的三维物品。这里收藏着从15世纪至今的各种服装和配饰。

The department has been experimenting with various forms of technology, and Thomas P. Campbell, the Met’s director, said he expected that “we’ll see more” under Mr. Bolton.

时装学院试验了各种技术。博物馆馆长托马斯·P·坎贝尔(Thomas P. Campbell)说，他期待在博尔顿的领导下，“我们能看到更多”。

Last year’s show “Charles James: Beyond Fashion,” for example, organized by Mr. Koda, featured robotic arms and screens near the dresses showing how they were constructed. The China show incorporated a life-size bamboo forest of illuminated Plexiglas wands, film selections assembled by the Hong Kong director Wong Kar Wai and costumes ranging from imperial robes to a contemporary dress with a bodice made from blue-and-white porcelain.

比如，在去年科达策划的“查尔斯·詹姆斯：超越时尚”展(Charles James: Beyond Fashion)上，连衣裙旁摆着机械臂和屏幕，展示这些服装是怎样做成的。“中国：镜花水月”展上包括用发光树脂玻璃棒做成的实物大小的竹林；香港导演王家卫编排的电影剪辑；以及从旗袍到上身为青花瓷图案的当代连衣裙等各种服装。

“I love to engage more elements of technology into our exhibitions,” said Mr. Bolton, who favors boyish suits tailored by his partner, the designer Thom Browne, “to examine early examples of fashion that aren’t represented in the collection, like Elizabethan dress.”

“我喜欢把更多技术元素融入展览，探讨早期的一些服装范例，比如伊丽莎白一世时代的连衣裙，”博尔顿说。他很喜欢男朋友桑姆·布郎尼(Thom Browne)设计的男孩子气西服。

With a more informed public constantly checking fashion blogs, the bar for the institute has been raised. “You can no longer present costume as, ‘Oh, isn’t this a pretty dress — it’s from the 1890s,’ ” Mr. Koda said. “You have to do it in a way that engages larger issues.”

现在的观众消息灵通，他们在不断查看时尚博客，所以时装学院面临着更大的挑战。“你不能再这样展示服装：‘哦，这件连衣裙很漂亮，不是吗？它是19世纪90年代的’，”科达说，“你必须换一种方式，融入更宏大的话题。”

The broad appeal of the institute’s shows can backfire with critics, who sometimes take the museum to task for pandering to the public or blurring the lines between art and commerce.

时装学院的展览广受欢迎，却遭到一些批评家的非议，他们认为大都会博物馆过于迎合观众，模糊了艺术和商业的界线。

In her review of the 2013 show “Punk: Chaos to Couture,” which Mr. Bolton organized, Roberta Smith of The New York Times wrote that “fashion has rarely looked as frivolous, beside the point and 1 percent-ish as here.”

《纽约时报》的罗伯塔·史密斯(Roberta Smith)在评论博尔顿2013年组织的“朋克：从混乱到时装”展(Punk: Chaos to Couture)时写道：“时装很少像在这场展览中这样显得轻浮而无关紧要。”

And, while Holland Cotter in The Times commended the 2012 exhibition “Schiaparelli and Prada: Impossible Conversations” for its “tight thesis,” he also noted that “the primary sponsor for this exhibition is Amazon.com,” which “has recently initiated a major effort to sell high-end fashion online.”

虽然霍兰德·科特(Holland Cotter)在《纽约时报》上称赞2012年的“夏帕瑞丽和普拉达：不可能的对话”展(Schiaparelli and Prada: Impossible Conversations)“主题简洁”，但是也指出，“这次展览的主要赞助人是亚马逊网站”，“前不久该网站刚开始大力发展网售高级时装”。

Mr. Koda and Mr. Bolton say they often tire of having to defend their subject area as a legitimate art form that is not beholden to the fashion industry.

科达和博尔顿都说，他们厌倦了经常需要解释自己的主题领域是一种真正的艺术形式，不依赖于时装业。

“There is this belief that you’re just puppets,” Mr. Koda said. “We don’t work for the brand, we work for the museum.”

“有人认为，我们只是傀儡，”科达说，“而实际上，我们不是为时装品牌工作，而是为博物馆工作。”

“We’ve never said all clothing is art,” he added. “There can be certain design achievements that are so conceptually and technologically rich and innovative that they approach the standards and criteria of an artwork.”

“我们从未说过，所有的服装都是艺术品，”他补充说，“但是某些服装从概念和技术上都丰富新颖，接近艺术品。”

Mr. Bolton expressed frustration that “people still cling to a 19th-century hierarchy of art.”

博尔顿对“人们仍坚守19世纪的艺术等级观”而感到沮丧。

“The artistry of clothing as an aesthetic medium is just as important as painting and sculpture,” he said, “to offer new ways of looking at clothes and new ways of interpreting clothes through the lens of history and aesthetics, but through trends of culture or psychology.”

“作为一种美学载体，服装的艺术性与绘画和雕塑一样重要，”他说，“[我想]提供审视和阐释服装的新方法，不仅是从历史和审美的角度，而且是从文化或心理学潮流的角度。”

The Costume Institute has the strong support of the museum. Also crucial to the collection, which has costly storage and conservation requirements, has been the support of Ms. Wintour, who made possible the renovation. (It reopened last year as the Anna Wintour Costume Center.) “She’s our rainmaker,” Mr. Koda said.

服装学院得到了博物馆的大力支持。这些服装藏品的保存和维护费用高昂，对它们来说，同样重要的是温图尔的支持，是她让整修成为可能（时装学院的场馆去年整修后重新开放，更名为安娜·温图尔服装中心[Anna Wintour Costume Center]）。“她是我们的超级说客，”科达说。

Ms. Wintour said that the institute had been an important “resource for the fashion industry and for the public,” adding, “It puts fashion into a context that you don’t see anywhere else.”

温图尔说，时装学院已经成为“时装业和公众的”重要“资源”，“它把时装置于独特的背景中，这是你在其他任何地方都看不到的”。

While leading the institute, Mr. Koda built on the foundations laid by the visionary fashion editor Diana Vreeland, who was installed as head of the Costume Institute by the former Met director Thomas Hoving, and followed by the art historian Richard Martin.

科达领导的时装学院是在有远见的时尚主编戴安娜·弗里兰(Diana Vreeland)铺垫的基础上发展起来的。大都会博物馆的时任馆长托马斯·霍温(Thomas Hoving)任命弗里兰兼任时装学院的主管，之后的主管是艺术史学家理查德·马丁(Richard Martin)。

In addition to presenting shows focusing on single designers, the institute began to draw on the museum’s other collections in exhibitions like “Dangerous Liaisons: Fashion and Furniture in the 18th Century,” in 2004, which presented 33 pre-French Revolution garments in 18th-century French period rooms, or “AngloMania: Tradition and Transgression in British Fashion” in 2006, which crammed 65 mannequins into the Met’s normally serene English period rooms — with sound effects.

除了推出单个设计师的展览，时装学院开始利用博物馆其他部门的藏品，比如2004年的“危险关系：18世纪的时装和家具”展(Dangerous Liaisons: Fashion and Furniture in the 18th Century)或者2006年的“英格兰狂：英国时装的传统与不羁”展(AngloMania: Tradition and Transgression in British Fashion)，后者把65个人体模型放入通常宁静的英国历史展厅，还加了音效。

“I do try and tell a story — to start out with an overarching theme, then break it down,” Mr. Bolton said. “I really believe clothing carries all kinds of narratives. And it’s up to the curators to make them legible.”

“我的确努力去讲述一个故事——从一个宏大的主题出发，再把它分解开，”博尔顿说，“我真的认为，服装承载着各种故事，要靠策展人把它们讲清楚。”