February 13th 2025
- By Visual Market Retail
Photo: Courtesy of The Metropolitan Museum of Art/ Pari Dukovic/Trunk Archive
Photography by Thomas Iannaccone
The Markopoulos Award is named in honor of the late Andrew Markopoulos, whose high standard of excellence continues to inspire all within the retail design industry. During his tenure as senior vice president of visual merchandising and store design for the department store division of Dayton Hudson, he left an indelible mark on the fabric of the retail design community.
With a heightened sense of dignity, class and vision, Mr. Markopoulos elevated the profession of retail design to an art form. While it’s understood that art serves three main functions, storytelling, cultural commentary and documentation, and enrichment of our lives, Mr. Markopoulos demonstrated that the well designed retail environment does all three.
This year marks the 27th presentation of the Markopoulos Award. The most prestigious honor in the retail design industry, the coveted award has been presented annually since 1997 to recognize the exceptional individuals in the retail design industry who have consistently produced innovative and inspirational work while exemplifying Mr. Markopoulos’s high standard of professionalism.
Presented this year to Andrew Bolton, OBE, Curator in Charge, The Costume Institute at The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Mr. Bolton joined The Costume Institute in 2002 as Associate Curator, and was named Curator in 2006. In January 2016 he became Curator in Charge upon the retirement of his predecessor, Harold Koda. Mr. Bolton has curated some of The Met’s most visited exhibitions, including Alexander McQueen: Savage Beauty (2011), China: Through the Looking Glass (2015), Camp: Notes on Fashion (2019), and In America: A Lexicon of Fashion and An Anthology of Fashion (2021 and 2022) as well as the Museum’s most attended show Heavenly Bodies: Fashion and the Catholic Imagination (2018), attracting more than 1.65 million visitors to The Met Fifth Avenue and The Met Cloisters. His recent exhibitions include Karl Lagerfeld: A Line of Beauty (2023) and Sleeping Beauties: Reawakening Fashion (2024).
Prior to joining The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Mr. Bolton worked at the Victoria & Albert Museum in London for nine years, as Senior Research Fellow in Contemporary Fashion, and prior to that as Curatorial Assistant in the Far Eastern Department. During this period, he also curated exhibitions at the London College of Fashion. Additionally, he has authored and co-authored more than 20 books, and lectures and contributes scholarly articles to various publications.
Mr. Bolton has received numerous awards, including the Fashion Group International Superstar Award in 2023 and Oracle Award in 2016; the Vilcek Prize in Fashion in 2015; the Best Monographic Exhibition from the Association of Art Museum Curators for Alexander McQueen in 2011; and the Richard Martin Award for Excellence from The Costume Society of America for American Woman in 2010 and also for Poiret (with Harold Koda) in 2007. In June 2023, he became an Officer of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (OBE).
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