Ruben Toledo to Receive the National Arts Club’s Medal of Honor in the Field of Fashion

Ruben Toledo, who wears many hats as painter, sculptor, designer, illustrator and fashion chronicler, will receive the National Arts Club’s Medal of Honor in the field of fashion.

The award ceremony will take place March 21 at 6 p.m. at the Tilden Mansion, home of the NAC at 15 Gramercy Park South in New York.

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Previous NAC honorees in fashion have included Geoffrey Beene, Carolina Herrera, Joseph Abboud, Patricia Field, Norma Kamali, Iris Apfel, Narciso Rodriguez, Naeem Khan and Anna Sui.

Tara Cortes, president of the board of governors at the NAC, said of Toledo: “His boundless creativity, exceptional artistic vision, and profound impact on the worlds of fashion and design make him truly deserving of this recognition, as does his ongoing work to celebrate the remarkable life and legacy of the fashion designer Isabel Toledo, his late wife. Toledo wholly embodies the spirit of bold, unbridled creativity, and we look forward to honoring him with our Medal of Honor.”

The artist, known for his illustrations for clients including Louis Vuitton and Nordstrom, had a decades-long partnership with his wife, Isabel Toledo, who passed away in 2019 at the age of 59.  As one of fashion’s strongest power couples, the pair founded Toledo Studio in 1984.

During his more than 40 years as a working artist in many disciplines, Ruben Toledo has designed advertising and marketing campaigns, mannequins, store windows, theater sets, costumes, award statuettes, wallpaper, textiles, scarves, fabrics, dishes, furniture and carpets. In addition to illustrating numerous books, he is the author of “Style Dictionary,” a collection of his satirical drawings and watercolors. He has collaborated with top fashion magazines and journals and his work has been exhibited at museums including the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Costume Institute, The Victoria and Albert Museum, MoMu in Antwerp, and The Museum at FIT.

In collaboration with his late wife, he was awarded a Cooper Hewitt National Design Award and the Andre Leon Talley Lifetime Achievement Award from Savannah College of Art and Design.

Filmmaker Chiara Clemente is at work on “Izzy,” a documentary that chronicles Isabel Toledo’s life with her husband and longtime creative collaborator. Clemente said Monday that she aims to release it next year. “Theirs is a rare and beautiful love story about two brilliantly creative young immigrants, who at a very young age became one.  It is a joyful story about endless imagination and perseverance. It is about two people fearlessly building their own world to live and work in. They represent the American dream and there is not a more important time to be reminded of what this country was built on,” said Clemente.

Isabel Toledo received global attention after dressing Michelle Obama for the 2009 swearing-in ceremony for her husband Barack’s first inauguration.

Speaking at the NAC event will be journalists Alina Cho, Wendy Goodman and Vanessa Friedman; Molly Ringwald, actor, singer and author, and Valerie Steele, director and chief curator of The Museum at the Fashion Institute of Technology and NAC Medal of Honor recipient in 2022.

“Ruben Toledo is a true visionary who has inspired, entertained and educated people for decades with his artistry,” said David Zyla, National Arts Club fashion committee co-chair. “His illustrations and designs display an irreverent wit, a sharp eye, and a stunning use of color. The National Arts Club Medal of Honor is therefore a natural and well-deserved recognition of his remarkable contributions to the worlds of art and fashion.”

Toledo said, “I am deeply humbled to be recognized by the National Arts Club with their Medal of Honor. For a Cuban immigrant who walked past the mystical facade of the National Arts Club as a kid and wondered, ‘Who lives there? What a life they must lead!’, receiving this acknowledgement is tremendously humbling — and to do so amongst so many lifelong friends and collaborators is truly the icing on the cake. For me, the National Arts Club cultivates the elusive connective tissue which bonds together fashion, art, design and all creative endeavors, a salon for thinkers and philosophers. This cross-pollination of ideas is what keeps NYC’s cultural energy so vibrant and mirrors how my late wife Isabel and I existed for 50 years in that magical space between art and fashion, not prioritizing one over the other but enjoying its intoxicating rare blend. I am honored and proud to join and contribute to its enduring legacy.”

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