Irene Albright - Owner/Industry Heavyweight, Albright Fashion Library, Designer Destination

Irene Albright, a real fashion industry maverick and leader, founded the Albright Fashion Library in 1990. With a tagline of Luxury For Hire, this fabulous rental facility has locations in both LA and New York City, on Cooper Square near NoHo. It’s considered a one-stop shop because clients can rent entire designer outfits including shoes, bag and jewelry for a week-long rental fee of $1,500.

The inventory includes a full range of designers, sizes and seasons, plus wedding. It’s a library in terms of the vastness of the collection, but not the business model since the items are rented. The process begins with a $250 appt fee. 

Garments from the library have appeared in many tv shows, including Sex and the City, back in the day, and more recently, Saturday Night Live. The Jenner girls have worn several dresses over the years. An identical version of the showstopping green Versace dress, worn by Jennifer Lopez at the 2000 Grammy’s, is in the collection too. If it fits, you can have it for a week! 

You can see the 60,000 item collection online at AlbrightNYC.com and AlbrightLA.com, just click on the Collection tab to see and reserve items. There are full descriptions of the current and vintage pieces, along with those by emerging designers that Irene’s keen eye noticed and her generous spirit endorses and promotes when stylists come knocking.   

About 50% of the items are photographed on models and the items are organized by year, price, designer (every big one is in there), season (broken into cruise, resort, fall, pre-fall and spring summer), type of item (a bag, boot or belt, for example) but not size.

Some of the celebrities who have been clients include Ariana Grande, Maria Carey, Megan Fox, Lady Gaga, Kristen Bell, Selena Gomez, Angelina Jolie and Tracee Ellis Ross.

It’s truly a museum quality collection, and one day, as Irene hinted, some of the pieces may wind up in a museum, too. But presently, her fans say that it’s not just a business. It’s a home for people who adore fashion.