All for rent, at Albright Fashion Library.   (Photo: Nina Choi/Courtesy of the Albright Fashion Library)

• Albright Fashion Library

  62 Cooper Sq., nr. Astor Pl.; 212-977-7350; albrightnyc.com

  Plenty of rent-a-frock services will let you lease a $15,000 gown for a night. What’s different about the Albright Fashion Library is the head-to-toe service. The eternally chic Irene Albright’s firm has dressed its share of celebrities, reportedly including Demi Moore and Meryl Streep, but only recently has Albright opened up her 7,000-square-foot “closet” to general clients. It’s fashion heaven in there—from Balenciaga to Balmain, plus 7,000 pairs of shoes—and Irene, her daughter Marina, and their creative director Patricia Black can have you done up from head to toe in less than an hour. “It becomes about the event you are going to, the woman you are, and who you’re meeting: your boyfriend’s mother, the board, or a gala,” says Black. It’ll also run you about $1,000, which is a lot. But much less than the Oscar de la Renta dress you’d otherwise buy—and either way, you’ll wear it only once.

From the 2011 Best of New York issue of New York Magazine