Debra McGuire is a very well-known 3-time Emmy award nominated costume designer and artist whose work spans film, television and theatre. She has impacted audiences all over the world.

You’ve likely seen her costumes on the cast of the TV show Friends for all 10 seasons and it’s still airing as reruns. And maybe you’ve seen her costumes in hits like Anchorman, he 40 year old Virgin, Knocked Up, Freaks and Geeks, New Girl, Walk Hard, Game Night and Year One.

The occasion for our conversation is the release of her new book “Dressing the Story, the Art of Costume Design.” This book is an absolute master class for the work that’s involved with all aspects of the industry. It’s written as a conversation, with a question and answer approach which is very effective and covers an enormous range of material.

Debra has designed for many of director Judd Apatow’s movies and Jake Kasdan’s projects and for Jennifer Aniston on The Morning Show. Her most recent film work includes the feature Mayday, starring Kenneth Branagh and Ryan Reynolds and Super Troopers 3. She’s currently working on a film starring Kevin Hart.

Initially working as a fine artist, Debra began as a painter in the Bay Area before expanding into jewelry, accessories, fashion and couture, including a decade running her eponymous boutique in Pacific Palisades where she sold her self-designed clothing. She has been a guest speaker at galleries, art institutions, and festivals around the world.

Debra has been so successful as a costume designer in part because she excels at using clothing to communicate personality, relationships, humor and character development. She understands that her work is not to make actors simply look fashionable, instead she uses clothing to support storytelling and help directors establish a film or tv show’s world. It’s all about visual storytelling.

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.

This episode explores the work and world of Donald J Pliner, a true fashion icon who built his eponymous footwear brand and ran it for 35 years. He’s joined by his wife and creative partner Lisa F Pliner who has deep roots in fashion and wrapped her innovative visions around many of Donald’s products.

The occasion for our conversation is the recent release of a book the captures the history of the Pliners’ fashion journey. Titled DONALD J PLINER: The Selling of One’s Sole, the book chronicles Donald’s rags to riches life story. It’s a tale of entrepreneurship, imagination, good ideas, some bad decisions, legal turmoil, health setbacks, pop culture and love. I’d sat it’s as inspirational as it is cautionary.

The book emphasizes two major themes – Donald’s bottomless pool of creative talent and energy, along with the endless support of Lisa who is an artist, model, muse and noted shoe designer in her own right. I own a pair of heels she created with neat rock studs and I love them! She studied at the renowned Parsons School of Design in Paris, France. Then she returned to the US to work with fashion legend Gianni Versace as he launched his career in S. Beach. She met Donald in 1997 and they’ve been together ever since then, collaborating on everything.

Donald likes to say that “When the feet are comfortable, so are the mind, body and soul.”

He is rare in many ways since he designed shoes and clothes for both men and women. He also created interior furnishings, and owned some incredible real estate around the country, including a very glamorous house on Star Island in South Beach.

In 2025, Donald was inducted into the prestigious Fashion Hall of Fame at Kent State University’s School of Fashion.

One last chunk of biographical history…Donald grew up in the shoe business. His father, an immigrant from what is now Poland, was the proprietor of a chain of fashion footwear stores on the south side of Chicago. As a child, Donald spent time in the stores and eventually worked as a salesperson. With entrepreneurship scribbled all over his childhood, he later opened his own emporium on Rodeo Drive in Beverly Hills in the 1980s. In 2011, after a long and successful run, he sold his Donald J Pliner shoe brand to a private equity firm.

Like any business, fashion can be harsh. Donald is a survivor.