Welcome to Magazine Heaven: Library180 Debuts in the Financial District

The most coveted accessory among fashion obsessives this season? A three-by-two-inch red library card, granting access to a newly opened nirvana of print. Library180—a passion project realized by print-philes Nikki Igol and Steven Chaiken—is now open in the Financial District, offering a free, by-appointment reference library filled with vintage magazines, rare zines, and obscure printed matter.

In true analog spirit, Igol and Chaiken introduced Library180 with a snail-mailed invitation tucked alongside those lipstick-red library cards. Their curiosity piqued, guests—including editors, publishers, photographers, and industry creatives—gathered for a champagne-fueled fête on the 26th floor of the WSA Building at 180 Maiden Lane.

What awaited them was a light-filled space with sweeping East River views and a heavenly hush—think Morgan Freeman’s celestial office in Bruce Almighty. Lining the periphery, pristine white lacquered shelves brimmed with perfectly stacked spines: Vogue editions from across the globe, coffee table tomes, and back issues of cult magazines from decades past. Guests made beelines for their favorite eras—’70s, ’80s, ’90s—leafing through covers like old friends.

Most of the collection was originally amassed by Igol, a longtime researcher and archivist. A chance coffee reunion with former V magazine colleague Chaiken led to the idea: why not create a public resource from her archive?

Word traveled fast. Soon, offers of donations came pouring in. “The kindness and interest of other people will be what keeps the library alive,” Igol told Vogue. “One man messaged me on Instagram to say his father was the original publisher of People magazine in the 1970s—he asked if we wanted the whole run.” For the opening, Igol fittingly wore a Jean Paul Gaultier black-and-white trompe-l œil dress that called to mind ink on a printing press.

The library is nothing short of a smörgåsbord for the visually inclined. Guests crouched before shelves, thumbing through zines they’d never heard of, marveling at Japanese airbrush art anthologies, or snapping photos of oversized Visionaire issues. Cecilia Dean, co-founder of Visionaire and V (and former boss to Igol and Chaiken), was on hand to toast the launch—and to donate her personal archive to the project.

Open to all, Library180 is already hosting industry image research field trips and hopes to soon welcome school children. “That would be so fun,” Igol said with a smile. “They obviously just can’t go into the back room…”

Ah yes, the back room. When Dame Pat McGrath arrived, the hosts ushered her behind a chain-link curtain: “Right this way! Come into the smut room.” There, a NSFW trove of erotica and fetish magazines awaited—alongside kinky trinkets and curiosities Igol has collected over three decades, including many sourced from Amsterdam. “Every time I go, I bring an empty suitcase,” she said.

As the night wore on, stools were pulled up, chairs reclined, and guests sank into that nostalgic pleasure of curling up with a glossy. “Please, just two more minutes,” one attendee begged a friend, too enthralled by a Y2K-era issue of POP to leave for dinner.

A visit to Library180? Consider it a page-turner in every sense.