Irene Sharaff (January 23, 1910 – August 16, 1993) was an Americancostume designer for stage and screen. Her accolades include five Academy Awards and a Tony Award. Sharaff is universally recognized as one of the greatest costume designers of all time.

Sharaff was born inBoston to parents ofArmenian descent. She studied at theNew York School of Fine and Applied Arts, theArt Students League of New York, and theAcadémie de la Grande Chaumière in Paris.

After working as a fashion illustrator in her youth, Sharaff turned to set and costume design. Her debut production was the 1931Broadway production ofAlice in Wonderland, starringEva Le Gallienne. Her use of silks from Thailand forThe King and I (1951) created a trend in fashion and interior decoration.^[1]

Sharaff's work was featured in the moviesWest Side Story (Academy Award, 1961),Cleopatra (Academy Award, 1963),Meet Me in St. Louis,Hello, Dolly!,Mommie Dearest,The Other Side of Midnight,Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (Academy Award, 1966),Guys and Dolls,The Best Years of Our Lives,The King and I (Academy Award, 1956),An American in Paris (Academy Award, 1951),Funny Girl andPorgy and Bess.

She also designed sets and costumes forAmerican Ballet Theatre, theNew York City Ballet, and theBallet Russe de Monte Carlo, and contributed illustrations to fashion magazine's such as Vogue and Harper's Bazaar. Among her Broadway design credits areIdiot's Delight,Lady in the Dark,As Thousands Cheer,A Tree Grows in Brooklyn,Virginia,Flower Drum Song, andJerome Robbins' Broadway.

TheTDF/Irene Sharaff Lifetime Achievement Award was named for Sharaff. She was its first recipient in 1993. The award is now bestowed annually to a costume designer who, over the course of his or her career, has achieved great distinction and mastery of the art in theatre, film, opera or dance.^[2][3]

Sharaff died in New York City ofcongestive heart failure, complicated byemphysema, at the age of 83.^[1] She bequeathed her collection of books, along with that of her partner,Mai-Mai Sze, to theNew York Society Library.^[4]

• Sharaff was the first recipient of theTDF/Irene Sharaff Lifetime Achievement Award in 1993, which was named in her honor.^[26]
• Sharaff was inducted into theAmerican Theater Hall of Fame in 1997.^[27]

• Sharaff, Irene.Broadway and Hollywood: Costumes Designed by Irene Sharaff, Van Nostrand Reinhold Co (1976)

• Irene Sharaff atIMDb
• Irene Sharaff at theInternet Broadway Database
• Irene Sharaff Papers. Yale Collection of American Literature, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale University.
• http://www.nysoclib.org/collection/sharaff-sze-collectionArchived March 4, 2016, at theWayback Machine

• 1910 births
• 1993 deaths
• 20th-century American LGBTQ people
• Alumni of the Académie de la Grande Chaumière
• American costume designers
• American lesbian artists
• American people of Armenian descent
• American women costume designers
• Artists from Boston
• Artists from New York City
• Best Costume Design Academy Award winners
• Deaths from emphysema
• LGBTQ fashion designers
• LGBTQ people from New York (state)
• LGBTQ people from Massachusetts
• Parsons School of Design alumni
• Tony Award winners

• Webarchive template wayback links
• Articles with short description
• Short description is different from Wikidata
• Use mdy dates from May 2021
• Articles with hCards
• IBDB name template using Wikidata