Life and Style Lessons from Fashion Icon Iris Apfel

Iris Apfel is a fashion icon and interior designer. With her easily recognizable, eclectic, and bold look, Apfel is considered by many to be one of the first people to reveal and celebrate what we now call personal style. 

Apfel was born in New York on August 29, 1921, and spent time at her grandparents' home in Brooklyn. Her passion for textiles was ignited there after seeing the large quantities of fabric scraps her grandmother kept for her daughters to sew for charity work. She was sometimes allowed to take the remnants home to play with.

In her 2018 book, "Iris Apfel: Accidental Icon," it is impossible not to be moved by her passion after reading: "I am obsessed with texture, color, and pattern, and I spent whole evenings amusing myself this way. Looking back, playing like that clearly dazzled my eye and gave me a very deep interest in fabric."…

Another note-worthy thing she said about creating your own fashion is, “You have to be original enough to be crazy. You have to be true to yourself, you have to know yourself. Don't be a trend follower. You have to learn to take a few risks.”

In 1950, she founded Old World Weavers, an international textile manufacturing company, with her late husband Carl Apfel, who lived to be 100. According to Apfel's obituary in the New York Times, the couple went on to provide fabrics for the State Department, the White House, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and worked with everyone from Greta Garbo to Jackie Kennedy.

She became an international star after the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Costume Institute featured her in "Rara Avis," an exhibition highlighting her brightly colored outfits, oversized glasses, and layered jewelry. The exhibition took place between 2005 and 2006, and Apfel was 84 at the time. Since then, she has become famous for her lifelong love of fashion and her contributions to the industry. She even had a Barbie doll made in her likeness in 2018.

In 2011, Apfel developed a limited-edition makeup collection for MAC Cosmetics and a jewelry line that she sold on the Home Shopping Network. Four years later, a documentary about her, "Iris," was highly acclaimed and even received an Emmy nomination.

Earlier this summer, Apfel released her own coloring book to help spark people's creativity during the coronavirus pandemic.

Now, just shy of a century old, Apfel continues to captivate fans with her inimitable style and words of wisdom.

“I feel that style is in your DNA and it's not really something you can learn,” she said. "I always dress for myself. I don't care what anyone thinks. I'm not a rebel, and I don't do these things to shock anyone. Honestly, I don't care.”

It is impossible not to admire this woman whose eyes shine with light!

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