Iris Apfel, Colorful Fashion Icon, Dead at 102
Iris Apfel, the larger-than-life fashion icon and interior designer whose Instagram bio fittingly declares “More is more & less is a bore,” has died at 102. She was the subject of filmmaker Albert Maysles’s 2014 documentary Iris, which was shortlisted for an Oscar. A spokesman for her estate also confirmed to the New York Times that she died in her home in Palm Beach, Florida, and Apfel’s official Instagram account also announced the news in a Friday post. Apfel’s agent, Lori Sale, told Vulture in a statement that working with Apfel was the “honor of a lifetime.” “She was a visionary in every sense of the word. She saw the world through a unique lens – one adorned with giant, distinctive spectacles that sat atop her nose,” Sale said. “Through those lenses, she saw the world as a kaleidoscope of color, a canvas of patterns and prints. Her artistic eye transformed the mundane into the extraordinary and her ability to blend the unconventional with the elegant was nothing short of magical.”
Born in Astoria in Queens, New York in 1921, Apfel became a collector at age 12 in a Greenwich Village basement, where she haggled for a brooch that became the first of countless pieces she acquired throughout her life. She would eventually become a legendary lender. (In 2005, the Metropolitan Museum of Art displayed items from her colorfully striking wardrobe in its first ever exhibition dedicated to a single person’s clothing collection.) After studying art history at NYU and attending fine arts school at Wisconsin University, Apfel’s post-grad career brought her to Women’s Wear Daily, where she worked under interior designer Elinor Johnson. She went on to found fabric company Old World Weavers with her husband, Carl Apfel, and the couple helped restore the White House during nine presidencies.
Apfel’s stacked resume also includes jobs as a textile guru, visiting professor, brand ambassador, and social media star. She has collaborated with companies on collections of eyewear, clothing, beauty products, and rugs. The so-called “geriatric starlet” signed a modeling contract with IMG at age 97. A couple weeks after her 100th birthday, she told the Cut, “I never take a break. I love to work.” (Naturally, she also used her birthday party that year as a chance to debut a sneak peek at her latest H&M collection.)
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