Who is Iris Apfel? Get to Know the Vibrant Fashion Icon Who Turns 101 Today
Learn a bit more about Iris Apfel, the model, businesswoman, and exquisite dresser, on her 101st birthday.
Youth is a central source of admiration and fawning in our society. Older women strive to look younger. Teenage girls are just starting to believe their best years are passing them by. It's a sad sort of cycle, one that puts women out to pasture about as soon as they've graduated from training bras.
Then there is Iris Apfel, a lone fighter against the system, a self-proclaimed "geriatric starlet." Recognized for her more-is-more approach to accessorizing, Apfel has become a viral sensation in recent years, inspiring all generations.
If one thing can be said of Apfel's hometown of New York: the city rewards style. Apfel was born in Queens in 1921, the daughter of two Jewish farmers. At 12 years old, Apfel began taking the train into Manhattan to shop at local antique stores. It was then that her vast jewelry collection began.
“At that time you could ride the whole subway system for a nickel, so each week I would take a different section of New York—Chinatown, Yorkville, Harlem, Greenwich Village. And I really fell in love with the Village,” she told The Guardian. “The Village was where I started to poke around antique shops and become enchanted with all this old junk.”
In the late '40s, Apfel met her husband Carl. The two went on to found a textile company called Old World Weavers. They specialized in recreating vintage textiles and got themselves a contract with the White House, going on to work for nine different presidents. There, Apfel earned herself the nickname “First Lady of Fabric” or “Our Lady of the Cloth."
Apfel and her husband became world travelers, going all across the globe in search of unique textiles, wonderful clothes, and one-of-a-kind home furnishings for Apfel's side gig as an interior decorator.
Everything changed for Apfel in 2005 when The Met's Costume Institute decided to make her the centerpiece of an exhibition titled Rara Avis: Selections from the Iris Apfel Collection. The previously-scheduled show had been canceled and in a moment of inspiration, Harold Koda, the curator, decided to contact Apfel about her renowned collection of costume jewelry.
The resulting show featured Apfel's jewelry, fantastical clothes, and signature tortoise shell glasses. Of her eclectic style, the museum wrote, "An American original in the truest sense, Iris Apfel is one of the most vivacious personalities in the worlds of fashion, textiles, and interior design, and over the past 40 years, she has cultivated a personal style that is both witty and exuberantly idiosyncratic."
The Met exhibition put Apfel on the map for those outside of New York fashion circles. Her fame was then further elevated by a 2015 documentary titled Iris. It showed the life and fashion sensibilities of Apfel and her husband.
Apfel's trademark outfit, round glasses with costume jewelry and printed garments, made her a recognizable figure in fashion spheres. Her look became a favorite for Halloween costumes and dress-up parties. Her style tips were blasted across the blogosphere. In 2018, Mattel made a Barbie doll version of Apfel, the brand's highest possible honor.
She then signed a modeling contract with IMG in 2019, at the encouragement of Tommy Hilfiger. Apfel has since appeared in numerous advertising campaigns and brand partnerships. Last year, five days before her 100th birthday, she released The Iris Apfel Zentennial Collection with Zenni Optical. The capsule collection is a line of eyewear, five different frames that reflect Apfel's personal accessory philosophy.
"An outfit isn’t complete without a signature accessory, or many, to show off your individuality. Mine are glasses—the bigger and brighter, the better,” she said.
As the saying goes, age is just a number. But, with the way Apfel wears it, late life is also her best accessory to date.
