There was simply no one like Iris Apfel.
The unmistakable style icon — who got her start as a “copy girl” at WWD and became a global fashion phenomenon in her 80s — died on Friday at her home in Palm Beach, Fla. She was 102.
While age was certainly a factor in the admiration for Apfel, it was her gumption, tenacity and, of course, cool sense of style that kept the world hanging on her every word.
“I am not the usual fashionista. I don’t follow trends. I’m not one of the mob. I do my own thing. And I like to get that point across,” Apfel said in a 2022 FN cover story in which she was photographed wearing a bright blue Tom Ford feather coat and a choker necklace with matching cuff bracelets. “I never felt I had to conform. I didn’t have to conform. I wanted to do everything but. So why should I? I wouldn’t be having anything new to say.”
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Iris Barrel Apfel was undeniably ubiquitous. always living by her mantra: “More is more, less is a bore.”
Apfel founded her textile firm Old World Weavers with her husband Carl Apfel, working with the White House to oversee various restoration projects for nine presidencies — and later for signing as a model with IMG at 97.
From 6-year-olds to grandparents, Apfel’s fan base was wide-ranging. Jennifer Ash Rudick, one of the producers of the documentary “Iris,” noted things started to snowball for the self-proclaimed “geriatric starlet” in 2005 after the Metropolitan Museum of Art featured an exhibition on her extensive fashion archives. Interest sparked again when the documentary came out in 2014.
“People are now wearing big glasses again [because of her],” said Rudick, when Apfel received FN’s Icon Award at the 2016 FNAAs.
Apfel’s fans were both inspired to copy her signature look (spectacles, an armful of colorful bracelets, a pile of bold necklaces, topped off with a brightly colored faux fur) and emboldened to express their identity through fashion.
But beyond her unique fashion sensibility, it was her unwavering work ethic that set her apart. “You’ve got to work. Everybody’s got to work and produce something,” Apfel told FN in 2022.
While she could count countless achievements throughout her illustrious career, the one role that she was most passionate about? Her job as professor at The University of Texas at Austin.
One day before her most recent FN photo shoot in 2022, her class of 16 students arrived wide-eyed for their own moment in front of the camera with FN. From afar, Apfel called in to check on “her little chickens,” as she adoringly called them, as they embarked on the 10th UT in NYC experience. Their faces immediately lit up with excitement when she called — and with good reason.
Apfel was more than a guest speaker in the program. She curated an annual New York trip for the students, giving them face time with major fashion executives and designers — all curated by Apfel.
She admitted the curriculum came together haphazardly. “I really didn’t know what the devil I was doing [when we started]. I just plunged in,” she recalled. “That’s how I do everything. I thought, ‘If I’m starting, I might as well start at the top.’ So I called everybody that I knew was doing something interesting and upbeat in the field and it took off like wildfire.”
One of her enduring lessons passed on to her students? Her sage advice about style. “Style is attitude, attitude, attitude,” said Apfel. “Style, from my point of view, cannot be learned. It has to be cultivated, but it has to be in your DNA.”
—With contributions by Nikara Johns and Eugenia Richman
