A good fashion icon until the end, Iris Apfel died during fashion week. The great interior designer passed away on March 1, 2024, leaving behind generations of people inspired by her sense of style, mixing colors, prints and volumes.
Who was Iris Apfel, fashion’s favorite interior designer?
Iris Barrel was born on August 29, 1921 in New York, to a father who owned a glass and mirror company and a mother who owned a fashion boutique. You studied art history before starting to work for the magazine Daily women’s clothing, to then assist an interior designer as well as an illustrator. After marrying Carl Apfel in 1948, she founded a textile company with him for which she traveled around the world. This is what gives her the opportunity to hunt for jewels and flamboyant clothes around the world that make her our chosen fashion icon.
In addition to her appearance, Iris Apfel was also known as an interior designer and restaurateur. She also served as a White House decorator for several presidents.
In the 2010s she became the muse of several brands, intriguing the new generations with her outfits that increasingly mix materials, colors, patterns and impressive jewels. We can also get to know her better through the documentary IRIS, directed by Albert Maysles and released in 2015. But the same year she lost her husband just days before he celebrated his 101st birthday. On March 1, 2024, it was her turn to die, the day after a photo of her was published on her Instagram account (followed by 3.1 million people!) to celebrate her 102nd and a half birthdays.
Iris Apfel’s 3 fashion and life tips to remember
In the documentary IRISthe centuries-old fashion icon declares in particular: “ Life can be gray and bland, so you might as well have fun when you dress up. » It may seem trivial saying this, but yes, life is clearly too short to wear your favorite clothes only on special occasions. And even if we live a long time, there will always be many looks to amaze, and above all to please themselves. Let us be the sparkle and colors we want to see in our lives.
In this same cult documentary, Iris Apfel also explains:
“I’m not pretty, I never will be, and I don’t feel guilty about it. I think it works for me because when you’re someone like me, we have to develop something else, learn, do, then we become more interesting. We grow as we continue like this. So much so that I don’t care about beauty. Maybe the whole world is against me on this, but I don’t care. »
Without judging our own beauty or not, we can above all remember the importance of cultivating our thirst for learning, which necessarily makes us more interesting, in the eyes of others perhaps, but above all for ourselves, and is what gives us the most satisfaction.
A lesson that can be linked to Iris Apfel’s third fundamental piece of advice, which we actually owe to her nephew, and shared in the form of an anecdote during a round table at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in 2012 on youthism in fashion with Tavi Gevinson:
“Discovering who you are is like lying on a therapist’s bed, but without anyone to help you. Really, it’s not easy. I was talking about it this morning with my nephew, and he gave me one of the most beautiful aphorisms he has heard in recent years: “Personal style is curiosity about yourself.” »
What if the movie you were going to see tonight was a dump? Each week, Kalindi Ramphul gives you her opinion on which movie to see (or not) on the show The Only Opinion That Matters.
Source: Madmoizelle
Mary Crossley is an author at “The Fashion Vibes”. She is a seasoned journalist who is dedicated to delivering the latest news to her readers. With a keen sense of what’s important, Mary covers a wide range of topics, from politics to lifestyle and everything in between.
