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Iris Apfel
Iris Apfel, interior designer and fashion icon, 1921 — 2024
The ‘geriatric starlet’ helped decorate the homes of nine US presidents before finding fame
in her eighties

Iris Apfel at her exhibition at The Norton Museum in Florida in 2007 © USA Today Network via Reuters

Kati Chitrakorn MARCH 9 2024

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 If Iris Apfel was seen as kitsch, eccentric or even peculiar, that was fine
by her, the BBC wrote in its tribute to the fashion icon. “More is more
and less is a bore” was the motto that the self-proclaimed “geriatric
starlet” famously lived by.

Instantly recognisable by her signature oversized round glasses, bright

lipstick and abundance of accessories — her trademark look was even
turned into a Barbie — Apfel became an unlikely fashion personality in
her eighties after the Metropolitan Museum of Art put on a hit
exhibition featuring pieces from her eclectic wardrobe.

Apfel, who has died aged 102, was born as Iris Barrel in Queens, New
York, in 1921. Her father owned a glass and mirror shop and her
Russian-born mother ran a boutique selling fashion and accessories. An
only child, the young Apfel shared her mother’s love of fashion and
clothing. But when the Great Depression hit, she had to learn how to
sew and create clothes on a budget.

Apfel studied art history at New York University before attending the
University of Wisconsin’s fine arts school, graduating in 1943. She got
her professional start at fashion industry trade journal Women’s Wear
Daily, where she was initially a copywriter, but later switched to
covering textiles.

Along the way, the budding fashionista married Carl Apfel, who she met
while vacationing in Upstate New York. Together, they founded a textile
manufacturing company, Old World Weavers. To gain inspiration for
their work, the couple travelled the world together until Carl died in
2015, aged 100.

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 Iris, her husband Carl, and Italian fashion designer Mariuccia Mandelli at the Grey Art Gallery in New York in
1999 © Rose Hartman/Getty Images
The Apfels had private clients, such as Greta Garbo and Estée Lauder,
for whom they offered interior design services. Iris also worked on
various design restoration projects across curtains, furniture, draperies
and other fabrics for nine US presidents and their spouses, including
Harry Truman, Dwight Eisenhower, John F Kennedy, Lyndon Johnson,
Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford, Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan and Bill
Clinton.

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 After the pair sold their company and retired in 1992, Apfel continued to
act as a consultant for the business while enjoying life as a woman about
town, according to the New York Times. The Met’s 2005 exhibition,
featuring 82 ensembles and 300 accessories from Apfel’s wardrobe over
the decades, put her on the fashion map, as it marked the first time that
the museum had staged an exhibition dedicated to an individual’s
wardrobe. The show, which was attended by the likes of Giorgio Armani
and the late Karl Lagerfeld, later travelled to other museums. Her fame
was further propelled by a 2014 documentary titled Iris, from celebrated
filmmaker Albert Maysles, which explored the fashion icon’s life and
creativity.

She was aged 97 when she signed a modelling contract with global
agency IMG Models, who also represent the likes of Gigi Hadid, Ashley
Graham and Karlie Kloss. During the last decade of her life, she landed
campaigns with companies including Kate Spade, Magnum and eBay
and worked on limited-edition collaborations with the likes of H&M and
Mac Cosmetics.

She also regularly featured in the style pages of The New York Times,
and continued to share her outfits — and sense of humour — on her
personal Instagram, where she had a 3.1mn-strong following. Even as
her fan club, grew, she continued to ignore trends dictated by the
runway and embraced her own vibrant, clashing style. “When you don’t
dress like everybody else, you don’t have to think like everybody else,”
Apfel told the New York Times in 2011.

The “accidental icon” — the title of her 2018 autobiography, which

contains musings, anecdotes and observations on life and style — was
never short on curiosity and bonhomie, according to the BBC.

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 Apfel’s final personal post on Instagram, shared a week before her death © Iris Apfel/Instagram
At 101, she landed her first beauty campaign when she collaborated with
Ciaté London on a make-up line, the BBC reported, lending a fresh and
original perspective to the ageing process, which few stars have willingly
embraced.

“Just because you get to a certain number doesn’t mean you have to roll
up into a ball and wait for the grim reaper,” she told British youth
culture magazine Dazed in 2012.

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 Apfel being herself was her fundamental appeal — it was this quality
that endeared her to admirers, including today’s Gen Zs and Alpha, who
prioritise individuality and self-expression. Her final personal post on
Instagram, shared a week before her death, showed her sitting in front
of silver foil streamers and beaming for the camera as she joked in the
caption that she was “only 26” in Leap Years.

The centenarian trendsetter’s individual, striking taste is exactly what

made her such a force: in an industry long dominated by trends,
conformity and a desire for validation, there’s nothing more powerful
than being yourself.

This article has been amended to add several attributions

Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2024. All rights reserved.

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