FILE – Iris Apfel takes a seat in front of a look from the Serena Williams Signature Statement Spring 2017 collection during New York Fashion Week. March 12, 2016 Textile expert, interior designer and fashion personality Iris Apfel passed away on Friday, March 1, 2024 at the age of 102. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig, File)
NEW YORK (AP) — Iris Apfel, a textile expert, interior designer and fashion industry maven known for her eccentric style, has died. She is 102 years old.
Her business agent, Lori Sale, confirmed her death, calling Apfel “extraordinary.” No cause of death was given. She also announced the news on her verified Instagram page on Friday, a day after celebrating Leap Day, which would have been her 102nd and a half birthday.
Apfel, born on August 29, 1921, is known for his irreverent, eye-catching clothes, mixing high fashion and oversized costume jewelry. For example, a classic Apfel look pairs a feather boa with chunky bead strings, bracelets and jackets embellished with Native American beading.
Wearing big, round black-framed glasses, bright red lipstick, and short white hair, she attracted attention at every fashion show she attended.
Her style is the subject of a museum exhibition and the documentary Iris, directed by Albert Maysles.
“I’m not beautiful and I never will be beautiful, but that doesn’t matter,” she once said. “I’ve got something better. “I’ve got style. “
Apfel became famous on social media later in life, with nearly 3 million followers on Instagram, where his profile reads: “More is more, less is boring.” On TikTok, she has attracted 215,000 followers for her Fashion and style insights are growing and recent collaborations are promoted.
“Fashion and being fashionable are two completely different things,” she said in a TikTok video. “You can easily become fashionable by spending money. I think style is in your DNA. It means originality and courage.”
She never retired, telling TODAY: “I think retirement at any age is a fate worse than death. Just because a number comes up doesn’t mean you have to stop.”
“It was the honor of a lifetime to work with her. I will miss her daily phone calls, each time she would ask me the familiar question: ‘What did you bring to me today?’ “Her insatiable thirst for work is a testament to her,” Searle said in a statement. She was a visionary in every sense of the word. “She sees the world through a unique lens – she wears a huge, unique pair of glasses on her nose.”
Apfel is an expert in textiles and antique fabrics. She and her husband, Carl, own Old World Weavers, a textile manufacturing company that specializes in restoration work, including White House projects under six different U.S. presidents. Apfel’s celebrity clients include Estée Lauder and Greta Garbo.
Apfel’s fame exploded in 2005 when the Costume Institute of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City mounted an exhibition about her, “Rara Avis” (Latin for “rare bird”). The museum describes her style as “both witty and unique.
Her originality is often reflected in her mixing of high and low fashion—Dior haute couture meets flea market finds, 19th-century vestments meet Dolce & Gabbana lizard pants. The museum says its “layered compositions” challenge “aesthetic conventions” and represent “a bold graphic modernity even in the most extreme and baroque cases.”
The Peabody Essex Museum in Salem, Massachusetts, is one of several museums across the country hosting a touring version of the exhibition. Apfel later decided to donate hundreds of pieces—including couture gowns—to Peabody to help them create what she ultimately created “a fabulous couture collection.” The Museum of Fashion and Lifestyle, located near Apfel’s winter residence in Palm Beach, Florida, also plans to have a gallery dedicated to Apfel’s collection.
Apfel was born in New York City to Samuel and Sadye Barrel. Her mother owns a boutique.
Apfel’s later fame included appearing in commercials for brands such as MAC Cosmetics and Kate Spade. She has also designed a range of accessories and jewelry for the Home Shopping Network, collaborated with H&M on a line of brightly colored clothing, jewelry and shoes that sold out in minutes, launched a cosmetics line with Ciaté London, and collaborated with Zenni Partnering with Ruggable to develop floor coverings.
The 95-year-old told The Associated Press in 2017 that her favorite contemporary designers include Ralph Rucci, Isabel Toledo and Naeem Khan, but added: “I have so many, I don’t go looking for them.” When Asked for her fashion advice, she said: “Everyone should find their own way. I’m a very individual person. I don’t like trends. If you understand who you are, what you look like and what you can do Deal with it and you’ll know what to do.”
She calls herself an “accidental icon,” which became the title of a 2018 book filled with her memories and stylistic musings. There are many odes to Apfel, from Barbie dolls to T-shirts, glasses, artwork and dolls.
Apfel’s husband died in 2015. They have no children.
___
Lifestyle writer Leanne Italie contributed to this report.