Fashion icon Iris Apfel, known for her eye-catching style, dies at 102

Iris Apfel, a textile expert, interior designer and fashion personality 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 museum exhibitions and documentaries, irisdirected 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 in her later years, with nearly 3 million followers on Instagram, where her profile reads: “More is more, less is boring.” On TikTok, she has attracted 215,000 followers because of her Gaining insights into fashion and style and promoting recent collaborations.

“Fashion and being fashionable are two completely different things,” she said in a TikTok video. “You can easily become fashionable by buying something. I think style is in your DNA. It means originality and courage.”

She never retired, told 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,” Searle said in a statement. “I will miss her daily phone calls, each with the familiar question: ‘What did you bring to me today? ?’ It’s a testament to her insatiable thirst for work.” She was a visionary in every sense of the word. She sees the world through a unique lens – a pair of huge, unique glasses perched 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.

In 2005, when the Costume Institute of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City hosted a show about her called “ lala 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,” it said. The museum says her “layered compositions” challenge “aesthetic conventions” and represent “bold graphic modernity even in their most extreme and baroque contexts”.

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 to Peabody—including couture gowns—to help them create what she calls “a fabulous collection.” There are also plans for a gallery dedicated to Apfel’s collection at the Fashion and Lifestyle Museum near Apfel’s winter residence in Palm Beach, Florida.

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.

In 2017, at the age of 95, she told The Associated Press that her favorite contemporary designers included Ralph Rucci, Isabel Toledo and Naeem Khan, but added: “I have so many that I don’t look for them. When asked about her fashion advice, she said: “Everyone should find their own way. I’m a very individual person. I don’t like trends. If you know who you are, what do you look like?” , and what you can do to deal with it, you’ll know what to do.”

She calls herself an “accidental icon,” which became the title of a 2018 book filled with her memorabilia and style 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.