The fashion world has lost its icon, its mascot.
This Friday, March 1, the hyperactive eccentric from Queens, who had taken up residence in Manhattan then in Palm Beach, died at the age of 102, as revealed in a post on Instagram.
Followed on the network by some 2.9 million subscribers, she had won the hearts of the biggest and even Mattel who had dedicated a Barbie in her image.
Many people mourned his death when they heard the news this morning.
The Spanish influencer Blanca Miro and the editorial director of Vogue France Eugénie Trochu paid tribute to him.
In 2016, the hyperactive nonagenarian - she was 94 at the time - the most connected on the planet exhibited at Bon Marché Rive Gauche in Paris for the first time.
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“White glove building”
XXL porthole glasses with black rims - her signature -, short-cut white hair and a mischievous look: Iris Apfel looks like a owl that has taken up residence in Manhattan.
This comparison is not pejorative: this superb nonagenarian (94 years old!) is a rare bird.
Always dressed in multi-colored outfits, adorned with oversized fancy necklaces and bracelets that she generously accumulates, the eccentric American also stands out for her exceptional looks.
In America, she is a legend, a trendy fashion icon, who graces the covers of magazines for the happy few, an exceptional collector - the Met exhibited her most incredible clothes in 2005 -, the "geriatric starlet" (as she calls herself nicknamed with caustic humor) is the most noticed star of the front rows and the faithful friend of all the great fashion designers.
Visiting Paris in a few weeks, Iris Apfel will present ten extraordinary outfits from her private collection at the Bon Marché Rive Gauche.
Today, she entertains in her exuberant apartment, located on the 19th floor of a very chic "white glove building", on Park Avenue, Manhattan.
Almost a hundred years old, this purebred New Yorker royally ignores the word “retirement”.
Hyperactive, she juggles the imperatives of around fifteen current projects, ranging from a collection of socks or jewelry to the writing of a new book.
"I can't list all my current projects as there are so many! I bless the Lord that I can continue at my age."
The DNA of style
On the sidelines of the Ralph Rucci fall-winter 2014-2015 show, Iris Apfel's look caused a sensation, as always.
Photo Wendell Teodoro/WireImage/Getty Images
Miss Apfel grew up in Queens, New York.
"At 11, I skipped school to conquer Manhattan. I discovered Greenwich Village, where I bought my first accessory: a brooch that an antique dealer very generously left me for 65 cents. I still have it, by the way."
Her passion for China will never leave her.
"My mother owned a small clothing store, where she offered her customers costume jewelry - which was very avant-garde at that time. She had the gift of accessorizing any outfit."
So style would be hereditary?
"It's more about attitude. But it's also part of your DNA. If you don't have style, no big deal, no need to become obsessive. I always tell people that it It’s better to be happy than chic!”
A lover of beautiful things, Iris Apfel devoted her life to them.
With her art history diploma in hand, she worked for the press and designers, marrying Carl Apfel in 1948, with whom she founded a company specializing in the reproduction of old textiles.
At the time, Louis XV and Louis XVI styles were popular, and wealthy clients, from Greta Garbo to the White House, entrusted their decoration to the Apfels, who traveled the world to satisfy them.
"Hinkers, decorators, jack of all trades, we had a lot of fun. I discovered Paris in the 1950s. The people and the fashion were very creative and full of life. Today, it is impossible to find original pieces, except in haute couture. Ready-to-wear costs twenty times more, with materials most often of poor quality and cuts for little girls. It's absurd. In America, it's women between 60 and 80 year olds who have the time and money to buy, but we only offer them grandmother's things! With the obsession with youth, designers forget that a 70 year old woman can be extremely chic, but still have to "I want her to have something to wear!"
The art of being yourself
Iris Apfel quite simply advocates freedom, an area in which she excels.
She who chose to give up motherhood to work and travel, who was one of the first to wear jeans and boots, proudly claims fierce independence.
"I've always dressed for myself. If anyone asked me what people would think of my outfit, I said I couldn't care less! Being yourself is all that matters. "It doesn't happen alone, you have to be interested and invested."
This funny bird speaks knowingly.
His clothing collection, which fills two levels of his apartment, plus several rooms in Palm Beach, has grown over the decades.
“I don’t know how to sew, but I know how to transform clothes.”
For example, making a liturgical garment into dress pants, mixing chic and cheap or combining a thousand necklaces so that they become one.
This very dignified old lady also has a solid sense of comeback.
In
Iris
, the documentary film dedicated to her by director Albert Maysles, a shopping session in Brooklyn with stylist Duro Olowu shows her struggling with a salesman who justifies the price of a bag by the number of hours spent on it. design by the craftsman.
“It’s not fast,” she retorts mischievously.
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