As of: March 2, 2024, 9:39 a.m
By: Sandra Sporer
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At over 80, Iris Apfel became a style icon.
Now the New York native has died at the age of 102.
New York – Iris Apfel was proof that it is never too late to really get started.
When she made her breakthrough in the fashion industry, the American was already over 80. The fashion icon from the USA, who liked to describe herself as an “old fashion star”, died on March 1st.
She was 102 years old.
Oldest influencer: Iris Apfel died – setting up the White House “was actually pretty easy”
Iris Apfel was born in 1921 in the New York borough of Queens.
In 1948 she married her husband Carl and worked with him as an interior designer team.
The two advised, among other things, nine US presidents on the furnishing of the White House.
“It was actually a pretty easy job because everything had to be as similar as humanly possible to what it already was,” she once reported.
The couple had no children because they also worked internationally and therefore traveled a lot.
Simply entrusting the offspring to a nanny was unthinkable for Apfel.
And: “Having children is also like a rule, it’s what’s expected of you.
And I don’t like that either.”
The fashion icon Iris Apfel has died at the age of 102.
She made a name for herself both as an interior designer and – at over 80 – as a style icon.
© Thais Llorca/dpa
She was happily married to her husband for over 60 years until he died in 2015 at the age of 101.
To distract herself, Iris Apfel threw herself into work and worked as a model in advertising campaigns for several jewelry and clothing companies.
She also designed jewelry for older people that monitored the wearer's health and could alert an ambulance in an emergency.
Not only was the functionality of the pieces important to her, but also their look.
Iris Apfel owed her breakthrough as a style icon to a coincidence
She owed her breakthrough in 2005 to a lucky coincidence.
When the Metropolitan Museum in New York had to cancel an exhibition at short notice, curator Harold Koda remembered the interior designer.
He asks if he can exhibit her jewelry collection.
In 2023 there was an exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum about the work of star photographer Richard Avedon.
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The show was a huge success and launched Apfel's second career in the fashion industry.
She is also active on social media and has three million followers on Instagram and 215,000 TikTok followers, according to the
Bild
newspaper.
Her death was also announced on her Instagram account.
Iris Apfel was also active as an influencer - fans mourn the designer's death
Under the post there are many messages from Apfel's fans expressing their sadness.
One user writes: “She had a long life, but we will really miss her!”.
"Rest in peace.
You are with your husband now.
I miss you already,” said a second.
“She inspired so many women to be brave and truly authentic... to ignore the number of years we have lived and to see age as an opportunity to shine.
What a wonderful legacy,” reads another comment.
The Italian director Paolo Taviani also died recently.
He was 92 years old.
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sp
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