Iris Apfel died at age 102 on March 1, 2024. Hers is an amazing story of entrepreneurship and art, of creativity and accomplishment, of individuality and vision. It is an important story to explore in great part because Iris lived her life as if the barriers and prejudice facing women did not exist. She went to college (NYU as well as the University of Wisconsin) in the 1930s, unusual then.
It was an era where the norm was that women stay at home, aspiring to be wife and mother or (if she must) worked as a secretary, nurse or teacher.
Hence it was when Iris was an up and coming young professional woman there were no women in any C-suites. Iris, with what I imagine to be determination and perseverance, went to work at Women’s Wear Daily, apprenticed with an interior designer and went on to start her own interior design business — the first of several successful business ventures. Her striking design sense and original style choices created consistent successes in a fickle fashion world.
As an accomplished business woman, her choices and design aesthetic flew in the face of culturally approved dictates for women. And not just in one instance or era — throughout her astounding life. Called a “fashion arbiter,” in 2005 The Metropolitan Museum of Art basically raided Apfel’s clothes closet to mount an exhibit of her fashion choices. It was the first time the museum had ever exhibited an individual’s wardrobe.
Brave, never boring, and not doing aging as expected, Iris became a fashion model in her 90’s. She thought for herself, chose for herself — all seemingly with little consideration or care for what the current “norms” might be. She didn’t care what others thought or judged.
“Insistent rejection of monocultural conformity,” stated Manohla Dargis, NY Times movie critic about “Iris” the 2014 Albert Maysles documentary about the icon. It is a pithy and true statement about Iris herself, not just the documentary about her. I like to think it was with amusement and a wry sense of humor that Iris received the attention and notoriety from the Fashion industry in her later years. She referred to herself as a “geriatric starlet.”
In 2018 Iris went on to become an author, penning the autobiographical “Iris Apfel: Accidental Icon.” The following year, at age 97, she signed that modeling contract with a global agency. As a result the image of what an “older woman” looks like got a radical update, thank heavens.
For Women’s History month of 2024, Iris and her exemplary life of true individuality calls out to us all. Some “Iris-isms:”
- “I think you have to be true to yourself, know yourself and not be a trend follower. You’ve got to take a few risks.”
- “I don’t see anything wrong with a wrinkle. It’s kind of a badge of courage.”
- “Throughout history clothes represented who you were; they are a great vehicle for explaining who you are.”
- “Fashion you can buy, but style you possess…”
Thank you Iris.