Iris Apfel

Iris Apfel ( ; ; August 29, 1921 – March 1, 2024) was an American businesswoman, interior designer, and fashion designer, known for her flamboyant style, outspoken personality and oversized eyeglasses. In business with her husband, Carl, from 1950 to 1992, Apfel had a career in textiles, including a contract with the White House that spanned nine presidencies. In retirement, she drew acclaim for a 2005 show at the Costume Institute at The Metropolitan Museum of Art featuring her collection of costume jewelry and styled with clothes on mannequins as she would wear them. She became a fashion icon, was the focus of the 2014 Albert Maysles documentary Iris, then signed to IMG in 2019 as a model at age 97.

Early life Born Iris Barrel in to a Jewish family in Astoria, Queens, New York City, on August 29, 1921, Apfel was the only child of Samuel Barrel (1897–1967), whose family owned a glass and mirror business, and his Russian-born wife, Sadye "Syd" Barrel (née Asofsky, 1898–1998), who owned a fashion boutique. Her grandfather Morris Barrel (born Mayer Baril) emigrated from Kamianka-Buzka, Galicia (now Ukraine).

Although raised on a farm by her parents and grandparents, she often rode the subway into the city to explore Manhattan, where she fell in love with Greenwich Village. While still a child, she shopped its antique shops, starting her extraordinary collection of jewellery from around the world. During the Depression, her whole family could sew, drape, glue, and paint, and had a flair for design and style on the smallest of budgets.

Apfel studied art history at New York University and attended art school at the University of Wisconsin.

Career As a young woman, Apfel worked as a copywriter for Women's Wear Daily, earning $15 a week, and for interior designer Elinor Johnson,

On February 22, 1948, she married Carl Apfel. Two years later, in 1950, they launched the textile firm Old World Weavers and ran it until they retired in 1992. The Apfels specialised in the reproduction of fabrics from the 17th, 18th, and 19th centuries, and traveled to Europe twice a year in search of textiles they could not source in the United States.

In 2011, Iris Apfel became a visiting professor at the University of Texas at Austin in its Division of Textiles and Apparel.

In 2016, she performed in a television commercial for the French car DS 3, and was the face of Australian brand Blue Illusion. In March 2016, Apfel announced a collaboration with technology startup WiseWear on an upcoming line of smart jewelry. HarperCollins published her biography Iris Apfel: Accidental Icon in 2018.

In 2019, at the age of 97, she signed a modelling contract with global agency IMG.

Personal life The Apfels did not have children, partly because of the frequent travel their work necessitated; she did not want her children to be raised by a nanny.

Married 67 years, Carl died on August 1, 2015, aged 100. Apfel celebrated her 100th birthday on August 29, 2021.

Death Apfel died at her home in Palm Beach, Florida, on March 1, 2024, at the age of 102. She was interred at Beth David Cemetery.

Legacy Museum retrospectives On September 13, 2005, the Costume Institute at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City premiered the exhibition Rara Avis [Rare Bird]: Selections from the Iris Barrel Apfel Collection, showcasing her style. It was the museum's first time mounting an exhibit about clothing and accessories focused on a living person who was not a designer. prompted an initial travelling version of the exhibit at the Norton Museum of Art in West Palm Beach, Florida, the Nassau County Museum of Art in Roslyn Harbor, New York, and later at the Peabody Essex Museum in Salem, Massachusetts.

The Museum of Lifestyle & Fashion History in Boynton Beach, Florida, is designing a building that will house a dedicated gallery of Apfel's clothes, accessories, and furnishings.

Documentaries Apfel was the focus of the Albert Maysles documentary Iris, which premiered at the New York Film Festival in October 2014, and was subsequently acquired by Magnolia Pictures for US theatrical distribution in 2015. She was interviewed in Advanced Style Film: Featurette, released in September 2014.

Apfel was also featured in the 2017 documentary If You're Not in the Obit, Eat Breakfast.

Film It is believed that Iris Apfel was one of the inspirations behind the creation of the composite character Edna Mode who appears in the animated film The Incredibles and its sequel Incredibles 2; the other inspirations were costume designer Edith Head, editor-in-chief of Vogue magazine Anna Wintour, and actress Linda Hunt.

Barbie doll In 2018, Mattel created a Barbie doll in Apfel's image, making her the oldest person to ever have a Barbie made in her image and the recipient of the highest honor the Barbie brand bestows. The Barbie, released in conjunction with Apfel's book, was not for sale, but Mattel also made two "Styled by Iris Apfel" Barbie dolls that were commercially available.

Awards and honors

In 2013, she was listed as one of the fifty "Best-Dressed over 50" by The Guardian.

Apfel was awarded the Women Together Special Award of the Year at the 12th Annual Women Together Gala held at the United Nations General Assembly Hall in New York City, on June 7, 2016.

Apfel was honored as The New Jewish Home's Eight over Eighty Gala 2017 honoree.