Iris Apfel dies at 102

Iris Apfel, who in her final years became a designer, style icon, influencer and face of numerous fashion brands, died on Friday at her home in Palm Beach, Florida, at the age of 102.

In a statement, a spokesperson for Apfel said she died of natural causes surrounded by her longtime caregivers.

Apfel was born on August 29, 1921 in Astoria, Queens. She was preceded in death by her husband Carl Apfel, 100, in 2015. The couple had homes in Palm Beach and the Upper East Side of Manhattan. She was an only child and had no immediate survivors.

Apfel and her husband founded their own textile company, Old World Weavers, in 1950 and sold it in 1992. In addition to participating in nine White House restoration projects during her decades-long career, she racked up her share of advertising campaigns. in recent years, including Kate Spade, MAC Cosmetics, Alexis Bittar, HSN and Le Bon Marché. Her White House commissions for Harry Truman, Dwight Eisenhower, John Kennedy, Lyndon Johnson, Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford, Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan and Bill Clinton earned her the nickname “First Lady of Fabric.”

Throughout her life, Apfel traveled the world and developed a passion for flea markets, which inspired her work and fueled her passion for collecting fashion, furniture, jewelry, antiques and accessories. Some of those treasures and finds were used in her work as an interior designer for celebrities such as Estee Lauder and Greta Garbo. With unwavering curiosity, imagination and unparalleled self-expression, Apfel never shied away from hues, patterns, textures or bold statements. “I am a person of color. “I’ve never been one to play it safe.” She told WWD in 2012.

With her signature oversized glasses, red lipstick, and short white hair, Apfel’s status as a fashion icon seemed to blossom with each passing year. To celebrate her centenary, for example, she partnered with H&M on a collaborative capsule, and her other collaborations over the years have ranged from jewelry to eyewear to handbags to fashion with retailers like Macy’s and the Barbie Collector doll she design. In fact, she barely went a quarter without another collaboration with Apfel being announced or an advertising campaign featuring the tireless Apfel.

“I’m so busy I’m crazy. I love working”. she told WWD in 2018, particularly after losing her “dear husband.” We were in business together and in everything together, so the loss was monumental. “I did it to keep my sanity.”

Despite having been known in her field for decades, Apfel, by her own account, remained “a very private person” and it took some time to get used to her nonagenarian fame. She told WWD in 2018: “The praise, the attention and the recognition, which is now global, is quite important.”

Apfel signed with IMG for global modeling representation, appearances and endorsements in 2019.

“I’m very excited. I’ve never had a proper agent,” Apfel, 97, told WWD at the time. She said she previously handled the deals herself.

“I’m a girl who does her own thing. I never expected that my life would take this turn, so I never prepared myself for it. It all happened so suddenly, and I thought that at my tender age, I wasn’t going to set up offices and get involved in all kinds of things. I thought it was something temporary and that it wouldn’t last. Somehow, people found me. People would just call. Tommy Hilfiger said that was no way to do it and he brought us together. “I am very excited and very grateful,” Apfel said in 2019.

Tommy Hilfiger, contacted for comment Friday evening, said: “My wife Dee and I have been incredibly lucky to have met and spent time with Iris over the past few years, both in Palm Beach and New York. She was an absolute inspiration and had impeccable style, as well as a huge appetite and appreciation for all things fashion. She had an incredible presence and aura and she always attracted attention wherever she was. We also had the honor of participating with her in her mentoring programs that she ran for many years with fashion students at the University of Texas. “She will be greatly missed and she is a great loss to the entire fashion community.”

In other charitable efforts, the Peabody Museum in Salem, Massachusetts, opened the Iris and Carl Apfel wing in 2019. A decade earlier, the museum presented “Rare Bird and Fashion Icon: The Irreverent Iris Apfel,” which featured 90 of the complete garments by Apfel. sets, as well as 1,000 pieces, in addition to complete sets that her late husband once wore. The eclectic variety provided design inspiration for some and wanderlust for others, like Anna Sui, who once highlighted 19th-century harem jewelry “with parts that shook” in Apfel’s show as wish-list items before embarking on a trip to Syria.

But it was New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art’s 2005 exhibition, “Rara Avis: Selections from the Iris Apfel Collection,” at the Costume Institute that sparked her popularity by showcasing Apfel’s eclectic collection of clothing and jewelry. This made her the first living person, who was not a designer, to display her clothing and accessories at the Costume Institute. The exhibition catapulted her to public attention. She was also the subject of a 2015 documentary film, “Iris,” directed by Albert Maysles and appeared in the documentary “If You’re Not in the Obit, Eat Breakfast,” which premiered on HBO in 2017. Apfel also wrote her first book, “Iris Apfel: Accidental Icon, Musings of a Geriatric Starlet,” which contained an eclectic mix of reflections, photographs and illustrations, in 2018.

Against self-help books, Apfel told WWD in 2018 that he found them quite insulting. “It’s not my place to tell you how to dress or what to do. “I think it should be an individual matter.” she said.

Growing up in Astoria, Apfel’s Russian mother, Sadye Asofsky, ran a fashion boutique and her father, Samuel Barrel, was a businessman specializing in mirrors and glass. Apfel’s adventurous spirit began with subway rides from Queens to Manhattan, where she explored thrift stores, antique stores, and flea markets in Greenwich Village, Chinatown, Harlem, and other neighborhoods. After enrolling at New York University, she transferred to the University of Wisconsin. Needing some extra credits, she took a museum administration course and chose American jazz as the central theme of her final work. Unable to find any library books on the subject, Apfel went to Chicago to interview some prominent jazz musicians, including Duke Ellington, with whom he became lifelong friends, according to the Wisconsin Alumni Association. .

After a first job at WWD, Apfel went on to work for interior designer Elinor Johnson. Apfel also worked as an assistant to fashion illustrator Robert Goodman. The wealth and success she accumulated over time does not equate to elitism. Venturing into handbags through a deal with HSN at the time, Apfel reflected, “The old bag is getting into handbags.”

His goal was to give the masses what they want. “I firmly believe that many people want good design and high quality at a price.” he said in a World Water Day 2018 interview. After the pandemic, in September 2021, he reminded many of the importance of personal enjoyment for happiness by celebrating his centennial with a birthday party in a 57th Street skyscraper with Mickey Boardman, Bruce Weber, Timo Weiland, Lynn Tesoro, Joanna Mastroainni and more Throwing caution to the wind, Apfel assured that on-site COVID testing was mandatory for admission.

In 2022, Apfel designed The Royal Poinciana Plaza’s Surfboard Christmas Tree in Palm Beach, which was inspired by his personal style over the years, with bright colors and over-the-top ornaments.

“Palm Beach is an incredibly dear place to me,” Apfel said at the time. “It’s where I live seasonally, and when I’m on the island, one of my most frequented destinations is The Royal Poinciana Plaza. It’s charming, lively, and home to the most wonderful restaurants and shops.

“What we have achieved together emulates my vision of life. It’s fun, colorful, upbeat and completely unique. I hope everyone who sees it smiles and feels inspired to walk to the beat of their own drum,” he said in 2022.

Despite generating memes, viral moments, and fake Iris Apfel accounts, Apfel had mixed opinions on social media. She considered it “a wonderful tool for commerce,” but she couldn’t understand “how people are so interested in every detail that everyone does it. It seems a bit intrusive to me.” She told WWD in 2018. “I think in the coming days you will hear the terrible effects it has on young people.”

Memorial services in Palm Beach and Manhattan will be held at a later date, according to the statement.

In the 2008 World Water Day interview, he offered some parting advice: “You’ve got to have fun.”

Editor’s note: This is a developing story.