The World Loses A Fashion Legend: Iris Apfel Dead At 102
She lived through the Great Depression, World War II, the Swinging Sixties, and into the 21st century. But none of us can live forever, and sadly fashion icon Iris Apfel died in early 2024 aged 102. As the BBC pointed out, Apfel in her typically self-deprecating way described herself as a “geriatric starlet.” Yet given her magnificent and flamboyant work as a designer and stylist, most people in the know would surely say she more than deserves full-blown star status.
Incredible talent
As famed designer Tommy Hilfiger told the BBC, “Iris Apfel has become a world-famous fashion icon because of her incredible talent not only as an artist, but as an influencer. She has had an amazing effect on so many people with her huge heart and magic touch with everyone she meets”.
So where did this extraordinary woman come from, and how did she become one of the major talents of the fashion world in the 20th century and on into the 21st?
Dressing up
Let’s get started by finding out about Apfel’s origins. Born in 1921 into a Jewish household in the Astoria district of Queens, New York, she was the only child of Samuel Barrel and his wife, Sadye, a Russian emigre. Her father was employed in the family business making mirrors and glass, and her mother ran a clothes boutique.
Interviewed in 2007 by The Daily Telegraph’s Heather Hodson, she remembered that her mother loved to dress her up — so she got a head-start in the fashion business from an early age.
It doesn't match!
Apfel also revealed one of her earliest memories in that interview. She recalled that aged just four she’d been perched on a stool while yelling at her mother, angered by the ribbon that her mom had chosen for her.
Apfel recalled that, “I was saying, ‘It doesn’t match! It doesn’t match!’” But her attitude changed radically over the years after that incident. “Now I hate things that match — I hate matchy-matchy”, she told Hodson.
A certain mindset
With whole-hearted encouragement from her mother, by the age of 12 Apfel was already doing the rounds of markets, thrift stores, and discount outlets on the hunt for prize items. She was developing her passion and eye not just for clothes but for shoes, jewelry, and bric-a-brac as well.
As Apfel told Hodson, “You have to have a certain mindset. If you shop like I do in offbeat places, you can go out looking for a snow suit and come back with a bikini.”