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Evening Standard

Lifestyle

Joe Bromley

Iris Apfel’s best looks: fashion's grande dame of maximalism dies aged 102

Iris Apfel Bergdorf Goodman Cartier NYFW

“Life is grey and dull,” said Iris Apfel, one of fashion’s great eccentrics, in her New York drawl during the 2014 documentary by Albert Maysles on her life. “You might as well have a little fun dressing up.” She died on Friday, in her home in Palm Beach, Florida, aged 102 — and the self-proclaimed “geriatric starlet” lived by her advice until the end.

Best known after she hit octogenarian status, Apfel became an unlikely fashion muse and champion of later life style thanks to her unique concoction of hunky, coral necklaces, cherry red mongolian lamb coats, clanging turquoise bracelets and, most famously, her signature round-frame glasses.

The late Apfel, who died on Friday aged 102, sat for a portrait for her 100th Birthday Party in 2021 (Getty Images for Central Park To)

In 2005, she made history as the first living person who was not a fashion designer to be the subject of a solo exhibition — which collated 82 fashion ensembles and 300 accessories — at the Costume Institute at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.

It followed a life in textile manufacturing, co-founding the company Old World Weavers with her late husband, Carl Apfel, which specialised in the reproduction of antique fabrics. In this time, she also acted as a restoration consultant for over nine presidential administrations in the White House.

“Tanked with a five-star dinner, washed with vintage champagne,” Apfel captioned this image on Instagram (@iris.apfel)

In 2018, she published the autobiographical Iris Apfel: Accidental Icon, a personal take on her life and style. For it, the designer Dries Van Noten summarised her with affection: "I have rarely met someone as vivid, as alive, as vital, vivacious, irreverent, joyous, relevant, and needed as Iris. She breathes young air, thinks young thoughts, and gathers no dust,” he said.