New York City fashion icon Iris Apfel — whose influence was felt across generations — has died, according to her social media accounts. She was 102.
Apfel was born in Queens in 1921 and was a fixture of the international fashion and design scene from the mid-20th Century to present day.
Instantly recognizable in her oversized black-rimmed glasses, chunky accessories and vivid colors, she was considered an expert in interior design, textiles, accessories and jewelry. Among Apfel’s more famous mottos was: “More is more and less is a bore.”
Apfel was often critical of the fashion world’s obsession with youth and had a resurgence of fame in recent years on TikTok and Instagram where she boasted a combined 3.3 million followers. She encouraged people to focus more on their individual style and less on fleeting trends.
“Everybody should find her own way. I’m a great one for individuality. I don’t like trends,” she told the Associated Press in a 2017 interview. “If you get to learn who you are and what you look like and what you can handle, you’ll know what to do.”
Apfel and her husband Carl married in 1948 and started Old World Weavers shortly after — an interior design and textile company that specialized in restorations, according to an interview she gave to “Town and Country.” Their clients included Estee Lauder, Greta Garbo and nine U.S. presidents from Harry Truman to Bill Clinton.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art held an exhibit of Apfel’s accessories and designs in 2005 that brought the designer’s contributions fresh attention and a new generation of admirers. The museum at the time described Apfel as “one of America’s quintessential stylemakers,” in a statement announcing the exhibit.
“Her originality is typically revealed in her mixing of high and low fashions – Dior haute couture with flea market finds, 19th-century ecclesiastical vestments with Dolce & Gabbana lizard trousers,” the museum wrote. “With remarkable panache…
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