Iris Apfel

the late Iris Apfel was an iconic tastemaker in fashion & interior design

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  • The late Iris Apfel described herself as “the world’s oldest living teenager". Her recent collaborations included a whimsical brooches line with Erstwilder (August 2023), a stylish collaboration with Ruggable (November 2022) that made Architectural Digest’s “Best of 2022” list, a much anticipated collaboration with H&M (April 2022), and a makeup collection with Ciaté London (September 2022)
  • She was known for her interior design work at the White House spanning nine presidencies, and founded international textile-manufacturing company Old World Weavers
  • In 2005, The Costume Institute at the Metropolitan Museum of Art premiered an exhibition about her style titled RARA AVIS (Rare Bird): THE IRREVERENT IRIS APFEL 
  • She unveiled an exhibition at Le Bon Marché in Paris in 2016, emphasizing her status as a fashion icon. The Museum of Lifestyle & Fashion History in Boynton Beach, Florida is designing a building that will house a gallery of her clothes, accessories, and furnishings
  • Starred in memoir-style documentary IRIS, which premiered at the New York Film festival in 2014 
  • Released autobiographical coloring book IRIS THE COLORING BOOK in 2020, and released IRIS APFEL: ACCIDENTAL ICON, MUSINGS OF A GERIATRIC STARLET in 2018
  • She was a visiting professor at the University of Texas, Austin and was awarded the Women Together Special Award at the 12th Annual Women Together Gala in 2016
  • The late Iris Apfel described herself as “the world’s oldest living teenager". Her recent collaborations included a whimsical brooches line with Erstwilder (August 2023), a stylish collaboration with Ruggable (November 2022) that made Architectural Digest’s “Best of 2022” list, a much anticipated collaboration with H&M (April 2022), and a makeup collection with Ciaté London (September 2022)
  • She was known for her interior design work at the White House spanning nine presidencies, and founded international textile-manufacturing company Old World Weavers
  • In 2005, The Costume Institute at the Metropolitan Museum of Art premiered an exhibition about her style titled RARA AVIS (Rare Bird): THE IRREVERENT IRIS APFEL 
  • She unveiled an exhibition at Le Bon Marché in Paris in 2016, emphasizing her status as a fashion icon. The Museum of Lifestyle & Fashion History in Boynton Beach, Florida is designing a building that will house a gallery of her clothes, accessories, and furnishings
  • Starred in memoir-style documentary IRIS, which premiered at the New York Film festival in 2014 
  • Released autobiographical coloring book IRIS THE COLORING BOOK in 2020, and released IRIS APFEL: ACCIDENTAL ICON, MUSINGS OF A GERIATRIC STARLET in 2018
  • She was a visiting professor at the University of Texas, Austin and was awarded the Women Together Special Award at the 12th Annual Women Together Gala in 2016
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Biography

Iris Apfel is one of fashion and design’s most instantly recognizable tastemakers. She has been the subject of several museum exhibitions, a coffee-table book, coloring book, and documentary.

Often colorful, always interesting, the bespectacled New Yorker's popularity was once a rare exception to fashion’s love of youth. However, things are changing, and that is in no small part due to the wit, taste and intellect of Apfel, who has described herself as "the world's oldest living teenager."

In 2005, the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York premiered an exhibition about Apfel, titled "Rara Avis (Rare Bird): The Irreverent Iris Apfel." Carla Fendi, Giorgio Armani and Karl Lagerfeld were counted among the attendees. Apfel has graced the pages of Vogue Italia (photographed by Bruce Weber), and, then at 91 years old, was Dazed's oldest cover star.

Apfel studied art history at New York University and attended art school at the University of Wisconsin. As a young woman, she worked for Women's Wear Daily and the interior designer Elinor Johnson. She has also acted as an assistant to illustrator Robert Goodman.

In 1948, she married Carl Apfel. Two years later they launched the textile firm Old World Weavers and ran it until they retired in 1992. Apfel once described her textile designs as “classic but over the top” to the London Evening Standard.

Apfel has taken part in several design projects, including work at the White House for nine presidents: Truman, Eisenhower, Kennedy, Johnson, Nixon, Ford, Carter, Reagan, and Clinton.

She currently resides in Palm Beach, FL and also has residence in New York City.

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