Styled In All-Arab Designers, Iris Apfel Celebrates Her Birthday And Shares Her World-Famous Wisdom On Turning 100
As fashion’s grande dame turns a century old, we celebrate by styling her in the MENA region’s most Apfelesque creations for the cover of Bazaar Arabia’s September 2021 special issue…
“What’s this material?” Iris Apfel asks me late into the night before our crack-of-dawn shoot the next day. After weeks of prepping, I’m utterly exhausted, but Iris – true to form – is still going strong.
Before meeting us on set, she had spent her morning working out, trying on clothes, finalising her interior design collaboration with Lowe’s and taking press calls. More than most people accomplish in a full 24 hours, let alone someone enjoying their twilight years. Frankly, it’s hard to keep up with her.
Dress, POA, Benchellal. All bracelets, Iris’s own
She’s laid out a mere fraction of her famously vast trove of accessories on tables dotted throughout her West Palm Beach home; an overflowing shrine to eclectic treasures collected over the decades. The hallowed jewels are on display, candy-like and enormous, so that Iris can hand-select pieces for each look she’ll be shooting. Many are marked with different stickers, headed to various museums and galleries across the globe to commemorate her milestone birthday; one hundred years old. An entire century of Iris. A glorious achievement for anyone, but something that feels all the more auspicious for, by her own admission, the world’s oldest living teenager.
When Iris and I catch up a few weeks after the shoot, COVID cases are on the rise in Florida and a booster shot has been recommended by the government. I ask how she’s processing the continued pandemic when she reminds me that it’s not her first public-health fiasco – she was in Italy during their cholera epidemic many decades ago; it’s why she still refuses to eat raw meat. As for COVID, she clearly didn’t just survive, but thrived during quarantine working from home and is – characteristically – unfazed by the need for a booster. In the meantime, she’s enjoying the limited freedoms made available to her by being vaccinated and simply hopes that she and those around her stay healthy. She’s a beacon of hope, and – just as importantly – a continuing beacon of style.
Dress, POA, Mira Mikati. All accessories, Iris’s own
Iris holds each accessory up against her outfits – a suitably Apfelesque smorgasbord of colour and joy sent over by Arab designers equally as joy-filled to dress her for Bazaar Arabia’s shoot. Whilst considering her styling decisions, she asks about the photographer. Even at 100 years old, while juggling multiple commercial projects and raising a pandemic puppy named Jakey, nothing gets by her. Her mind is as sharp as her style, and she can remember every time she’s worn her statement pieces and which photographers she’s enjoyed working with the most. “He won’t shoot fur, you know. Big animal activist…” she says, referring to our photographer Richard Phibbs, as she strokes the inside of a coat and eyes her vintage bracelets through those trademark owl-like glasses.
Having celebrated her 100th birthday on August 29th, Iris has had many (many) years to cultivate her signature style. It is, of course, the glasses, an inimitable more-is more approach, a strong sense of wonder, and Rara Avis: Selections from the Iris Apfel Collection, a now-legendary exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in 2005- 6, that have all come together to cement Iris’ firm position in the fashion pantheon.
Kaftan, POA, Taller Marmo. All accessories, Iris’s own
She attributes a good portion of her eclectic sense of style and taste to her career and extensive travels, but tells me she rarely planned her personal life or work. “I don’t have plans; I make it a point. I’ve never had a business plan. If somebody told me 10 years ago I’d be doing this, I would have laughed and said, ‘You’re nuts!’ And anyway, things just happen, and I try to take advantage of them if I think they’re worthwhile. If something comes along and I like it, I’ll do it.”
It’s this kind of cavalier spontaneity in both style and sensibility that has made so many fall in love with Iris; a true national (and global) fashion treasure who still appears to be having an absolute ball. Despite this, she says that turning a century old “feels spooky.” When I ask why, she laughs, “Well, I’ve never been a hundred before.” Then, more seriously, “The minute you’re born, you begin to age, and to obsess about it is kind of foolish. I think you just roll with the punches. So, actually, I feel the same way as I felt turning 99 or 73 – or 22!”
Coat, POA, Gemy Maalouf. Bracelet, Iris’s own
But even if this milestone birthday doesn’t feel any different to Iris, her partners and legions of fans are commemorating it in style. Not least in her hometown of New York. (Iris was raised on a farm in Queens with her parents and grandparents). Bergdorf’s is dedicating a window to her and H&M is throwing her birthday bash during New York Fashion Week. Iris was also recently named the winner of the Andrée Putman Lifetime Achievement Award by the Créateurs Design Awards, now joining the ranks of other notable creatives including Robert A.M. Stern. It’s quite the moment, but if you ask her to rank her many achievements or what she’s most proud of, her answer is simple: “I’m most proud of being alive and being able to do interesting and creative work while helping people.” It’s this same mentality that makes Iris refuse to answer if she had a standout decade or fashion trend. They were all special to her and she wastes no time in reminding me that she “doesn’t pick favourites.”
Although fame came much later in life for her – at the age of 84, when she was the focus the Met’s Costume Institute exhibition – she has no issues with it. Even now, as people continue to be fascinated with her age, Iris just laughs. “I never think about it. People obsess over things, and it’s a fact of life. People always talk about my age, but I don’t feel uncomfortable.” She does, however, acknowledge that fashion’s fetishisation of youth makes for an interesting, if rather hypocritical, contrast to its simultaneous infatuation with her age. It’s why she dubbed herself a “geriatric starlet”; a tongue-in-cheek nod to this dissonance.
Dress, POA, Mira Mikati. All accessories, Iris’s own
“I think it’s foolish for women to hide their age and try to say they’re years younger than they are. It doesn’t make any sense to me. I think if God is good to you and gives you those years, you should celebrate them and not try to hide them.” A refreshing, optimistic outlook that has no doubt played a huge part in her being approached for project after project. She’s the new face of ZENNI with her own line of statement specs, the oldest person to ever have a Barbie made in her image, and has partnered with everyone from eBay to Etsy. Admittedly, these projects are a far cry from her prior career as a restorer for textiles at the White House.
Iris first cut her teeth as a copywriter at Women’s Wear Daily before moving into interior design where she assisted Elinor Johnson. She married Carl Apfel, love of her life, in 1948 and two years later they launched Old World Weavers. Their business spanned across nine U.S. presidencies and allowed the Apfels to travel the globe together, seeking out the most fabulously unique and rare pieces for their work until they finally retired 42 years later. Though Old World Weavers shuttered its doors in 1992, Iris didn’t stop working. Evidently – far from it.
Shirt, POA, Reemami. All accessories, Iris’s own
The next morning, Iris and our team meet at Palm Beach’s famously pink Colony Hotel. The fact that she’s only slept a few hours the night before doesn’t show. She’s as charming, high energy and spirited as her dress sense would have you believe. Maybe even because of it. When I ask her how, she credits “a good breakfast,” reminding me that she also once told me, “food is always en vogue.”
During the course of the shoot, Iris actively makes suggestions and voices her opinion on every set up, but she also keeps an open mind as we try edgier pieces like a playfully printed shirt from Dubai-based Palestinian brand, Reemami, an outsized, gold-tinsel coat from Lebanese maison, Gemy Maalouf, or an epic feathered headpiece from Saudi-Egyptian designer, Zaid Farouki. It’s a challenge having to shoot such eccentric pieces in our tight time frame, but Iris playfully poses in each and excitedly asks what’s next.
Cape, POA, MAE Paris
When we eventually wrap, she’s finally showing signs of being a little worse for wear. She’s done countless poses and outfit changes across multiple locations of the hotel. Aside from a short break for lunch and to play with Jakey, Iris has been moving from shot to shot with the speed of… well, a much younger model. As we sit at the end of the shoot, she points out her favourite looks and asks me to jot down the names of the designers so she can shop their collections when she gets home. Of the broad selection of Arab brands we called in, she gravitated most towards the colourful pieces that had either intricate embroidery or more complex construction.
“I liked them because not only were they bold and bright, but they’re not run of the mill,” she smiles, inadvertently describing herself, too. “You can tell time and love was put into making them. The fabrics are very beautiful,” she continues, showing her first love of material still makes her heart beat faster. She pauses for a moment, and then says, “Well … and I just liked them.” Sometimes, this the only – and the best – reason.
Coat, POA, Layla Moussa. All accessories, Iris’s own
We wrap up the interview with me asking what anyone would when faced with a legendary centenarian – to impart some hard-won wisdom. Despite the internet being peppered with her fantastic Irisisms, she is wary of doling out advice, maintaining that it is not her place to tell others how to live. Instead, she insists she has simply tried to live her own life without any regrets. I probe a little deeper: is there anything she wishes she knew earlier, perhaps? “Nothing! I don’t live backwards or forwards; I live in the now, and I don’t think about if I knew something then or know something now. I would drive myself crazy thinking like that.”
It’s classic Iris, at her absolute best – straight-talking, unsugared, wise – and wonderful.
Photography: Richard Phibbs. Styling: Abid Haque. Editor in Chief: Olivia Phillips. Art Director: Oscar Yáñez. Fashion Director: Anna Castan. Market Editor: Nour Bou Ezz. Hair: Julien Bonnin. Make-Up: Sage at IMAJ Artists. Executive Producer: Jesse Vora. Production: HG Producers Inc. Studio Manager: Johana Dana. Styling Assistants: Veronica Garrote and Cynthia Cruzan. Photography Assistants: Jean Piero Flores and Craig Miller. With thanks to The Colony Palm Beach Hotel, Florida
From Harper’s Bazaar Arabia’s September 2021 Special issue