(NewsWorthy.news) – American fashion influencer and interior designer Iris Apfel passed away at the age of 102, at her home in Palm Beach, Florida.
Apfel, known for her makeovers for many high-status clients and her own personal fashion statements like red lipstick and oversized glasses, died on Friday March 1.
Apfel was born in 1921 and raised in Queens, New York. She went to school for art and art history and later worked for Women’s Wear Daily as a copywriter. In 1950, Apfel launched a company that reproduced textiles and fabrics called Old World Weavers. This business venture was a joint effort with her husband, Carl, to whom she was married for almost 70 years.
Carl and Iris married in February 1948. He passed away in 2015 at the age of 100. The couple never had any children.
Through Old World Weavers, the Apfels oversaw restoration projects at the White House for nine different presidents from Harry Truman until Bill Clinton. Iris also became known as a fashion icon, thanks to her personal and unique style. Because this defining trait came out later in her life, Apfel began describing herself as a “geriatric starlet.”
The iconic designer was active even in old age. She was a teacher at the University of Texas at Austin when she was 90, the main source of a documentary at 94 and a professional fashion model at 97, when she worked with IMG fashion agency. At this age, she was Mattel’s oldest inspiration that led to a Barbie doll produced in her image.
Apfel’s designs were featured in 2005 at a retrospective exhibit with the Costume Institute of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. In 2018, she published her autobiography, titled Iris Apfel: Accidental Icon.
Lori Sale, Apfel’s agent, described the late designer as a “visionary” who looked at life “through a unique lens.” She recalled how Apfel’s viewpoint “transformed” certain “mundane” aspects of life “into the extraordinary.”
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