Iris Apfel née Barrel; August 29, 1921 – March 1, 2024) was an American businesswoman, interior designer, fashion designer, and actress.

In business with her husband, Carl, from 1950 to 1992, Apfel had a career in textiles, including a contract with the White House that spanned nine presidencies. In retirement, she drew acclaim for a 2005 show at the Costume Institute at The Metropolitan Museum of Art featuring her collection of costume jewelry and styled with clothes on mannequins as she would wear them. She became a fashion icon, was signed to IMG in 2019 as a model at age 97, and was featured in a 2014 documentary called Iris by Albert Maysles.

Spouse - Carl Apfel, ​(m. 1948; died 2015)

Early life

Born Iris Barrel in Astoria, Queens, New York City, on August 29, 1921, Apfel was the only child of Samuel Barrel (1897–1967), whose family owned a glass and mirror business, and his Russian-born wife, Sadye "Syd" Barrel (née Asofsky, 1898–1998), who owned a fashion boutique. Both were Jewish. Although raised on a farm by her parents and grandparents, she often rode the subway into the city to explore Manhattan, where she fell in love with Greenwich Village. While still a child, she shopped its antique shops, starting her extraordinary collection of jewellery from around the world.

Apfel studied art history at New York University and attended art school at the University of Wisconsin.

Career

As a young woman, Apfel worked as a copywriter for Women's Wear Daily, earning $15 a week, and for interior designer Elinor Johnson, decorating apartments for resale and honing her talent for sourcing rare items. She was also an assistant to illustrator Robert Goodman.

On February 22, 1948, she married Carl Apfel. Two years later, in 1950, they launched the textile firm Old World Weavers and ran it until they retired in 1992. The Apfels specialised in the reproduction of fabrics from the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries, and traveled to Europe twice a year in search of textiles they could not source in the United States. The business's New York showroom was located at 115 East 57th Street in Manhattan. Over her career, Iris Apfel took part in a variety of design restoration projects, including work at the White House for nine presidents: 

• Harry S. Truman, 
• Dwight D. Eisenhower, 
• John F. Kennedy, 
• Lyndon B. Johnson, 
• Richard Nixon, 
• Gerald Ford, 
• Jimmy Carter, 
• Ronald Reagan, and 
• Bill Clinton. 

She found the White House contract to be among the easiest of Old World Weavers' clients, as they generally wanted only to replicate what had previously been in place. The one exception, Apfel said, was Jacqueline Kennedy. Apfel recalled: "She employed a very famous Parisian designer to gussy up the house and make it a real Frenchie, and the design community went bananas. After that we had to throw it all out and start again. But I did like Mrs Nixon. She was lovely."

Through their business, the couple began travelling all over the world where Apfel also bought pieces of non-Western, artisanal clothes. She wore these clothes to clients' high-society parties.

In 2011, Iris Apfel became a visiting professor at the University of Texas at Austin in its Division of Textiles and Apparel.

In 2016, she performed in a television commercial for the French car DS 3, and was the face of Australian brand Blue Illusion. In March 2016, Apfel announced a collaboration with technology startup WiseWear on an upcoming line of smart jewelry. In 2018 she published a biography with HarperCollins entitled Iris Apfel: Accidental Icon.

In 2019, at the age of 97, she signed a modelling contract with global agency IMG. Seeing that she was frequently sought out for appearances, Tommy Hilfiger encouraged her to sign with formal representation.

Personal life

The Apfels did not have children, partly because of the amount of travel their work necessitated; she did not want her eventual children to be raised by a nanny.

Apfel and her husband Carl shared a favourite fragrance: Yatagan by Caron.

Married 67 years, Carl died on August 1, 2015, aged 100. Apfel celebrated her 100th birthday on August 29, 2021.

Death

Apfel died at her home in Palm Beach, Florida, on March 1, 2024, at the age of 102.

Legacy

Museum retrospectives

On September 13, 2005, The Costume Institute at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City premiered an exhibition about Apfel's style entitled Rara Avis (Rare Bird): The Irreverent Iris Apfel. It was the museum's first time showcasing an exhibit about clothing and accessories focused on a living person who was not a designer. The success of the exhibition, curated by Stéphane Houy-Towner, prompted an initial travelling version of the exhibit at the Norton Museum of Art in West Palm Beach, Florida, the Nassau County Museum of Art in Roslyn Harbor, New York, and later at the Peabody Essex Museum in Salem, Massachusetts.

The Museum of Lifestyle & Fashion History in Boynton Beach, Florida, is designing a building that will house a dedicated gallery of Apfel's clothes, accessories, and furnishings.

Documentaries

Apfel was the star of a documentary by Albert Maysles, called Iris. It premiered at the New York Film Festival in October 2014, and was subsequently acquired by Magnolia Pictures for US theatrical distribution in 2015.

Apfel was also featured in the documentary If You're Not in the Obit, Eat Breakfast, a television film which premiered in 2017.

Barbie doll

In 2018, Mattel created a Barbie doll in Apfel's image, making her the oldest person to ever have a Barbie made in her image and the recipient of the highest honor the Barbie brand bestows. The Barbie, released in conjunction with Apfel's book, was not for sale, but Mattel also made two "Styled by Iris Apfel" Barbie dolls that were commercially available.

Awards and honors

In 2013, she was listed as one of the fifty "Best-Dressed over 50" by The Guardian.

Apfel was awarded the Women Together Special Award of the Year at the 12th Annual Women Together Gala held at the United Nations General Assembly Hall in New York City, on June 7, 2016.

In November 2016, Apfel was awarded the Women's Entrepreneurship Day Pioneer Award for her work in the fashion field at the United Nations in New York City.

Apfel was honored as The New Jewish Home's Eight over Eighty Gala 2017 honoree.