The “Geriatric Starlet”: Remembering Iris Apfel

The self-confessed “world’s oldest teenager” may have died, but she will never go out of style.

Olivia Carter
1st April 2024
Image credit: MiamiFilmFestival, Wikimedia commons

As an artist, a business woman, and a fashion icon, Iris Apfel has always been an icon to generations of women and fashionistas. 

Starting out as an interior designer, she quickly found her way at the top of US politics, consulting on interiors in the White House for 9 presidential runs with her husband, Carl Apfel.

For decades following, they both owned a textiles manufacturing company, travelling the world in order to source antique fabrics, giving them a new lease of life. As her career progressed, she became known in the public eye as a cultural icon, for her unique sense of fashion, particularly in her golden years, often donning her signature glasses and costume jewellery. 

At the age of 93, her status in popular culture was finally cemented, as the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York hosted a showcasing of her wardrobe, something that they had never done before with any fashion. 

‘You’re not pretty and you’ll never be pretty, but it doesn’t matter, you have something much better…you have style’.

Apfel was particularly influential, as fashion on the older generation is still something that many of those in the fashion world still cannot get right (or are too afraid to try); her presence legitimised this, however, recognising that there was no such thing as ‘age-appropriate’ dressing. 

Many designers have paid tribute, with Tommy Hilfiger expressing his condolences to the late star:

“Iris Apfel has become a world-famous fashion icon because of her incredible talent not only as an artist, but as an influencer.”

Tommy Hilfiger

The self-confessed “world’s oldest teenager” may have died, but she will never go out of style. As Iris herself often said, 

“Get old…but don’t get boring!”

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