IrisApfel in living color
Iris Apfel calls herself an accidental icon, but her fans might say otherwise.
Her style, personality and those oversized glasses are so iconic, it seems she was put on this Earth to make the world a more colorful and stylish place. “I never met a color I didn’t like,” she says.
So a coloring book in her honor seems right.
The new “Iris: The Coloring Book” (University of Texas at Austin School of Human Ecology, $45) features the geriatric starlet with illustrations of her from childhood through adulthood, including life with her late husband, Carl Apfel. The couple started Old World Weavers, an international fabric-manufacturing company, that provided fabrics for the White House, the Metropolitan Museum of Art and many celebrities.
Apfel has been lauded with an exhibit at New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art, has had Barbie made in her likeness, developed a limited-edition collection of makeup for M.A.C. cosmetics and created a jewelry line that she sold on the Home Shopping Network. The documentary “Iris,” about her life, earned an Emmy nomination.
The “Iris” coloring book benefits the UT in NYC program, for which Apfel serves as a visiting professor. Each year, she hosts a group of UT students in New York and shows them some of the fashion industry’s biggest designer studios and showrooms, from Donna Karan to Naeem Khan.
“Iris is the most colorful person,” said Nancy Prideaux, program director for UT in NYC. “The students learn from her that the industry is so much broader. And she can get us into Tommy Hilfiger’s studio, and he actually appears.”
We talked with Apfel, who turned 99 in August, from her Palm Beach, Fla., home about her fabulous life, her fashion pet peeves and her love of color.
Q: How does it feel to be immortalized in a coloring book?
I was very, very surprised. I didn’t think it would be such a good idea, but evidently it was. There was a surge a few years ago of coloring books and everybody was coloring, but then it dropped dead. I didn’t think people would be interested, but that surely isn’t the case. We seem to have a lot of overseas people buying them, and more people here are wanting one.
Q: As a professor with the University of Texas program in New York, how do you decide what designers the students get to see?
A: I try to keep up relationships with all these designers so that they’ll remember us. It’s a great favor to get all these people to open their studios to us because I don’t take any second-raters. It exposes the students to a lot of things that they’ve never seen or heard about or known about, which is very good. I like opening up eyes, ears and heads.
Q: What is your best advice for students?
A: Develop a point of view, try to stick with it and not wobble back and forth. I think you should absorb all you can, then come to your own conclusions and don’t try to copy somebody else, and then work. I mean, start at the bottom. So many young people want immediate satisfaction. They want the red carpet and the corner office without working for it. Sooner or later you’re found out, and you go down the drain. I think everybody should start at the bottom and learn the foundations of whatever it is they plan on doing and then work at it.
Q: What are you working on now?
A: Oh, my goodness, so many things. I’m putting together a trunk show. I can’t give you too many specifics yet, but it should be a big trunk show of a part of my jewelry and accessory collection, which I’ve been collecting since I was 11 years old. So you can imagine how many pieces I have. I’ve got tons and tons of stuff, and it’s time to unload some of it. I’m also working on a fabric collection, a tile collection and some home furnishings. So I’m pretty busy, thank God.
Q: How do you decide what jewelry pieces to add to your collection?
A: I’m not very rigid. I buy whatever I like, and it doesn’t matter if it’s by someone unknown. As a matter of fact, I prefer not to buy big-label names because you see yourself coming and going, no matter how much it costs. I don’t like that. I like more individual things. I like to express myself, and I like to teach the students that they’re all individuals, and they should celebrate their originality.
Q: Have you always had the motto, “More is more and less is a bore”?
A: Yes, yes. I’ve always been like that. I haven’t worn a lot since I’ve been quarantined for seven or eight months. I’m 99, so they don’t want me out and about. I have a lovely big apartment on a lake, and so I go out on the terrace. I don’t go out, so I don’t get dressed. When I do go out, I like to try a different thing every time. I see how it feels, and if it looks too heavy to me, I take something off. I don’t operate with any rules or regulations.
Q: How has pandemic life been?
A: Fortunately, I enjoy my own company, so that hasn’t been a problem. I haven’t had too much free time because I always keep myself busy. I get very angry when people call me up and complain because I say, “Just be happy that you’re here and safe and not sick.” I mean, there are so many things you can do. I don’t have time to read books or watch TV. I watch a few news shows at night, but I don’t waste my time. I try to be constructive. I have all these projects I’m working on, and there’s nothing wrong with just sitting down by yourself and having a good think.
Q: A good think? I like that. Can you explain?
A: People don’t think anymore. They just do what everybody else does. They do it because it’s easy. People, it seems, are very lazy these days and looking for the easy way out. I just think people are like sheep, and what one does the other one does. It doesn’t make any sense to me. I think diversity is a wonderful thing, and I think it should be celebrated. It takes a lot of effort and energy to be original, but it’s worth it. I mean, God put us on Earth, and I don’t think he wanted us all to be the same.
Q: Are there any colors that you’ll never wear?
A: I never met a color I didn’t like. Some shades of brown, khaki and those yellowish greens don’t look ( good) on me. I’m best in very clear, strong colors. I love orangy reds and turquoise blues, and I love black and white, and I love gray.
Q: Y ou’re 99 years young, and y our husband, Carl Apfel, who died in 2015, lived to be 100. What’s your secret to longevity?
A: Really, it’s in the lap of the gods. I firmly believe that. I try to live well, help people, think positive. Eat well, don’t eat junk food. Don’t smoke or do more than social drinking. The usual common sense. There’s no magic formula. You just have to try to do your best.
Q: What brings you joy?
A: Being alive. That’s a blessing right now, and a lot of people don’t understand that. They’re foolish. Life is very precious, and it’s a great gift.