Inspirational Iris wears it well
(PG) General release
THE NAME Iris Apfel won’t mean a lot to you unless you sit in the front row during Fashion Week, but once you set eyes on her in the late Albert Maysles’ documentary, you’ll be reluctant to let her go.
Like the late, great Joan Rivers, Iris is another fabulous New York Jewess with no filter, though it is couture not comedy that occupies the life of this eccentric 89-year-old who rose to fame in 2005 when the Metropolitan Museum of Art mounted an exhibition celebrating her ability to accessorise. And boy does she have a collection of wearable tchatchkes — enough in fact to fill multiple rooms in her apartment, as well as a warehouse and, amazingly, her 100-year-old husband, Carl doesn’t have a problem with it. On the contrary he loves it and never stops smiling.
“Life with Iris has certainly never been dull,” he says dressed in a pair of particularly ornate trousers, while his missus who resembles a bejewelled owl on account of her huge round spectacles, layers strand after strand of ping-pong sized amber beads over a vintage Versace jacket. Expensive costume jewellery is her obsession, but “I get more of a kick out of this that costs $4 and change than if my husband took me to Harry Winston,” she admits while trawling a Harlem junk store.
Decked out in a range of eclectic rainbow combinations Iris has become the must-have guest at NYC fashion events at which we see her being welcomed in the film, followed by her teaching a group of students about dressing. Iris Apfel is an inspiration and a powerful reminder to anyone who thinks getting old makes one irrelevant. That the gifted film director Albert Maysles who made the unforgettable documentary, Grey Gardens, should choose Iris as the muse for his final film is the ultimate tribute.