Iris Apfel - When Age Doesn't Matter In Love And Fashion

Iris Apfel Courtesy of MACWhen Iris Barrel was four-years-old, her mother dressed her up in a bow which elicited a screaming fit from the precocious child. As she recalls, “I got into a rage and began to whoop and holler and jump up and everyone came running because it sounded like my mother was after me with an axe! And I was pointing to my head saying, 'It doesn’t match!' I realise now that mother was always right but I didn’t like matchy matchy.”

Some 91 years later, and you could say Iris Barrel Apfel has got the science of dressing herself down to a fine art. With her antique Chinese robes, masses of clanking costume jewellery, and topped off by her owlish frames, Apfel is a fashion icon to rank alongside the likes of Millicent Rogers, Nan Kempner and more recently Daphne Guinness, women for whom dressing up is a form of creativity. Apfel lights up at the mention of the 1940s Standard Oil heiress, “Millicent was a major influence on my life – she was sensational. It was so nice that she had the money to do what she wanted to do. I wasn’t that fortunate but it made it even more fun. Without the resources you have to improvise, it’s more taxing but it’s rewarding and you learn more. The fun of all of it is not the results, but it is the process.”