Iris Apfel is no less than a demi-god who brims with style wisdom. She was born in 1921 and is a remarkable fashion icon even today. She is an American businesswoman and an interior designer.
In business with her husband, Carl, from 1950 to 1992, Apfel led a career in textiles, including a contract with the White House that spanned nine presidencies
She signed as a model at the age of 97 with IMG. This shows that age is just a number. If you have the will and courage to work on your dreams, there is nothing in this world you can’t achieve. She has also been featured in a documentary called ‘Iris’ in 2014.
Her zeal and enthusiasm towards life are real and contagious. In this ageist world, she is drunk on everlasting youth. One can literally write a book on her. Such a wonderful woman she is. Here are some inspiring of Iris Apfel that every woman should live by.
Iris Apfel Quotes On Fashion
“More is more and less is a bore.” – Iris Apfel
“There is really no substitute for experience. You must have experience and be open to experience — that helps. That helps a lot. Most importantly, you have to be yourself, be who you are and take time to be open and honest with yourself. That is what it’s all about. If you don’t know yourself, you’ll never have great style. You’ll never really live. To me, the worst fashion faux pas is to look in the mirror, and not see yourself.” – Iris Apfel
“To find out who you are is like putting yourself on a psychiatric couch, but you have nobody to help you. Really it isn’t easy. I was talking with my nephew this morning and he gave me one of the best quotes I’ve heard in years, ‘Personal style is curiosity about oneself.’” – Iris Apfel
“My father told me once not to expect anything from anybody so I wouldn’t be disappointed. If somebody was nice and did nice things for me, I should be overjoyed, but I shouldn’t go through life expecting it, which is very good advice.” – Iris Apfel
“Technology is a wonderful thing, but I think it’s violently misused.” – Iris Apfel
“I never had to look for confidence because I just wore what I wanted to wear. I would never wear anything to offend my husband or my mother, but outside of that, I always figured, I hope I’m not a rebel, and I hope everybody liked it. And if they didn’t like it, it really was not going to disturb me because it was their problem, not mine.” – Iris Apfel
“My look is either very baroque or very Zen – everything in between makes me itch.” – Iris Apfel
“You don’t find out who you are unless you work at it.” – Iris Apfel
“Nobody is original anymore. Nobody has any original style.” – Iris Apfel
“My mother was a big influence; she was exceedingly chic, completely dressed in a completely different manner than I did. I was a child of the Depression, so she taught me all about accessories, and I always tell everybody she worships at the altar of the accessory.” – Iris Apfel
“I am not a fashionista, and I don’t dress up. Usually, if I’m at home, where I am now, I’m wearing a robe.” – Iris Apfel
“People with a lot of money don’t dress as well as people who have to make do, who have to be inventive. Those are the people who are always more interestingly dressed, I think. Everything I do, I do with gut instinct. If I think too much, it won’t come outright.” – Iris Apfel
“You learn as you grow up if you’re intelligent – or even three-quarter witted – that there’s no free lunch. You pay for things in various ways. Living, loving, everything else is a matter of the same principles: you learn to work with what you have.” – Iris Apfel
“Just because you get to a certain number doesn’t mean you have to roll up into a ball and wait for the grim reaper. We were put on this earth to do something! If you stop using your brain, at any age, it is going to stop working. It’s like if you stop using your hand, it will atrophy. I think doing nothing is a curse.” – Iris Apfel
“I go out in New York, and I think, boy, you can look at someone and pretty much determine their zip code. Everyone seems to want to conform. I wonder, are they all just button-pressers, on the Internet all day long? I don’t know.” – Iris Apfel
“Being an individual takes effort. Most people are pretty lazy. And that’s OK! I mean, there are more important things than fashion. If it’s going to stress you out to have a sense of style, don’t do it. The important thing is to be comfortable so you can get on with your life.” – Iris Apfel
“In America, it has been proven that the bulk of spending money is in the hands of women between 60 and 80, so it’s so stupid. The people who do have the time and money to shop are either retired or empty-nesters.” – Iris Apfel
“I still have the dress I wore on the first date with my husband, which was more than 66 years ago. I still have it, and it still fits.” – Iris Apfel
“I think some people like me because I’m different. I don’t think like everybody else. People are so tied up in the worst parts of technology these days. They live a life pressing buttons. They don’t use their imaginations.” – Iris Apfel
“Shock can kill you. Shock is terrible. But what you’ve got to do is life in the present, which is what I have always done.” – Iris Apfel
“I think some people like me because I’m different. I don’t think like everybody else. People are so tied up in the worst parts of technology these days. They live a life pressing buttons. They don’t use their imaginations.” – Iris Apfel
Iris Apfel Quotes On Life
Having lived for 100 years, her experience in life is unmatched. She has seen everything, from changing styles to life. Having learned a lot from life, she has shared her experiences and lessons. A lady with a very liberal mindset. Here are some words of wisdom from her.
“I think some people like me because I’m different. I don’t think like everybody else. People are so tied up in the worst parts of technology these days. They live a life pressing buttons. They don’t use their imaginations.” – Iris Apfel
“You can’t try to be somebody you’re not; that’s not style. If someone says, ‘Buy this – you’ll be stylish,’ you won’t be stylish because you won’t be you. You have to learn who you are first, and that’s painful.” – Iris Apfel
“I was in art school since I was five years old. I’ve always been to art school. Everything that’s happened to me, nothing’s been planned. I’ve never had a business plan. I just kind of fell into it, and I liked it, and I took a chance. I took a lot of changes in my life.” – Iris Apfel
“I had a very brilliant father who was not only intellectual but was street-smart and very curious to boot. The day I found out that he didn’t know everything, I grew up. It was a shock. I just thought that the man was the end-all of everything, and he knew the answer to everything. Then I found out I’d have to find out my own answers.” – Iris Apfel
“I don’t expect to find inspiration. It just sort of comes. Sometimes you step on a bug and you get inspired.” – Iris Apfel
“I don’t do very much for beauty. I use very simple things on my skin. I haven’t got time. I would always get facials and then come home laden with the product, and pay a lot of money and never use it. Anyway, one day a dermatologist told me to use Cetaphil to clean my face and as a moisturizer, and that’s what I do.” – Iris Apfel
“Creativity is down the tube. And people give a lot of lip service to individuality. I know they all appreciate it, but they all say they would like to do it, but they don’t want to work at it, and it doesn’t come out of the sky.” – Iris Apfel
“You can be born with the talent to be an opera star, but you’ve got to work and practice it.” – Iris Apfel
“I’m a practical person. Most fashion people live in the clouds, and they’re full of it. I live like a human being – or, I try to – and I have to be intelligent; I have to be practical. I’m a great believer in common sense, and the older I get, I see that common sense is not that common.” – Iris Apfel
“I’ve never seen anything like the way some young people behave. They go out on a date, and they’re sitting opposite each other at a table, and they’re not looking at each other, and they text each other as though they’re deaf-mutes. It’s insane.” – Iris Apfel
“I get very involved with my things, and they are not standard equipment.” – Iris Apfel
“I wasn’t interested at all in doing a documentary. I was not a public figure.” – Iris Apfel
“I have ideas that I think might be amusing, and I try them, and if they look right, I carry them out, and if they don’t, I throw them out and try something else. I don’t agonize about it.” – Iris Apfel
“Coco Chanel once said that what makes a woman look old is trying desperately to look young. Why should one be ashamed to be 84? Why do you have to say that you’re 52? Nobody’s going to believe you anyway, so why be such a fool? It’s nice that you got to be so old. It’s a blessing.” – Iris Apfel
“I don’t look at Instagram. I don’t have much to do with social media.” – Iris Apfel
“I’m not out to preach. I just live my own life. I’m very happy if I can help somebody – that’s wonderful. But it’s up to them what they want to think about it or what they want to take away; it’s their business, not mine.” – Iris Apfel
Iris Apfel Quotes On Fashion
When we talk about the fashion industry, she is one of those distinguished fashion icons. She has appeared in various advertising campaigns and brand promotions. She also launched her eyewear collection five days prior to her birthday. Her fashion sense is as unique as it appears in her pictures. Here are some quotes by this Fashion diva.
“You have to look in the mirror and see yourself. If it feels good, then I know it’s for me. I don’t dress to be stared at, I dress for myself.” – Iris Apfel
“I’m not pretty, and I’ll never be pretty, but it doesn’t matter. I have something much better. I have style.” – Iris Apfel
“Life is grey and dull; you might as well have a little fun when you dress.” – Iris Apfel
“What’s my style is not your style, and I don’t see how you can define it. It’s something that expresses who you are in your own way.” – Iris Apfel
“Clothes are not frippery. Properly done, they can be an art form.” – Iris Apfel
“I don’t get dressed up every day. I’m very busy. I get really annoyed when people talk about me as a ‘fashionista.’ I get dressed up when I have to go out. Most of the time, I’m running around in jeans.” – Iris Apfel
“I’m a hopeless romantic. I buy things because I fall in love with them. I never buy anything just because it’s valuable. My husband used to say I took a piece of fabric and listen to the threads. It tells me a story… I have to get a physical reaction when I buy something. A coup de foudre — a bolt of lightning. It’s fun to get knocked out that way!” – Iris Apfel
“If it’s going to stress you out to have a sense of style, don’t do it. The important thing is to be comfortable so you can get on with your life. But I do feel — people miss a lot, if that’s how they approach style. They miss out on this whole creative experience.” – Iris Apfel
“You have to look in the mirror and see yourself. If it feels good, then I know it’s for me. I don’t dress to be stared at, I dress for myself.” – Iris Apfel
“I am inspired by everything around me. It’s not like I stand out on the moors or any of that romantic crap they throw around. I’m just inspired by being alive and breathing and meeting people and talking to people and doing things and absorbing what’s happening. I think if more people did that, there would be better fashion.” – Iris Apfel
“I love to dig and search and find. And if I’m shopping…You know, if it’s a piece of fabric, I listen to the threads. It’s not intellectual at all. The price is nothing. It’s the emotional content: I have to feel it in my gut. I don’t know how to explain it other than that.” – Iris Apfel
“I never felt pretty, I don’t feel pretty now; I’m not a pretty person. I don’t like pretty, so I don’t feel bad. And I think it worked out well, because… when you’re somebody like myself, in order to get around and be attractive, you have to develop something, you have to learn something, and have to do something, so you become a bit more interesting. And when you get older, you get by on that. Anyway, I don’t happen to like pretty. Most of the world is not with me, but I don’t care.” – Iris Apfel
“I don’t have any rules, because I’d only be breaking them.” – Iris Apfel
“Fashion you can buy, but style you possess. The key to style is learning who you are, which takes years. There’s no how-to road map to style. It’s about self-expression and, above all, attitude.” – Iris Apfel
“Downtown, they think they’re stylish, but they all wear black. That’s not really style. That’s a uniform.” – Iris Apfel
“When the fun goes out of dressing, you might as well be dead. You need to pursue your own fancy. – Iris Apfel
“The world is not black and white; there are lots of shades of grey. There are good things and bad things in every era, and I think it’s kind of very blindfolded to say one era was wonderful, as it was wonderful, but there were a lot of bad things as well.” – Iris Apfel
“Great personal style is an extreme curiosity about yourself.”
“When you don’t dress like everybody else, you don’t have to think like everybody else.” – Iris Apfel
“Oh my God, I’m a walking advertisement for discounted shopping.” – Iris Apfel
“I think people have to sharpen their eyes and look. I always feel like a big sponge: I feel like I learn lots of things by osmosis, and I feel that I’m always absorbing. I mean, when people say, ‘What is your inspiration?’ I could throw up. I mean, I’m inspired by the fact I get up in the morning. And I’m still here.” – Iris Apfel
“Ageing gracefully is about no heavy makeup, and not too much powder because it gets into the wrinkles, and, you know, to not get turtle eyelids and to not try to look young.”
“You can change the look of an outfit so easily by changing the kind of jewellery you wear. If you have a basic outfit on – a black sweater and skirt or a simple black dress – you can go from the office to a cocktail party at night just by changing your jewellery. It helps if you change your shoes as well.” – Iris Apfel
“The White House is the people’s house. When you do historical restoration, that must be what it is.” – Iris Apfel
“I never had to look for confidence because I just wore what I wanted to wear. I would never wear anything to offend my husband or my mother, but outside of that, I always figured, I hope I’m not a rebel, and I hope everybody liked it. And if they didn’t like it, it really was not going to disturb me because it was their problem, not mine.” – Iris Apfel
“I’d rather go to a flea market than just about anything. It’s the process I like – the same with getting dressed. If I’ve got someplace to be, I’ll spend more time getting dressed than I spent at the actual event. Sometimes. Even in my own closet, I love to dig and search and find.” – Iris Apfel
“Fashion and interior designs are one and the same.” – Iris Apfel
“Throughout history, clothes represented who you were; they are a great vehicle for explaining who you are. During the Ching dynasty, for example, what you wore and how it was made reflected your status in society. People could literally read your clothes like a book, just by their colour and how it was embroidered.I don’t happen to approve of plastic surgery. I think God put plastic surgeons on this earth for good reasons – people get burned or people might have a nose like Pinocchio and that has to be fixed. But to just chop yourself up to look a few years younger? You could come out looking like a Picasso picture.” – Iris Apfel
“I used to love to create outfits, and I still do – I just don’t have the time. How can you wear one thing and never wear it again? Even my wedding dress – I had a dress made that I could wear again. I’m a child of depression, so I’m very, very practical.” – Iris Apfel
“I mix everything up. A museum curator once said to me that there is a great jazz component to the way I do things because good jazz is improvisation and draws elements from all different cultures. And that’s the way I do everything – the way I dress and decorate.” – Iris Apfel
“There’s different shopping in Paris than there is at a bazaar in Istanbul, but they’re all wonderful.” – Iris Apfel
