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Iris Apfel at a film premiere in 2015
Photo: Andy Kropa / Invision / AP
She was famous for being herself: eccentric, stylish, quick-witted.
Now the world-famous style icon Iris Apfel has died at the age of 102.
Their trademark were large, round glasses, usually black, but often colorful.
Always perfectly coordinated with thick bangles and striking necklaces.
For example, a classic apple look consisted of a feather boa, strands of pearls, bangles and a jacket decorated with Native American beads.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York described her style as “both witty and exuberantly idiosyncratic.”
Iris Apfel was born in 1921 in the New York borough of Queens, studied art and founded a textile company with her husband.
The couple decorated the interior of the White House for decades.
She only became a fashion icon at the age of 84, after outfitting mannequins with her own accessories for an exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
At the beginning of 2019, when she was 97 years old, the modeling agency IMG signed her - as the oldest model of all time.
"I'm not pretty, and I'll never be pretty, but that doesn't matter," she once said.
»I have something much better.
I have style.”
It was typical for her to combine haute couture with flea market finds.
She wore church vestments from the 19th century with lizard pants from Dolce & Gabbana, for example.
Apfel told SPIEGEL in an interview in 2019: “You have to know who you are, what you feel comfortable in and what you want to allow yourself in terms of fashion.
It's better to be happy than well-dressed.'
She described herself as an “accidental icon.”
This is also the title of a book she published in 2018.
A museum exhibition was dedicated to Iris Apfel during her lifetime, and a documentary film was also made about her.
Odes to her abound, from a Barbie made in her likeness to T-shirts, glasses, artwork and dolls.
Apfel's husband died in 2015. They had no children.
vet/AP