Iris Apfel, Inspiration and Icon
The centenarian fashion maven is now the subject of a Little Golden Book
Iris Barrel Apfel, successful businesswoman, doyenne of personal style, and all-around force of nature, recently celebrated her 102nd birthday. Apfel’s unique look is a celebration of bold colors and pattern mixing, lavish use of accessories, thematic presentations derived from a multitude of cultures, and, of course, her trademark oversized round glasses. With her imagination and independent spirit, she has long broken the barriers of what’s considered “tasteful” or “appropriate”. She is an inspiration for those of us who prefer to put our own stamp and personality on our look (and imprint it on our lives), even if it’s a far more modest statement than what she might choose.
Apfel styled the outfits pulled from her wardrobe for Rara Avis (Rare Bird): The Irreverent Iris Apfel, an exhibition at the Costume Institute at New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art, which opened in 2005 and then traveled to several other locations, including the Peabody Essex Museum in Salem, MA, which has since become the recipient of an extensive number of pieces from her wardrobe and her husband’s (the late Carl Apfel).12
Apfel’s unforgettable style and vibrant personality have been the subject of a documentary film, Iris, directed by Albert Maysles, which was released in 2015, and is available on Amazon Prime. She was also featured in If You're Not in the Obit, Eat Breakfast3, a documentary about aging narrated by Carl Reiner, who too achieved outstanding longevity – he passed away at 98 in 2020.
There have also been books, including Rare Bird of Fashion The Irreverent Iris Apfel, featuring photos from the museum exhibition; an illustrated memoir, Iris Apfel, Accidental Icon: Musings of a Geriatric Starlet; a book of quotes featuring Apfel’s pithy dry wit, Pocket Iris Wisdom: Witty Quotes and Wise Words from Iris Apfel; a picture book for kids 3-8, Iris Apfel (Little People, BIG DREAMS, Volume 64); and what I find the most endearing, and yes, inspiring, a Little Golden Book Biography simply titled Iris Apfel.
The Little Golden Books series debuted in 1942.45 Like many other Baby Boomer children, they were my first readers, before I entered first grade and blew through Sally, Dick, Jane, and Spot. My mother, who recognized my precocity in reading and affinity for language, kept me supplied with them, but there were certainly none in the series that addressed inspirational role models like Iris. How I would have thrilled to a book that spoke to my interests, which were evident from a very young age.
Like Iris, I was interested in clothes, fashion, and art and design, encouraged by leafing through the magazines of the time, by Mom’s and my shopping expeditions to downtown Philadelphia and New York, and when we watched televised fashion shows (in glorious black and white) from the French Room at Hess’s of Allentown6. They were my introduction to fashion along with the hats, shoes, gloves, and jewelry (mostly costume, but unique pieces) that I examined in Mom’s wardrobe – but a children’s book that portrayed a life like Iris’s and made it a joyful example of a potential aspiration just didn’t exist.
It’s different for young children now, with so many adventurous reading options, but the present catalog of Little Golden Books, still a relatively inexpensive and widely available option, includes books like Iris Apfel, that highlight girls and women with unique goals, ambitions, and accomplishments – there are titles that celebrate Frida Kahlo, Beyoncé, Misty Copeland, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, and many more.7
I am worried though, that this source and others that offer children early knowledge of the world and its possibilities could be victimized by the book banners, who, through their hate- and fear-motivated tunnel vision, seek to remove books by and about such role models. I can see that extending to Little Golden Books like Iris Apfel, about people who make their own choices, express their personalities, and follow their ambitions, and it both saddens and terrifies me. I want to keep celebrating the Iris Apfels of this world, and the inspiration she engenders. That, my friends, is the meaning of progress.
Update: Iris Apfel passed away on March 1. May her memory be a blessing. Farewell, Iris.
https://www.wbur.org/news/2022/02/22/iris-apfel-peabody-essex-museum
https://www.elle.com/fashion/news/a21666/iris-apfel-donates-900-pieces-from-her-wardrobe-to-massachusetts-museum-42913/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/If_You%27re_Not_in_the_Obit,_Eat_Breakfast
https://www.antiquetrader.com/featured/ten-things-didnt-know-little-golden-books#:~:text=Western%20Publishing%20had%20its%20beginning,debuted%20the%20line%20in%201942.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Little_Golden_Books
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hess's
https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/series/LGB/little-golden-book?page=10