“I don’t have any rules because I would only be breaking them so it’s a waste of time.”
Created by late documentarian, Albert Maysles, Iris is a funny, honest, and refreshing portrayal of the life of Iris Apfel, a woman unfettered from the expectations of age or popular style. Apfel, now 93, is a fashion icon unlike any other. She’s an icon who has been a household name in the fashion world AND in the Whitehouse for over fifty years. The Iris Apfel documentary is full of the colorful experiences and fearless choices that Apfel describes as her commitment to joyfulness in fashion and life.
With a history in business, interior design, and fashion, Maysles tells her spirited story with a closer look at all of the wonderful and eclectic accessories that define it. Her and her husband’s textile business, Old World Weavers, took Apfel around the world and brought her into contact with such White House presidents as Nixon, Clinton, Truman, Eisenhower, and Kennedy. After retiring from their interior design business in 1992 Apfel continued pursuing her taste for style and taught fashion courses at the University of Texas at Austin in 2012. Apfel’s courses were designed to broaden students perspective on the fashion world and its diverse opportunities. Her belief is that forging a career in fashion can be as creative and personal as one’s own clothing choices. She taught students to consider careers in fashion that lived outside of the red carpet, like licensing and style forecasting.
In 2005, the Costume Institute of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, exhibited a showcase entitled Rara Avis, latin for “rare bird.” The exhibit was a collection of Apfel’s antiques, interior design pieces, and personal fashions and accessories. Rara Avis is also Apfel’s personal line of fashion and couture-costume accessories cultivated from years of travel, historical inspiration, and her idiosyncratic style.
The Iris Apfel documentary will be in select theaters beginning April 29th and in select cities such as New York, Los Angeles, Irvine, Pasadena, Berkley, Miami, Seattle, Chicago, Atlanta, Austin, Denver, Portland, and more.
Following Apfel’s theory of “more is more”, who else is your fashion icon?