Iris Apfel, fashion icon, dies at 102
FILE - Iris Apfel sits for a portrait during her 100th Birthday Party at Central Park Tower on Sept. 09, 2021 in New York City. (Noam Galai/Getty Images for Central Park Tower)
Fashion icon, textile expert, and interior designer Iris Apfel, has died. She was 102 years old.
Her death was confirmed by her commercial agent, Lori Sale, who called Apfel "extraordinary." No cause of death was given. It was also announced on her verified Instagram page on Friday.
Apfel was famous for her irreverent, eye-catching outfits, mixing haute couture and oversized costume jewelry.
With her big, round, black-rimmed glasses, bright red lipstick and short white hair, she stood out at every fashion show she attended.
"I’m not pretty, and I’ll never be pretty, but it doesn’t matter," she once said. "I have something much better. I have style."
Apfel enjoyed late-in-life fame on social media, amassing nearly 3 million followers on Instagram, where her profile declares: "More is more & Less is a Bore." On TikTok, she drew 215,000 followers as she waxed wise on things fashion and style and promoted recent collaborations.
"Being stylish and being fashionable are two entirely different things," she said in one TikTok video. "You can easily buy your way into being fashionable. Style, I think is in your DNA. It implies originality and courage."
She called herself the "accidental icon," which became the title of a book she published in 2018 filled with her mementos and style musings. Odes to Apfel are abundant, from a Barbie in her likeness to T-shirts, glasses, artwork and dolls.
Apfel’s husband died in 2015. They had no children.
The Associated Press contributed to this report. This story was reported from Los Angeles.