Since I seem to be in a magical frame of mind lately, let's talk about the wonderfully iconoclastic and influential fashion idol Iris Apfel. She is 88 and calls herself a "...geriatric starlet..." reveling in a sense of humor about herself and her brilliantly vivid, outrageous style. She has been featured in Vogue, the NY Times style pages and blown up larger than life-size in the fashion foward windows of New York's Barney's Department Store. She is the darling of the fashion intelligensia and rightly so. The Metropolitan Museum of Art's Costume Institute had an exhibition of her various collections, culled from her closets and she is the flamboyant object of Eric Boman's book, Rare Bird of Fashion, The Irreverent Iris Apfel. She is, in a word, amazing. (An over-used word which in this instance, applies perfectly.) Sometimes when I dress for some occasion or other, I think: what would Iris wear? I wish I had her fashion nerve. Maybe when I grow up.To learn more about Iris Apfel, check here.
