In time for what would have been Iris Apfel’s 103rd birthday, a new book about her vibrant life is being released.
Appropriately named “Colorful,” and chockablock with photographs of the style setter with her cropped white hair, bright red lipstick, signature oversize eyeglasses and bold-colored extravagant outfits, the new page-turner turns up the wattage of her fashion sense. Apfel was working on the book prior to her death in March at the age of 102. Readers will find more than 300 personal images and many never-before-seen fabrics and archival pieces from Old World Weavers, the textile company that she and her husband Carl started in 1950 and sold in 1992.
Aside from having a hand in nine restoration projects at the White House during her multidecade career, she racked up her share of ad campaigns in recent years including Kate Spade, MAC Cosmetics, Alexis Bittar, HSN and Le Bon Marché. Her White House commissions for Harry Truman, Dwight Eisenhower, John Kennedy, Lyndon Johnson, Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford, Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan and Bill Clinton led to the “First Lady of Fabric” nickname.
Her love of fashion and design blossomed further, when she was signed by IMG for worldwide representation for modeling, appearances and endorsements in 2019. With unwavering curiosity, imagination and unmatchable self-expression, Apfel never shied away from bold hues, patterns, textures or statements. “I’m a color person. I’ve never been one to play it safe,” she told WWD in 2012.
Along with snapshots of a youthful Apfel lounging in a tank suit on a diving board, the new Abrams-published book has pictorial remnants of her wedding proposal, vacation photos from Crete and far-flung locales, as well as references to her many collaborations including one with H&M. Color, as expected, is highlighted in detail in terms of Apfel’s love for it. Think “radiant violet with canary yellow or lime green, a vivid blue turquoise with sunset orange or bright red and emerald green,” as one page in the book suggests. She once explained, “My life has been filled with love, wonder and a very deep, incurable curiosity. This book is my treasure trove of inspiration, influences and ideas.”
Her previous other titles were “Iris Apfel: Accidental Icon,” “Dragon Threads: Court Costumes of the Celestial Kingdom: Chinese Textiles From the Iris Barrel Apfel and ATTATA Foundation Collections,” “Pocket Iris Wisdom: Witty Quotes and Wise Words from Iris Apfel” and “Rare Bird of Fashion: The Irreverent Iris Apfel.” For “Colorful,” she did not have a ghostwriter, according to Abrams’ director of publicity Gabby Fisher.
In addition to throwback Kodak-style images, there are later-in-life photos of her reclined in a full-length fur coat on a velvet chaise in her highly decorated New York City apartment. Adept at doling out snippets of fashion advice and zingers alike, Apfel’s sayings are interspersed throughout the pages such as “color can raise the dead.” And “no matter what age, no matter what gender, love is priceless.”
Iris Apfel with her birthday cake.
Patrick McMullan/Courtesy of Cen
The trendsetter’s zest for living is evident beyond her often over-the-top outfits. Explaining that “sometimes the most thrilling thing in the world is a Technicolor feast,” Apfel wrote how she woke up on the morning of her 100th birthday to find that the apartment had been transformed with hundreds of bright jellybean-type colored balloons carpeting the space.” She wrote, “It was like walking in a magical balloon forest. It was quite the color rush.”