Iris Apfel: Accidental Icon

 Shirley J.                  Adult Non-Fiction                           Textiles, Style and the Oldest Living Teenager

Iris Apfel: Accidental Icon: Musings of a Geriatric Starlet by Iris Apfel   176 pages

What a role model!  Iris Apfel is her own person.   She promotes creativity in life and like Thoreau, takes that road less travelled by Walden Pond.   Her family life at home growing up taught her fashion sense and her parents strongly encouraged her to be her own person and follow her own way in life.   She was in her mid 90s when she wrote this book and to this day, she is now 100yrs. old and still following her own drummer.   She loves flea markets and enjoys pairing expensive couture fashions with inexpensive jewelry she finds rummaging among bins for that oh so precious amazingly perfect find.   She was told early on that she wasn't going to make it on her looks but her sense of style was beyond compare.   She loves color and her outfits and pairings remind me of Frida Kahlo's gorgeous, bold paintings.   She loves layering lots of clothing and pieces of jewelry together.   She mentions that sometimes her outfits are so heavy they feel like horse blankets but she wouldn't dare leave off one item of the ensemble.   Her floor length capes are exquisite and do not convey the phantom of the opera look one might think but a superbly styled fashionista.    She doesn't let other people's opinions sway her and this attitude has served her well over the years.   She is adored the world over for her daring looks.   Her field has always been textiles and interior design rather than fashion yet they go hand in hand and it is her fashion sense she receives praise for though in her career as visiting instructor at Texas University her curriculum includes all phases of fashion from textiles to color sense/appropriate placement just the right thing just so perfectly adorned, to the fashion industry and museum and historical influences.   She deems herself the oldest living teenager and a geriatric starlet as she is so well known and still fashioning forward even at 100 years old as of August 29, 2021!   Still kicking and still making news as she brings her uniqueness, her joie de vivre, her astute and spot on takes on life to everyone lucky enough to bask in the glow that is Iris Apfel.  I recommend this book to all who love art in all its many splendors, most likely to mature middle-schoolers on up.