So, when Apfel took to Instagram this week to share her thoughts on the true meaning of style, the internet took note.
In a video shared on 10 August, the sartorial star explained the difference between “fashion” and “style.”
“Being stylish and being fashionable are two entirely different things,” Apfel said. “You can easily buy your way into being fashionable.
“Style, I think, is in your DNA. It implies originality and courage.
“The worst that can happen is you can fail, and you don’t die from that.”
Her wardrobe wisdom clearly resonated with fans, with the post receiving 158,000 likes and more than 3,000 comments at the time of writing.
“Preach,” said karenbritchick.
“10000%!” wrote out_of_indigo.
“You can always tell who has a genuine love for fashion and who mainly buys designer to create the appearance of wealth,” commented _elizabethjulia.
Born in Astoria, Queens, New York in 1921, Apfel’s style made her stand out right from the beginning. In the 2014 documentary of her life, Iris, Apfel recalls her time working at Loehmann’s Department Store in New York.
Mrs Loehmann, the founder, took an instant liking to Apfel, telling her: “Young lady, I’ve been watching you.
“You’re not pretty, you’ll never be pretty. It doesn’t matter. You have something much better. You have style.”
Mrs Loehmann was right, but it would be more than half a century before Apfel’s dress sense would transform her into an icon.
While running the textile business Old World Weavers with her husband Carl Apfel, she was able to travel the world and expand her wardrobe with non-western, artisanal clothes. Apfel also expanded her impressive jewelry collection, which she started by visiting antique stores as a child.
In 2005, The Costume Institute at the Metropolitan Museum of Art held an exhibition of Apfel’s clothes. Entitled Rare Bird: The Irreverent Iris Apfel, the exhibition showcased 40 ensembles put together by Apfel herself.
The show made her a name in the fashion world, and in the 17 years since her “discovery,” Apfel has appeared in a car commercial, fronted a campaign for Australian fashion brand Blue Illusion, signed with IMG Models (like fellow style icon Kate Moss), and had her biography, Accidental Icon, published by Harper Collins.
Her Instagram account currently has 2.2 million followers, with posts dedicated to gifts and artwork from her fans (including paintings, knitted dolls, cookies in the shape of her face, and a pumpkin wearing her signature oversized glasses).
Recently, Apfel has been amusing her followers with videos of things she’s older than, including sliced bread, television, convertible cars and bubble gum.
In an interview with Vogue celebrating her 100th birthday, Apfel said before someone can dress authentically, they have to “find themselves first.”
“You have to know who you are and then work at it,” she told the publication.
“Style is a matter of attitude, attitude, attitude, but you have to possess individuality to have an attitude. You can’t be like everybody else and copy what everybody else is doing.”
Describing her own personal style as “big and bold,” she said fashion is a “tangible expression about how I feel about things.”
“I just do it unconsciously, it is a creative exercise that I seem to do every day. It’s not planned,” she said.
Other style tips Apfel has shared over the years include dressing for yourself (and no one else), wear good shoes, embrace color and most importantly, have fun with fashion.
Or, as she put it in Accidental Icon: “If you can’t have fun, you might as well be dead.”
