偶然间看见一个关于Iris Barrel Apfel 的文章，

被彻底的吸引住了，

好神奇的86岁的老奶奶。

拥有那么强大的敏锐力，

对于时尚的完全的诠释，

和真正的为我风格，

我想，

这才是真正的时尚吧，

不跟风，

只有自己的风格，

穿自己所爱的潮流，

混搭的一级高人，

尤其赞赏她一些个人观点，

一起欣赏一下吧朋友们！

 《名利场》杂志评出了2008国际最佳着装名人榜，

位列第七的Iris Barrel Apfel就是最典型的一位极品“异类”，

这位室内设计师用超级圆形大眼镜+超级大项链+无数手镯+古董衣的标志性形象，

让时尚界牢牢铭记住她，

并且对她佩服得五体投地。

 

她和丈夫Carl Apfel应该排得进“近代史上十大最有名室内设计师”这个榜单。

1950年代，

夫妻二人共同成立了Old World Weavers纺织品公司，

客户包括白宫、MOMA、Estee Lauder，

甚至于大明星葛丽泰·嘉宝。

 

 

Apfel从不计较衣服的年份、材质、图样，

时装饰品只要穿戴在她身上，

个人特色立刻凌驾于品牌之上凸现出来。

 

 

她的私人衣柜迷倒了Giorgio Armani和Karl Lagerfeld ，

2005年10月，

纽约大都会博物馆的时装部举办了一个叫《珍品：Iris Barrel Apfel的收藏精选》的展览，

这个展览展出了Apfel的过百件时装和饰品，

其中有18世纪到1950年代的珠宝，

包括由Gripoix及Roger Jean- Pierre（Chanel、Balenciaga、YSL的珠宝设计师）的设计作品；

以及Lanvin、YSL、Ralph Rucci、Poiret等大师的原版高级定制时装。

令人惊讶的是，

这些展品全部来自Apfel的私人衣柜，

也就是说这些行头都是她的日常着装。

 

 

“我有很多YSL的东西，

我也买很多没有大牌标签的衣服。

在H&M，

我就曾花79美元和29美元买过一件人造皮毛外衣和一条裙子。”

“这是个很好的训练，

虽然很难，

但这让我成为非常非常好的买手。

我想所有的年轻女性都该这样，

而不是总执著于价钱，

或者总是在说有多少钱能花才能买多少衣服。

如今有很多H&M这样的连锁店，

或者其他廉价小店，

不愁没有衣服穿。”

 

 

“或者非常巴洛克，

或者非常禅宗，

介于两者之间的任何东西都让我心里痒痒。”

她喜欢称自己是世界上最老的青少年，

因此也会穿牛仔裤，

她的仓库里从“最便宜的Levi's到最奢侈的Cavalli都有。”

 

 

“太多太多的女性过于努力让自己看起来年轻，

这非常愚蠢，

像个86岁的人有什么好害羞的？

为什么非得说，

你看起来像52岁？

根本没人相信嘛……

即便是把脸弄得很年轻，

手上皱褶的皮肤依然会出卖你的年纪……

我的意思是，

这样很荒谬，

老了也很好啊，

没什么不妥的。”

 

 

“我只用口红，

因为那是母亲叮嘱过的。”

她也从不阅读时尚杂志，

“我只看《纽约》杂志，

了解这个城市里发生了什么。

我无法理解很多杂志要表现的内容，

无法理解在14岁模特身上展现两万美元服装的做法……

难道模特们必须是十四五岁的年纪？

那睿智的中老年妇女要怎么办？

人们应该学会正视镜子里的自己。”

 

 

Iris Apfel rocks. I mean look at this incredibly unique personal and timeless style. Because it is so completely her own, makes it timeless. No one is putting any shelf date on what she collects and what she chooses to put together, and I just love that. It takes guts in today's society to wear what you like, love it and not care if people think you odd or even ridiculous. What's really ridiculous is putting on a different tie and the same bloody suit every day of the weak, oops, I meant week. Now in her mid-eighties, Iris Apfel is a unique style icon. An exhibit of her incredible fashion collection, "Rara Avis: Selections from the Iris Barrel Apfel Collection" was even on display last year at the Metropolitan Museum of Art's Costume Institute and the Norton in West Palm Beach, Florida. Of the collection Iris says, "This is no collection. It's a raid on my closet."

 

 

Iris Apfel is a woman who has always been ahead of her time. More than 50 years ago as an interior designer looking for fine traditional silk-woven fabrics and noticing a lack thereof, she recognized an opportunity and, along with her husband, Carl, founded Old World Weavers. She built it into one of the most prestigious brands in the world of textiles and interior design, with an illustrious clientele, including Greta Garbo, Estée Lauder and the White House. Iris Apfel combines offbeat styles, colors, textures, and patterns without regard to anyone else's conventions and proves that true style comes from individuality, with a love of "objects from different worlds, different eras, combined her way. Never uptight, achieving - hopefully - a kind of throwaway chic." Perhaps that's why I feel so akin to her - it's pretty much the way I go about decorating - a little bit of everything and a subtle dose of restraint.

 

 

There's a beautiful coffee table book out about Iris, Rare Bird of Fashion: The Irreverent Iris Apfel, by Eric Bowman, as well as loads of online interviews, should you want to learn more about this amazing style icon. Iris says, "I've been called a lot of things in my day, but I've never been called an inspiration." As for me, I must disagree! And I am just so happy I bought a pair of humongous vintage sunglasses in Amsterdam when I spied them - I feel so fabulously Iris! I might even find the nerve to wear them!

 

 

Wardrobe of a Lifetime
Iris Barrel Apfel’s eclectic embellishments.

 

Iris Apfel is a woman who has always been ahead of her time. More than 50 years ago as an interior designer looking for fine traditional silk-woven fabrics, she recognized an opportunity and, along with her husband, Carl, founded Old World Weavers. She built it into one of the most prestigious brands in the world of textiles and interior design and the authority on antique textile reproductions. Thirteen years ago it was sold to Stark Carpets Co., and the Apfels have remained as consultants. The exquisite workmanship and exclusive fabric designs drew the attention of the most discriminating clients – including Greta Garbo, Marjorie Merriweather Post and Estée Lauder. Old World Weavers was also awarded many important restoration projects, which included work at the White House, the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York and the Flagler Museum in West Palm Beach.

   Apfel has been an influential pioneer in the world of fashion as well, boldly linking high- and low-end and melding flea market finds with haute couture long before doing so was considered fashionable. Her richly layered combinations of colors, textures and patterns show her remarkable panache.

    Apfel’s highly original personal style will be celebrated this September in an exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum’s Costume Institute – Rara Avis: Selections From the Iris Barrel Apfel Collection – in what will be a new focus for the Institute: the collection and exhibition of accessories.

 

You really are an original. How would you describe your remarkable personal style?
I think dressing up or down should be a creative experience. Exciting. Fun. Whenever possible, it’s really great to start with a marvelously cut designer piece and build on it.

    For me the key to personal style lies in accessories. My friends tell me that my oversized glasses and my pairs of bracelets have become my unwritten signature. I have amassed an enormous “collection” of bags, belts, bangles and beads without which I would be lost. One can change the entire look of an outfit by substituting one accessory for another. I love objects from different worlds, different eras, combined my way. Never uptight, achieving – hopefully – a kind of throwaway chic.

Which outfits have you put together that truly reflect your style?
A cowhide apron worn with a black satin jumpsuit. Antique Georgian jewelry mixed with flea market bangles and beads. A haute couture Jean-Louis Scherrer black-feather coat – the tips painted in gold – worn over Roberto Cavalli leopard-print jeans, and leopard-fur loafers. The outfit topped off with some ethnic jewelry. A canvas dance skirt from a Southwest pueblo edged in tinkling tin bells worn with different couture jackets. A silver-fox coat belted with a beaded African wall hanging, and red woolen boots with embroidered trim from Etro. A Chi’ng dynasty exquisitely hand-embroidered silk wedding skirt with an English cashmere sweater and Italian handmade glove-leather boots.

When did you start to collect and how did you build your collection?
I don’t collect per se. My so-called “collection” is my wardrobe. It’s a series of pieces I’ve accumulated over these many years. I love a timeless look, and I think if you develop your own style it’s not a problem – at least it hasn’t been for me. I can mix something I bought last week with something I’ve hoarded for 30 years. I don’t follow trends or the hottest fashion. I buy what I like and my tastes are quite catholic – haute couture to street fashion. Pieces that are Zen-simple or madly baroque. I love ethnic as well as contemporary. I’m fond of serious and adore amusing. I try to make all these things work together. I’ve never bothered to analyze how this happens, but Harold Koda [the curator of the Metropolitan Museum’s Costume Institute] says there is an underlying aesthetic to all this madness. At this point – with all the curatorial poking about – I feel that my life is an open armoire! I do have a lot of stuff. After all, I’ve been shopping for myself since I was 12. I’ve been approximately the same size since high school. While my waistline hasn’t expanded, my closet has! I’m constantly donating to charities and thrift shops. But one doesn’t give away the very special pieces or the haute couture unless it all would be going to the Costume Institute of the Met!

What is going to be included in the show?
The curators are still making changes so I’m not absolutely sure. A few things I hope are cast in stone.

    Years ago the ASID (American Society of Interior Designers) did an annual fashion show/luncheon where the leading designers of the day were asked to create an outfit of their choice from a given upholstery house. After a few years, the great James Galanos agreed only if he could use Old World Weavers. He created a spectacular evening outfit that is still very current. It is a floor-length coachman’s coat of a spolinato (handwoven linen background designed with huge woolen flowers that look as though they were embroidered). It is collared and cuffed and half-belted with Russian sable and completely lined with a heavy Chinese lacquer-colored Doupioni silk and is worn over a long “deceptively simple” very sleek dress. It was the centerpiece of his retrospective show at FIT and, hopefully, will now be shown again.

    There will be a madly multicolored feather jacket by Nina Ricci combined with Moschino brilliant-red-suede pants that are slashed ribbonlike from the knees down. Then, a three-tiered taffeta ball gown from Lanvin worn with heavy amber Tibetan necklaces and heavier “killer” bracelets. A Tunisian wedding dress. A fabulous coat by Ferré for Dior made of black-and-white Tibetan lamb impregnated with feathers. And Galliano for Dior trousers with wolfskin from the knees down that makes me look as though I’m wearing high fur boots.

You design your own clothes as well?
In the early ‘50s my husband, Carl, and I began a business called Old World Weavers. We specialized in weaving exact reproductions of antique-period fabric. This all started with some samples in a suitcase and, happily, we just grew. Our clients were the rich and famous and we did tons of historic restoration projects – major work in the White House during the combined reigns of eight presidents. Because of business, we spent almost three months every year traveling the world to find offbeat classic-period textile designs and to locate specific mills with specialized techniques to properly replicate them. They were exciting and challenging years.

    I’ve always been extremely grateful to have traveled during that period and to have experienced the last of the Old World. One was still able to find highly skilled artisans to carry out any crackpot idea that dropped into one’s head. And surely they did – and often!

   I guess I’ve been a “closet designer” who could never sew or cut. But I had some ideas and I could sketch. God knows I had the fabric and the trimmings. It isn’t easy to design an outfit, and trying my hand at it gave me an everlasting respect for the artistry and craftsmanship of the true couturier.

    Nevertheless I had my fling with dressmakers, bagmakers and shoemakers. Whenever someone would admire the fabric on a finished piece and ask where it came from, my husband would say, “Thank you – I just shot my couch!”