Latest Iris Apfel Quotes from Interviews

Quotes about:

• My mother gave me very good advice years ago. I grew up in the Great Depression and she always told me to get a good little basic black dress - well-cut, well-made, good fabric - and it could take me through everything. I could go to the office in the morning and stay out all day in the same dress. Just by changing accessories, because they are so transformative, you can make six different outfits. I find that very useful. My mother worshipped at the altar of accessories and I'm an accessory freak, as everybody knows. That, I got from my mother.

  Iris Apfel

  Mother, Morning, Office

  Source: www.elle.com

• I don't happen to approve of plastic surgery. I think God put plastic surgeons on this earth for good reasons - people get burned or people might have a nose like Pinocchio and that has to be fixed. But to just chop yourself up to look a few years younger? You could come out looking like a Picasso picture. And you still have your hands to contend with. If you're 70, no one is going to think you're 35. The whole concept is kind of stupid.

  Iris Apfel

  Stupid, Thinking, People

  Source: www.elle.com

• I don't happen to like pretty things. I don't like pretty dresses. I like more attractive. I like people that look a little bit more offbeat. I don't like the classic pretty face. That doesn't mean it's not pretty or it's not wonderful, and most people don't agree with me, but that's the way I think.

  Iris Apfel

  Mean, Thinking, People

  Source: www.elle.com

• I've found that when I was young, all the pretty girls at school got all the dates and went to all the big parties and everything because they were pretty. They never bothered to develop anything. And as they aged, their prettiness faded and they were left as middle-aged women who were very, very unhappy and disappointed. But I can't feel sorry for them because that was their own doing.

  Iris Apfel

  Girl, Sorry, Party

  Source: www.elle.com

• Society should emphasize personality. Accomplishment. Interest. Intelligent things. I think everybody should look as good as possible too.

  Iris Apfel

  Intelligent, Thinking, Accomplishment

  Source: www.elle.com

• I decided when I was 19 that I didn't like all these stereotypes that I was supposed to fit into. I wasn't comfortable and they made me very unhappy. So I tried and I spent a miserable summer, and then I went back to school and said, 'I'm going to do my own thing because I think I have a thing to do. I'm not going to live in anybody else's image because I don't like that.' I felt much better. I didn't do it to rebel against anybody or anything.

  Iris Apfel

  Summer, School, Thinking

  Source: www.elle.com

• Our culture puts a lot of pressure on the idea that a woman's self-worth is defined by her looks. It's just awful. And they also put a tremendous premier on youth, which is so, so debilitating and upsetting to so many women. I don't know why they're so dopey. Seriously. I don't see any problem with that and if you do, you should celebrate it. Don't chop your face up.

  Iris Apfel

  Upset, Culture, Youth

  Source: www.elle.com

• The woman should learn who she is and what she looks like and try to find the best points of dress accordingly. I also think that being appropriate has gone out of fashion. There are appropriate times to wear appropriate kinds of clothes.

  Iris Apfel

  Fashion, Thinking, Trying

  Source: www.elle.com

• I think being appropriate is what you have to do. I think these trend things are terrible, like 'Ten Things You Must Have.' Why must you have them? They're a 'must' for some people, but for some they're not. It's silly. Again, it's all a matter of knowing who you are. You'll never run out of ideas once you do. But it's hard work and some people don't want to put in the time or effort. So they don't. And that's their issue. I don't sit in judgment on how they look.

  Iris Apfel

  Running, Silly, Hard Work

  Source: www.elle.com

• There are absolutely no rules about style at all. Not for me.

  Iris Apfel

  Style

  Source: www.elle.com

• I think fashion today is horrible. Just open your eyes and look! What's good about it? There's no originality. Here and there, there is, but in general, en masse, there's very little creativity and very little originality. It's kind of boring. Everybody looks alike. Everybody seems to strive to look alike.

  Iris Apfel

  Fashion, Eye, Creativity

  Source: www.elle.com

• The biggest mistake people are making when it comes to fashion is looking in the mirror and thinking you're somebody else. People sit and watch the runway and then some nice little plump lady in Squeedunk will see Angelina Jolie in a very glamorous dress from the runway and she thinks if she buys that dress she'll look like her. It's sad, but it's true.

  Iris Apfel

  Fashion, Mistake, Nice

  Source: www.elle.com

• I think you're born with style, but you have to develop it. You can be born with the talent to be an opera star, but you've got to work and practice it.

  Iris Apfel

  Thinking, Style, Talent

  Source: www.elle.com

• I don't pay attention to things like the talent for style. I don't meditate on things like that. I just do whatever I think I should do and go with it, and if people like it, then I'm very happy about it. And if not, I always figure it's their problem not mine.

  Iris Apfel

  Thinking, People, Style

  Source: www.elle.com

• My secret to having a happy relationship is having a sense of humour and giving one another space: your own space.

  Iris Apfel

  Space, Giving, Secret

  Source: www.thegayuk.com

• I'm delighted that gay people now want to get married and I say why not! It's nobody's business and I would happily give my blessing.

  Iris Apfel

  Gay, Blessing, Giving

  "Icon fashion legend Iris Apfel 96 years old and going strong". Queerguru Interview, queerguru.com. 2015.

• It's not easy to know who you are and it's very painful and takes a lot of time and that is why a lot of people don't want to put in the effort.

  Iris Apfel

  People, Effort, Want

  "Icon fashion legend Iris Apfel 96 years old and going strong". Queerguru Interview, queerguru.com. 2015.

• If you don't have any individuality and you're happy just being one of the girls (or boys) be my guest. I'm not the fashion police. I won't fault you.

  Iris Apfel

  Girl, Fashion, Boys

  "Icon fashion legend Iris Apfel 96 years old and going strong". Queerguru Interview, queerguru.com. 2015.

• First you have to know who you are. That is the most important thing, as if you don't know who you are you will either get swallowed up or you follow some unsuitable trends and just become a nonentity.

  Iris Apfel

  Important, Trends, Firsts

  Source: www.thegayuk.com

• There are so many empty headed people in the fashion business who take themselves way too seriously and I don't think I am at all like one of them. To me there are lots more important things in the world than just having the right shoes!

  Iris Apfel

  Fashion, Thinking, Shoes

  Source: www.thegayuk.com

• I think that if you have to work very hard at dressing up and it makes you nervous or uptight, then you won't look very well because you won't be comfortable. I think it's much better to be comfortable and happy than well dressed, don't you?

  Iris Apfel

  Thinking, Dressing Up, Looks

  "Icon fashion legend Iris Apfel 96 years old and going strong". Queerguru Interview, queerguru.com. 2015.

• I think fashion is just part of my life and if it hadn't been fashion then it would have been something else.

  Iris Apfel

  Fashion, Thinking, Ifs

  "Icon fashion legend Iris Apfel 96 years old and going strong". Queerguru Interview, queerguru.com. 2015.

• I don't believe in rules. It's different for everybody. Everyone has to make their own decision and find out what's comfortable for them.

  Iris Apfel

  Believe, Decision, Different

• Style means you have a real curiosity about yourself and then you express it. Having style is not copying somebody else.

  Iris Apfel

  Real, Mean, Style

• I don't have too much time to shop. I have such a back log of stuff at home. I tend to get temperative once in awhile. I don't need anything, so if I see something that knocks me out, then I'm buying it. It's getting harder and harder because things are getting more homogenized.

  Iris Apfel

  Home, Needs, Stuff