Iris Apfel Hates Loss Of Individuality In Fashion & Rejects Importance of 'Pretty'

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Iris Apfel’s documentary ‘Iris’ has opened in select theaters a month and a half after the death of director Albert Maysles of ‘Grey Gardens’ fame.

Vanity Fair writes that without the fashion icon Apfel, now 93, we would not be seeing the rise of the senior ‘supermodel’ (another abuse of the word): Joan Didion for Céline, Charlotte Rampling for Nars, Jessica Lange for Marc Jacobs Beauty, Joni Mitchell for Yves Saint Laurent. Apfel herself is the new face of Kate Spade.

Iris Apfel’s roots go back to the young woman from Queens, New York, with big dreams for a career in the fashion industry. In a truth serum moment that would result in modern parents arriving for a confrontation about crushing their child’s ego, Frieda Loehmann, founder of the famed department store told Apfel:

You’re not pretty and you’ll never be pretty, but it doesn’t matter. You have something much better. You have style.

Paying tribute, Vogue.com says that Apfel is our leading ambassador for the ‘fashion of chance: the idea that good taste isn’t aspirational but realized on the fly, that more can be done with well-layered costume jewelry and a one-of-a-kind poncho than with all the season’s must-have fare.’

Iris envisions getting dressed as akin to playing jazz — a ‘sartorial safari’ and wild fun that celebrates individuality. In this fashion icon’s playbook, style isn’t about pleasing other people. “It’s better to be happy than well-dressed.” Not one to mince words, Apfel laments fashion’s uniformity. “I think it’s very sad… . People are being robbed of their imaginations—and everything else—with this button-pushing culture we have.”

Apfel shares that she had the opportunity to take a course with Margaret Mead. Also, she had a fabulous art course, “where it was explained to me that nothing exists in a vacuum, that everything is a result of the period in which it’s done—the economics, the sociology, the politics, all sewn together. That was a very important lesson.”

Iris’ relationship with her husband, 100, obviously adores her. After six decades of marriage, they still hold hands in the back of the cab. “I figured he was cool, he was cuddly, and he cooked Chinese, so I couldn’t do any better,” Apfel says lovingly. For his part, Carl says “It’s not a dull marriage, I can tell you that.”

The duo were business partners, founding Old World Weavers which gave Apfel the credentials to do interior design work at the White House for presidents from Truman to Clinton.

The documentary ‘Iris’ is an excellent argument for fashion as art, writes Indie Wire. The review continues:

‘Iris’ will be most interesting to fans of fashion, but it’s not a documentary that excludes those unfamiliar with its subject matter. If appearances from Dries Van Noten, Alexis Bittar, and Tavi Gevinson mean little to the uninitiated, there’s always the gushing meeting with Kanye West to drive home Iris’ cultural impact. J.Crew’s Jenna Lyons shows a few times, popping up at the CFDA Fashion Awards and Carl’s 100th birthday party. Iris’ style may seem over the top for daily wear, but it’s not hard to see her influence on brands and people like Lyons, with a mixture of high and low, as well as a heap of statement jewelry.

As for the ‘not pretty’ part of her history, Iris Apfel is cool about it, telling director Maysles:

I never felt pretty, I don’t feel pretty now; I’m not a pretty person. I don’t like pretty, so I don’t feel badly. And I think it worked out well, because … when you’re somebody like myself, in order to get around and be attractive, you have to develop something, you have to learn something, and have to do something, so you become a bit more interesting. And when you get older, you get by on that. Anyway, I don’t happen to like pretty. Most of the world is not with me, but I don’t care.

After Paris Murders In Name of Islam, Saudi Arabia Launches 1000 Lashes Friday January 9, 2015 For Blogger Who Insulted Islam

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Saudi Blogger To Be Publicly Flogged For Insulting Islam NPR

A Saudi blogger will be flogged 50 lashes tomorrow, the first of 20 public floggings for insulting Islam. In all, 1000 lashes will be administered to Raif Badawi, increased from 600 lashes during the appeal process. The blogger Badawi was found guilty of insulting Islam on his website Free Saudi Liberals and was also fined about $266,000 and 10 years in prison for his crime.

U.S. State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki said the U.S. was greatly concerned at Badawi’s punishment “for exercising his rights to freedom of expression and religion.”

“The United States Government calls on Saudi authorities to cancel this brutal punishment and to review Badawi’s case and sentence,” she said.

Amnesty International said it too had learned of Badawi’s impending punishment.

“It is horrifying to think that such a vicious and cruel punishment should be imposed on someone who is guilty of nothing more than daring to create a public forum for discussion and peacefully exercising the right to freedom of expression,” Philip Luther, Middle East and North Africa director for the group, said in a statement.

Badawi’s wife and children moved to Canada after he was arrested and his website has been closed.

Saudi blogger Raif Badawi.

Anne of Carversville has a long history of supporting women’s rights in America and internationally.

We have never involved ourselves in the case of a man before, but coming on the heels of the assassinations in Paris this week in the name of Islam, we must speak up for another blogger Raif Badawi.

AOC has worked to end the flogging of 40,000 women a year in Sudan for perceived indecent exposure. This is what a flogging of a woman in Sudan looks like. Women in Saudi Arabia are also lashed for an offense like an ankle showing.

Although there is no mention of burqas or their equivalent in the Quran, the most orthodox, fundamentalist, murderous branches of Islam say that an ankle showing warrants this punishment for offending Islam.

I am just convulsing over the thought of the punishments that await Raif Badawi for trying to moderate the tribal-mentality, Saudi Arabian government in the 21st century. There is a petition at Amnesty International for readers and friends wanting to stop this brutal punishment coming on the heels of the Paris murders in the name of Islam.

Laughing Brutality in Woman’s Flogging Video Chills Sudan The files of this video were transferred to Anne, after You Tube continually took it down for violating its restrictions on violence. It was the government in Khartoum that demanded that it be taken down. We posted the files on AOC and social media, but also transferred the files to a contact at Bloomberg News.

Flogging of Sudanese women in Khartoum from Anne Enke on Vimeo.

Update

The first public lashing of Raif Badawi was carried out today. The Saudi video was horrific — much worse than this video out of Sudan, which is also just heart breaking to watch. And then men laughed at this poor woman.