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Iris: Rare bird of fashion
Other | Wednesday 5th August 2015 | Christina
93-year-old style icon Iris Apfel is the star of Albert Maysles’ charming documentary.
The legendary documentarian opens up the world of the flamboyantly dressed, “rare bird of fashion” Iris Apfel, exploring her life, her creativity and her spirit. We get a look back at her early design days, when she would travel the world with her husband Carl, sourcing textiles for their company Old World Weavers, to the exhibition of her fashion and jewellery collection at the Met in 2005/06, which made her a public sensation.
Maysles also throws open the doors to her life now, taking us inside her fabulous apartments, following her on shopping trips in Harlem and Palm Beach, and her never-ending work commitments, which include modelling for magazines, hosting styling events, teaching students and designing jewellery.
Iris is a film about fashion, so there’s no surprise that we see some remarkable clothes and accessories. Watching her put together outfits and explain where and how she came by certain pieces is joyful, and provides her with the opportunity to dispense nuggets of wisdom like “colour can raise the dead”.
But the film is also so much more than that – it’s about Iris’ marriage to her husband Carl and how they’ve built a fabulous life together, it’s about how important it is to stay creative and have a zest for life. Despite all the style and glamour, Iris has real values; she knows that she’s lucky to be able to work and do something she loves, that it’s better to have a personality than be pretty, and that it’s more important to be happy than well dressed.
Iris is a witty, charming, one-of-a-kind woman, and Maysles gives us fascinating insight into her life, and what an extraordinary life it is.
