Top 100 Iris Apfel Quotes
#1. Coco Chanel once said that what makes a woman look old is trying desperately to look young. Why should one be ashamed to be 84? Why do you have to say that you're 52? Nobody's going to believe you anyway, so why be such a fool? It's nice that you got to be so old. It's a blessing.
Iris Apfel
#2. I find that if I get up and push myself, I get lost in what I'm doing, and I forget about everything else until I stop doing it.
Iris Apfel
#3. It's better to be happy than to be well-dressed.
Iris Apfel
#4. I'm a practical person. Most fashion people live in the clouds, and they're full of it. I live like a human being - or, I try to - and I have to be intelligent; I have to be practical. I'm a great believer in common sense, and the older I get, I see that common sense is not that common.
Iris Apfel
#5. Style is attitude, attitude, attitude!
Iris Apfel
#6. In my view, you can't go to the future if you haven't come from the past.
Iris Apfel
#7. If you don't learn constantly, you don't grow, and you will wither. Too many people wither on the vine. Sure, it gets a little harder as you get older, but new experiences and new challenges keep it fresh.
Iris Apfel
#8. The fun of getting dressed is it's a creative experience.
Iris Apfel
#9. I mix everything up. A museum curator once said to me that there is a great jazz component to the way I do things because good jazz is improvisation and draws elements from all different cultures. And that's the way I do everything - the way I dress and decorate.
Iris Apfel
#10. It's better to be happy and comfortable than well dressed.
Iris Apfel
#11. I always feel that if you're gonna be uncomfortable and unhappy in something, just because you think it's in or it's chic, I would advise you to be happy rather than well-dressed. It's better to be happy.
Iris Apfel
#12. I say, dress to please yourself. Listen to your inner muse and take a chance. Wear something that says 'Here I am!' today.
Iris Apfel
#13. If you're lucky enough to get old, I think you should celebrate it.
Iris Apfel
#14. My mother knew if you bought a couple of really good architectural outfits and put your money into accessories, you could create a million different looks. She taught that to me, which I think was invaluable.
Iris Apfel
#15. My father told me once not to expect anything from anybody so I wouldn't be disappointed. If somebody was nice and did nice things for me, I should be overjoyed, but I shouldn't go through life expecting it, which is very good advice.
Iris Apfel
#16. I'm making a lot of noise as I walk.
Iris Apfel
#17. Great personal style is an extreme curiosity about yourself.
Iris Apfel
#18. I used to love to create outfits, and I still do - I just don't have the time. How can you wear one thing and never wear it again? Even my wedding dress - I had a dress made that I could wear again. I'm a child of the depression, so I'm very, very practical.
Iris Apfel
#19. I've always loved to help people, young people in particular.
Iris Apfel
#20. 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.
Iris Apfel
#21. I am not a fashionista, and I don't dress up. Usually if I'm at home, where I am now, I'm wearing a robe.
Iris Apfel
#22. You can't try to be somebody you're not; that's not style. If someone says, 'Buy this - you'll be stylish,' you won't be stylish because you won't be you. You have to learn who you are first, and that's painful.
Iris Apfel
#23. The fashion industry has done itself in by neglecting the 60- to 80-year-old market. They have the time and the economic resources. They want to go shopping.
Iris Apfel
#24. Aging gracefully is about no heavy makeup, and not too much powder because it gets into the wrinkles, and, you know, to not get turtle eyelids and to not try to look young.
Iris Apfel
#25. If you hair is done properly and you're wearing good shoes, you can get anyway with anything.
Iris Apfel
#26. Fashion and interior design are one and the same.
Iris Apfel
#27. You only have one trip. You might as well enjoy it.
Iris Apfel
#28. I had to be my own person and live my own life if I wanted to be happy, and I just did it.
Iris Apfel
#29. I'll spend more time getting dressed than I spent at the actual event.
Iris Apfel
#31. I just mix and put things together the way the spirit moves me.
Iris Apfel
#32. The White House is the people's house. When you do historical restoration, that must be what it is.
Iris Apfel
#33. People would always say to me, "Why are you wearing such large frames?" And I would say, "The bigger to see you."
Iris Apfel
#34. You learn as you grow up, if you're intelligent - or even three-quarter witted - that there's no free lunch. You pay for things in various ways. Living, loving, everything else is a matter of the same principles: you learn to work with what you have.
Iris Apfel
#35. I love a nice hot pink. I like thick lipstick, otherwise it doesn't look like you're wearing any.
Iris Apfel
#36. My look is either very baroque or very Zen - everything in between makes me itch.
Iris Apfel
#37. I'm from New York. My grandparents were settlers of Long Island City. When they came here, there was no bridge, and they had to hire a boat across the river. They had a farm, and my grandmother had to go once a week to Manhattan to buy provisions - very primitive.
Iris Apfel
#38. I was never hurt by what anybody said about my clothes, because I dress to please myself. If somebody doesn't like what I'm wearing, it's their problem, not mine
Iris Apfel
#39. To me there are lots more important things in the world than just having the right shoes!
Iris Apfel
#40. I don't think dressing has anything to do with numbers. I know people of 30 who act like they're 97, and I have a few old-bag friends who are very hip.
Iris Apfel
#41. I'm not a pretty person. I don't like pretty, so I don't feel badly. Most of the world is not with me, but I don't care.
Iris Apfel
#42. You can't just say, "I'm gonna have style." You have to work at it. It's intuitive; some people have it, and some people can work on it all day long, and it will never happen.
Iris Apfel
#43. I was never a fan of Chanel. I liked it on other people. Some other people. All the ladies who were too plump and busty looked like little sausages.
Iris Apfel
#44. I'm happy. I give thanks every morning that I can get up, that I still have my husband with me. I'm extremely grateful. After all, how many 93-year-old cover girls do you know?
Iris Apfel
#46. Given the choice, I would spend my money on accessories.
Iris Apfel
#47. I hate being asked how I met my husband and very personal questions like that. I don't like that. People are too nosey. Intelligent questions I like, but sometimes people ask such silly, dopey ones.
Iris Apfel
#48. You have to observe a few simple rules in dressing, which are really not rules; it's just being appropriate. If you're 70 and want to wear miniskirts, 70-year-old knees ain't pretty!
Iris Apfel
#49. I didn't have children, but I never wanted children.
Iris Apfel
#50. I think I still keep my sense of wonder, which I call childlike, not childish, childlike. I still have a vivid imagination, and I like to try a lot of new things.
Iris Apfel
#51. I don't get dressed up every day. I'm very busy. I get really annoyed when people talk about me as a 'fashionista.' I get dressed up when I have to go out. Most of the time, I'm running around in jeans.
Iris Apfel
#52. I'm delighted that gay people want to get married and I say why not! It's nobody's business and I would happily give my blessing.
Iris Apfel
#53. I don't spend my life getting dressed! I have to put clothes on during the day; I don't get dressed up at all when I'm working. I'll wear jeans, or something very simple.
Iris Apfel
#54. I was in art school since I was five years old. I've always been to art school. Everything that's happened to me, nothing's been planned. I've never had a business plan. I just kind of fell into it, and I liked it, and I took a chance. I took a lot of chances in my life.
Iris Apfel
#55. Clothes are not frippery. Properly done, they can be an art form.
Iris Apfel
#56. I'm not a minimalist, as I'm sure you've noticed.
Iris Apfel
#57. I just never want to completely grow up.
Iris Apfel
#59. My mother worshipped at the alter of accessories and I got the bug. She always said, if you have a good, little, simple black dress and you have different accessories, you can have 27 different outfits.
Iris Apfel
#60. You don't find out who you are unless you work at it.
Iris Apfel
#61. To lead the good life in New York, the two most important things for a woman are a chauffeur and a fur-lined raincoat. If you have those two things, you're made.
Iris Apfel
#62. Jewelry is the most transformative thing you can wear.
Iris Apfel
#63. Understated jewellery is not for me. It's too itsy-bitsy. My husband is lucky, as I've never had a yen for real jewels.
Iris Apfel
#64. It's more important to be happy than well-dressed.
Iris Apfel
#65. Fashion has this youth mania. But 70-year-old ladies don't have 18-year-old bodies, and 18-year-olds don't have a 70-year-old's dollars.
Iris Apfel
#66. I'm happy if I can help anybody. I'm more than happy to, but you have to find your own path.
Iris Apfel
#67. These are things I love, things I've worn. I get more compliments on accessories than anything else. I think they're kind of like herbs and spices. They give zest and zing to an outfit.
Iris Apfel
#68. I'm a hopeless romantic. I buy things because I fall in love with them. I never buy anything just because it's valuable.
Iris Apfel
#69. If you put something together and it doesn't look so good,
the fashion police are not going to come and take you away.
And if they do, you might have some fun in jail.
Iris Apfel
#70. Being well-dressed is a wonderful thing, but I don't think it should be life threatening.
Iris Apfel
#71. You can be born with the talent to be an opera star, but you've got to work and practice it.
Iris Apfel
#72. To find out who you are is like putting yourself on a psychiatric couch, but you have nobody to help you. Really it isn't easy. I was talking with my nephew this morning and he gave me one of the best quotes I've heard in years 'Personal style is curiosity about oneself.'
Iris Apfel
#73. I've always been attracted to unusual eyewear. I thought glasses were an interesting accessory, depending on the shape of your face. People would always ask me, "Why are your frames so large?" And I would say, "The bigger to see you!" And that shut them up.
Iris Apfel
#75. I'm a color person, I've never been known to play it safe. Plus I like big bags. My eyeglasses are so big; they don't fit into smaller bags.
Iris Apfel
#76. I don't look at Instagram. I don't have much to do with social media.
Iris Apfel
#77. I live in the Dark Ages, the 17th century. Actually, I would have loved to be in Paris in the early 20th century when the Ballets Russes were there and Chanel was designing.
Iris Apfel
#78. Self-exploration is very painful, but unless you do that, you will never know who you are and who you want to be.
Iris Apfel
#79. You have to be interested. If you're not interested, you can't be interesting.
Iris Apfel
#80. Shock can kill you. Shock is terrible. But what you've got to do is live in the present, which is what I have always done.
Iris Apfel
#81. Fashion really is women's liberation in a lot of ways. Look at how many women in this country are depressed about how they look and how they think they have to look! It's really sad. And it's not about money.
Iris Apfel
#82. I see myself as the world's oldest living teenager ... I try to get as much kick out of things as possible.
Iris Apfel
#83. Humor is important in everything. Dress with a little humor and you can go a long way.
Iris Apfel
#84. My mother worshipped at the altar of the accessory.
Iris Apfel
#85. In America, it has been proven that the bulk of spending money is in the hands of women between 60 and 80, so it's so stupid. The people who do have the time and money to shop are either retired or empty-nesters.
Iris Apfel
#86. I think jewelry can change an outfit more than anything else. Transformation, punch, individuality: One or all of the above are why you should wear jewelry.
Iris Apfel
#87. I'd rather go to a flea market than just about anything. It's the process I like - the same with getting dressed. If I've got someplace to be, I'll spend more time getting dressed than I spent at the actual event. Sometimes. Even in my own closet, I love to dig and search and find.
Iris Apfel
#88. Oh my God, I'm a walking advertisement for discounted shopping.
Iris Apfel
#90. I don't expect to find inspiration. It just sort of comes. Sometimes you step on a bug and you get inspired.
Iris Apfel
#91. My mother was a big influence; she was exceedingly chic, completely dressed in a completely different manner than I did. I was a child of the Depression, so she taught me all about accessories, and I always tell everybody she worships at the altar of the accessory.
Iris Apfel
#92. Technologically, I live in the 17th century; I don't have a computer, I don't have any of that stuff. I don't look at the Internet, although I know people tell me I'm all over it. Somebody told me they Googled me, and they said I was mentioned two million times, some stupid thing ... but who cares?
Iris Apfel
#93. I wasn't interested at all in doing a documentary. I was not a public figure.
Iris Apfel
#94. I never had a fondness for gems or the extravagance of Harry Winston or Van Cleef & Arpels. I've always liked the more flamboyant, imaginative things. I lusted after costume jewelry. My husband was a very lucky man.
Iris Apfel
#95. If your hair is done properly you can get away with anything
Iris Apfel
#96. I swear on everything holy I do not know what's on the Internet about me.
Iris Apfel
#97. You're not pretty, and you'll never be pretty. But, it doesn't matter. You have something much better. You have style.
Iris Apfel
#98. I never just went to look for clothes and style; I always find that wherever I go.
Iris Apfel
#99. I go out in New York, and I think, boy, you can look at someone and pretty much determine their zip code. Everyone seems to want to conform. I wonder, are they all just button-pressers, on the Internet all day long? I don't know.
Iris Apfel
#100. You have to push yourself when you're older because it's very easy to fall into the trap. You start to fall apart - you just have to do your best to paste yourself together. I think doing things and being active is very important. When your mind is busy, you don't hurt so much.
Iris Apfel
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