Top 100 Iris Apfel Quotes
#1. 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
#2. I didn't have children, but I never wanted children.
Iris Apfel
#3. 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
#4. I'm not a collector of clothes. I've got clothes to wear.
Iris Apfel
#5. Nothing I ever did I expected to do. It just kind of happened.
Iris Apfel
#6. When you don't dress like everybody else, you don't have to think like everybody else.
Iris Apfel
#7. 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
#8. Fashion you can buy, but style you possess. The key to style is learning who you are, which takes years. There's no how-to road map to style. It's about self-expression and, above all, attitude.
Iris Apfel
#9. Given the choice, I would spend my money on accessories.
Iris Apfel
#10. I don't have any rules, because I would only be breaking them, so it's a waste of time
Iris Apfel
#12. Technology is a wonderful thing, but I think it's violently misused.
Iris Apfel
#13. I always tell people I'm very large in Uzbekistan.
Iris Apfel
#14. 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
#15. Caviar used to be my drug of choice, but since my husband is on a no-salt diet, I've kind of given it up. I still have dreams of sitting down and gorging, though. I love it with a good vodka; I don't like it with champagne.
Iris Apfel
#16. 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
#17. 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
#18. 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
#19. 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
#20. To me there are lots more important things in the world than just having the right shoes!
Iris Apfel
#21. 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
#22. 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
#23. When you go to a nice restaurant, you want to be relaxed and have a drink and everything, you want to look at people who look well. You don't want to look at some slob with an open shirt and a hairy chest. At least I don't.
Iris Apfel
#24. My look is either very baroque or very Zen - everything in between makes me itch.
Iris Apfel
#25. I have ideas that I think might be amusing, and I try them, and if they look right, I carry them out, and if they don't, I throw them out and try something else. I don't agonize about it.
Iris Apfel
#26. I just never want to completely grow up.
Iris Apfel
#27. 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
#28. I think people try so hard to learn everything that they miss all the wonderful essentials. There is so much mystery in life that you should leave a mystery.
Iris Apfel
#29. It's more important to be happy than well-dressed.
Iris Apfel
#30. 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
#31. Jewelry is the most transformative thing you can wear.
Iris Apfel
#32. I live in the 17th century. I don't have a computer. I don't look at the internet. I use a cellphone, and that's about my only connection to the modern world.
Iris Apfel
#33. 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
#34. I never buy what someone says is 'in' or a 'must-have.' I buy what makes me happy.
Iris Apfel
#35. You don't find out who you are unless you work at it.
Iris Apfel
#36. When you're older, no matter how good your humor is you don't always feel perky and peppy. But if you sit home all day and brood about it, it gets worse.
Iris Apfel
#37. 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
#39. If you're over 60, arms are not pretty, so I think you should stay covered up. But wear what's appropriate for what you're doing, how you live, and what your lifestyle is.
Iris Apfel
#40. I love high-end designers, but a head-to-toe designer look for me is extremely boring. I've always mixed it up.
Iris Apfel
#41. I'm not a minimalist, as I'm sure you've noticed.
Iris Apfel
#42. People say, 'You have inspired me, you've given me courage ... ' They've gone so far as to say, 'You've changed my life!' And I would come back and say to my husband, 'I can't understand it - what kind of poor little life did she have if I had to come and change it?'
Iris Apfel
#43. Clothes are not frippery. Properly done, they can be an art form.
Iris Apfel
#44. Being attractive lasts longer than being pretty.
Iris Apfel
#45. 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
#46. If there was a choice on spending a lot of money on accessories or dress, I always chose accessories. I think jewelry can change an outfit more than anything else.
Iris Apfel
#47. The world is always full of promise.
Iris Apfel
#48. 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
#49. 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
#50. 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
#51. 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
#52. 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
#53. I'm not out to preach. I just live my own life. I'm very happy if I can help somebody - that's wonderful. But it's up to them what they want to think about it or what they want to take away; it's their business, not mine.
Iris Apfel
#54. I was always known in my industry, and I always enjoyed a modicum of popularity.
Iris Apfel
#55. Great personal style is an extreme curiosity about yourself.
Iris Apfel
#56. I'm making a lot of noise as I walk.
Iris Apfel
#57. 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
#58. 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
#59. I don't dress to be stared at. I dress for myself.
Iris Apfel
#60. If you're lucky enough to get old, I think you should celebrate it.
Iris Apfel
#61. 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
#62. 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
#63. It's better to be happy and comfortable than well dressed.
Iris Apfel
#64. I've always loved to help people, young people in particular.
Iris Apfel
#65. The fun of getting dressed is it's a creative experience.
Iris Apfel
#66. 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
#67. In my view, you can't go to the future if you haven't come from the past.
Iris Apfel
#68. Being an individual takes effort. Most people are pretty lazy. And that's OK! I mean, there are more important things than fashion. If it's going to stress you out to have a sense of style, don't do it. The important thing is to be comfortable so you can get on with your life.
Iris Apfel
#69. Style is attitude, attitude, attitude!
Iris Apfel
#70. 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
#71. It's better to be happy than to be well-dressed.
Iris Apfel
#72. 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
#73. You have to know yourself and know what you can carry. If you're not comfortable, no matter how well dressed you are, you're not going to look right. I'd rather be happy and feel comfy.
Iris Apfel
#74. 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
#75. There was Pauline de Rothschild, who I thought was very fabulous, and Millicent Rogers, the Standard Oil heiress, very chic, very clever, very original. I admired both those women very much. And I had a great example with my mother, who was extremely chic.
Iris Apfel
#76. I think fashion is just part of my life and if it hadn't of been fashion then it would have been something else.
Iris Apfel
#77. I love a nice hot pink. I like thick lipstick, otherwise it doesn't look like you're wearing any.
Iris Apfel
#78. 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
#79. Creativity is down the tube. And people give a lot of lip service to individuality. I know they all appreciate it, but they all say they would like to do it, but they don't want to work at it, and it doesn't come out of the sky.
Iris Apfel
#80. People would always say to me, "Why are you wearing such large frames?" And I would say, "The bigger to see you."
Iris Apfel
#81. The White House is the people's house. When you do historical restoration, that must be what it is.
Iris Apfel
#82. I can't tell people how to have style. No amount of money can buy you style. It's just instinctive.
Iris Apfel
#83. I just mix and put things together the way the spirit moves me.
Iris Apfel
#85. I'll spend more time getting dressed than I spent at the actual event.
Iris Apfel
#86. I've never seen anything like the way some young people behave. They go out on a date, and they're sitting opposite each other at a table, and they're not looking at each other, and they text each other as though they're deaf-mutes. It's insane.
Iris Apfel
#87. 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
#88. You only have one trip. You might as well enjoy it.
Iris Apfel
#89. People with a lot of money don't dress as well as people who have to make do, who have to be inventive. Those are the people who are always more interestingly dressed, I think. Everything I do, I do with gut instinct. If I think too much, it won't come out right.
Iris Apfel
#90. I used to collect frames. I've been collecting accessories since I was 11-years-old, creeping around flea markets and sales and everything. Whenever I saw unusual eyeglass frames, I bought them.
Iris Apfel
#91. Fashion and interior design are one and the same.
Iris Apfel
#92. If you hair is done properly and you're wearing good shoes, you can get anyway with anything.
Iris Apfel
#93. The world is not black and white; there are lots of shades of grey. There are good things and bad things in every era, and I think it's kind of very blindfolded to say one era was wonderful, as it was wonderful, but there were a lot of bad things as well.
Iris Apfel
#94. I get very involved with my things, and they are not standard equipment.
Iris Apfel
#95. I think people should express themselves more and not just buy what's in. While it can be very beautiful, and it may suit you perfectly, I'm sure it doesn't suit everyone in the same way. I like people who express themselves and are more individualistic.
Iris Apfel
#96. 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
#97. 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
#98. 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
#99. 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
#100. 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
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