Pretty Iris

 

I recently caught an incredible documentary on style icon, Iris Apfel.

 

Don’t know who she is? Take a gander...

Born Iris Barrel in Astoria, Queens, New York, Apfel is the only child of Samuel Barrel, whose family owned a glass-and-mirror business, and his Russian-born wife, Sadye, who owned a fashion boutique. Both were Jewish.

She studied art history at New York University and attended art school at the University of Wisconsin. As a young woman, Apfel worked for Women's Wear Daily and for interior designer Elinor Johnson. She also was an assistant to illustrator Robert Goodman.

In 1948, she married Carl Apfel. Two years later, they launched the textile firm Old World Weavers and ran it until they retired in 1992. Through their business, the couple began traveling all over the world where she began buying pieces of non-Western, artisanal clothes. These clothes were the ones she started wearing to the high-society parties of their clients. From 1950 to 1992, Iris Apfel took part in several design restoration projects, including work at the White House for nine presidents: Truman, Eisenhower, Kennedy, Johnson, Nixon, Ford, Carter, Reagan, and Clinton.

At age 90 in 2012, Apfel was a visiting professor at University of Texas at Austin.

Apfel consults and lectures about style and other fashion topics. In 2013, she was listed as one of the fifty Best-dressed over 50s by The Guardian.^[5]

Apfel's husband of 67 years, Carl Apfel, died in August 2015, just three days shy of his 101st birthday.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iris_Apfel

Part of what struck me, apart from her incredible accomplishments, was her perspective on the word, “pretty.”

“I don’t like pretty. I don’t feel badly and I think it worked out well.”

It further underscores one of my favorite quotes on the subject matter…

 

Yes! And that’s what we, as females, need to be more focused on. Pretty what?

Pretty for pretty’s sake or a more complex pretty, comprised of interesting components to who we are?

Pretty smart…pretty clever…pretty kind…pretty wise…pretty talented…pretty spiritual…

Let’s take our cue from Iris. Let’s become pretty incredible masterpieces!

Copyright © 2015 by Sheryle Cruse