Iris Apfel remembered by Duro Olowu 29 August 1921 – 1 March 2024The fashion designer on inspirational moments spent with his tirelessly creative friend, a visionary stylist and textiles maker.
It was also a great way for her to develop her eye, as well as her renowned bargaining skills, as demonstrated in Albert Maysles’s 2014 documentary Iris.
Much of her unpublicised work, particularly in the last 15 years of her life, involved mentoring and arranging internships for design students in high schools and colleges.
It occurred to me early on in our friendship, which began in 2005, that Iris was a woman who never said no to life.
It’s impossible to imagine a person’s absence when it seems, like Iris Apfel, that they were always here.
