At 102, Iris Apfel was a global fashion icon. She never tried to fit in.

In her own words, Iris Apfel said she was an "accidental icon". 18 years ago, when she was 84, Apfel managed to find her way into the spotlight thanks to her love for fashion and textiles.

She not only became a global fashion icon, she was also a businesswoman and influencer with over three million Instagram followers — and a self-titled "geriatric starlet". With a strong reputation in New York, plenty of celebrity friends, an eyewear line, and lots of fashion collaborations, Apfel cemented herself in the zeitgeist.

Now this week, Apfel's estate supervisor has announced her passing at the age of 102, marking the end of an era for the fashion industry.

And what an incredible life Apfel led.

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Born in 1921 and raised in Queens, New York, Apfel was an only child who spent her time playing with fabric scraps with her grandmother. 

"She opened one bag, and then another, and what I saw made my eyes pop: a gigantic bunch of little fabric remnants in all sorts of colours and patterns — there were scraps of all kinds, of all shapes and sizes," Apfel reflected in her book. "Obsessed with texture, colour, and pattern, I spent whole evenings entertaining myself this way."

It was those fabric scraps that inspired a career in textiles. 

After she graduated from university, Apfel worked as a copy editor at Women's Wear Daily, before taking up an apprenticeship of sorts with an interior designer. 

By 1948 and in her late 20s, Apfel met a man named Carl Apfel, in upstate New York. A year later, they were married.

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Reflecting on the decision to accept his proposal, Apfel said: "Aww, my little pussycat... I figured he was cool and he was cuddly, and he cooked Chinese, so I couldn't do any better. 

"The [wedding] dress was pink lace, and I'm really very practical, so I wanted a dress that I could wear after the wedding and not just put in a box. I still have the shoes. They were pale pink satin. They're back in style. If you hang around long enough, everything comes back," she said in her documentary, Iris.

By 1950, the couple had started their own company called Old World Weavers, which specialised in restoration furnishings. Their success continued for decades to come.

Their greatest textiles contract was with the White House, where they served nine presidents — running from Harry Truman to Bill Clinton. Over the years she earned the nickname 'First Lady of Fabric' and 'Our Lady of the Cloth'. 

The couple chose to not have children, with Apfel saying to The Guardian, that she didn't want to have kids just because that was the norm. She wanted to live life on her own terms.

"I don't believe in a child having a nanny, so it wasn't what we were going to do, but also having children is like protocol. You're expected to. And I don't like to be pigeonholed."

By 2005, Apfel and her husband were enjoying the fruits of their labour, now over a decade into their retirement. They weren't overtly famous, but were very well known among New York's elite and interior-design circles. But in this same year, Apfel received a phone call from a curator at the Metropolitan Museum of Art's Costume Institute, where the Met Gala is held. 

It catapulted her into the spotlight, and changed Apfel's life as she knew it. 

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In that fateful phone call, Apfel was told that a summer exhibition at the Met had been cancelled last minute, so the curator was in need of a quick replacement. Having heard that Apfel had one of the best wardrobes of costume jewellery in the United States, he called her up and asked her to create a show from her personal collection of vintage and designer accessories and clothes. 

The response from the Iris Apfel exhibition was unprecedented, and people loved it. As The Guardian noted, virtually overnight, a new fashion star was born. 

After that exhibition, Apfel at the age of 84 entered the world of fashion and beauty, attending shows, being a part of campaigns, and growing her following online. 

At age 90, she landed her first big job in the industry, developing a limited edition collection of makeup with MAC cosmetics. She was the face of a Kate Spade collection, on the cover of countless fashion magazines, had her own Barbie doll, and had had a contract with global modelling agency IMG since the age of 97.

But Apfel never envisioned this level of success for herself. She never thought it possible. 

"I never expected people to know my name or recognise my face. I never expected to be called a fashion icon. I never expected museums to exhibit my clothing and accessories. I never expected to be a cover girl or the face of a cosmetics company in my nineties," she wrote.

"Most people would rather just go with the flow; it's much easier. But it's not very interesting."

Apfel's husband Carl knew this was her path all along. And he championed her along the way.

"Everyone he ever touched knows he was truly a gentleman. His humour and generosity were legendary. We did almost everything together. His encouragement and unwavering support made this book possible. He pushed me into the limelight and then basked in my success. He got much more of a kick from the accolades I received than I did," she wrote in her book Iris Apfel: Accidental Icon.

Carl died in 2015, aged 100. 

In a profile with the New York Times, Apfel said that Carl wore a ring he never went without — a large Egyptian ring inscribed with the phrase 'Where Is the House of Thy Father?'. The ring never came off his finger, Apfel said, likely because it was stuck from the day she gave it to him in the 1950s.

Two days before he died, the ring fell off.

Image: Getty. Prior to her passing, Apfel had been vocal about her frustrations towards ageism, and society's focus on preserving youth. She had no energy for it.

"I never think about my age. Maybe that's the ticket. You may not like getting older, but what's the alternative? You're here. Embrace it. I say put your experience to work, to give something back to other people," she said.

When Apfel was younger, she was once told she wasn't a model, and she never would be. But she had something much better — style. 

"I never tried to fit in," Apfel reflected. 

"I learned early on that I have to be my own person to be content. The way I dress may be 'different' or 'eccentric' to some who feel the need to label but that's of no concern to me. I don't dress to be stared at — I dress for myself. When you don't dress like everyone else, you don't have to think like everyone else."

This article was originally published in 2022, and has since been updated with new information.

Feature Image: Getty/Mamamia.