HAPPY 94th BIRTHDAY IRIS ♥ BE A PIRATE ★ Made by a Knight fit for a Queen ★
Iris Apfel (born August 29, 1921) is an American businesswoman, interior designer, and fashion icon. Iris is a constant source of inspiration for Knight&Hammer. "Layer it on girls," seems to us to be Mrs. Apfel's battle cry to today's women of all ages. We wish her years of health and happiness. As she mourns the recent passing of her husband, we hope she finds comfort in the memories from their long and beautiful married life.
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.
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 (1914-2015). Two years later, they launched the textile firm Old World Weavers and ran it until they retired in 1992. 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 2005, The Costume Institute, at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, in New York City premiered on September 13, 2005, an exhibition about Iris Apfel's style entitled Rara Avis (Rare Bird): The Irreverent Iris Apfel. The exhibition's upbeat success, organized by Stéphane Houy-Towner, prompted an initial traveling version of the exhibit. - from Wikipedia
Be FABULOUS, Do FABULOUS! Joseph Knight