Iris Apfel, Visual Gourmet

This is one blog post that you'll want to read with the aid of a pair of glasses, a magnifying glass, or the zoom function of your mouse, because the photos, like the interiors they depict, are jam-packed with so much to see.  And you will want a good look at these rooms, for they belong to everyone's favorite fashion doyenne, Iris Apfel, and her late husband, Carl.

Photographed for the 1976 issue of Architectural Digest, the Apfels' Manhattan apartment is a treasure-trove of luscious fabrics, Continental furniture, and objects that run the gamut of Western culture, from singerie to Chinoiserie.  Describing herself as a "visual gourmet", Iris Apfel described her home as a "multilevel experience.  Almost everything I've ever acquired is still here somewhere."  She also refers to her apartment as a "collage", a word that we should consider using in lieu of that tired term, "layered".

What really struck me- other than the visually-rich rooms, of course- was Apfel's lamentation about the diminished emphasis on quality and education: "So very little has the solidity of experience and the tangible benefits of knowledge slowly learned...Quality is under siege today, and I doubt whether it can survive the onslaught.  Our only hope is that those of us who do care about standards will fight to keep them."  Forty years later, and we're still grappling with these same issues.

 Living Room:

The Master Bedroom:

The two-room Guest Apartment, which was located downstairs from the main residence:

Photos from Architectural Digest, March/April 1976, Richard Champion, photographer

Old World Weavers

A recent windfall of late Seventies issues of Architectural Digest and Southern Accents provided me with another windfall: a clutch of Old World Weavers advertisements. As you know, Old World Weavers, the luxury textile firm, was founded by Iris Apfel and her late husband, Carl, in 1950.  Although now owned by Stark, Old World Weavers remains a to-the-trade source for traditional, dignified fabrics, such as crewelwork, embroidered silk, and damask.  So, in addition to being a fashion maven, Iris Apfel is also an authority on textiles and the decorative arts, an expertise that seems to be humorously suggested in the photo above.

The advertisements, which I have included below, are quintessential Iris Apfel.  A maximalist streak runs throughout them, with layer upon layer of sumptuous fabrics and trims (by Old World Weavers, of course,) porcelains, singerie, and antique furniture.  I assume that the ads were photographed in the Apfels' Manhattan apartment, because if you compare the ads to more recent photos of their apartment, you'll see they have much in common.  Luxury, abundance, and a flair for the dramatic characterize their home as well as their advertisements. In fact, that description could also be applied to Apfel's lauded fashion sense, too.

But really, what excites me the most is how an advertisement manages to capture most everything that I- and likely many of you- admire about traditional decoration.  Chinese porcelain, braided tassels, blue opaline glass...how often do we see these now-underrated furnishings presented in such exalted light?  The answer is, unfortunately, not often enough.

A shot of the Apfels' living room.

Another view of the living room.

The Apfels' library, as featured in Architectural Digest

Iris Apfel in her living room, which was photographed for Architectural Digest




Photos #1, #3, and #5 from Rare Bird of Fashion: The Irreverent Iris Apfel, Eric Boman author and photographer; #7 and #9 from Architectural Digest, June 2011, Roger Davies photographer