arts & life

Fashion

Statement

Iris Apfel

dazzles

in a new

documentary.

George Robinson
Special to the Jewish News

T

hese days, calling Iris
Apfel for a telephone
interview is like crossing
the main level of Grand Central
Station at rush hour. The subject
of a new documentary by the
late Albert Maysles, who died on
March 5 at the age of 88, Apfel
has been rendered by his recent
death the primary source for
comment on the film, Iris, which
opens Friday, May 22, at the Main
Art Theatre in Royal Oak.
The 94-year-old Apfel is more
than up to the challenge —
indeed, it is hard to imagine a
challenge she can't handle. But
the profusion of callers and visi-
tors with movie and video cam-

FULL CIRCLE

A personal

Iris Apfel is the subject of the late Albert Maysles' last film..

eras makes for a peculiar kind
of controlled chaos in her Palm
Beach winter home, especially
when experienced from the New
York end of the conversation.
Apfel is one of the icons of
the world of style, an interior
designer who has decorated the
White House under nine sitting
U.S. presidents, whose textiles
firm Old World Weavers — co-
founded with her husband, Carl,
now 101 — was renowned for its
museum restoration work and
whose personal style is a delight-
ful riot of accessories and mix-
and-match outfits that combine
haute couture and thrift-shop
chic. As she says in the film, "I
like to improvise:'
It is a skill that stands her in
good stead in both her personal

Brian Kay
Special to the Jewish News

reminiscence

of working

with filmmaker

Albert Maysles.

I

n the mid-1990s, I moved
to New York City with $200
in my pocket, no job and
a short-term place to stay in
Brooklyn. My plans were broad:
more school and discover all I
had ever yearned for.
My friend Scott — my kinfolk

PHOTO BY BRUCE WEBER

appearance and her day-to-day
activities, as does her no-non-
sense approach to life itself.
Like Maysles, Apfel is a New
York Jew (she grew up in Queens)
who lived through the Great
Depression, World War II and the
Cold War. Despite the abundance
of glamour in her life, she con-
tinues to embrace the values and
work ethic established during
her childhood. "I feel lucky to be
working. If you're lucky enough
to do something you love, every-
thing else follows:'
She also is an icon in a field
dominated by Jews. Asked about
her Jewish identity, she demurs.
"I don't like talking about reli-
gion too much:' Apfel says. "I try
to avoid [discussing] politics and
religion. There are enough con-

in worshipping at the same altars
of art, both high and low — was
the immediate catalyst in this
move. We had found that all the
things we loved were connected
to more things we loved; the
people who were beloved to us
loved others, beloved to them,
and became beloved to us. So I
followed him.
I found Albert Maysles — or
Al found me — because I was

troversial things I say anyway."
The genesis of Iris the film was
as off-the-cuff as anything Apfel
has done.
"[Maysles] heard about me
from a mutual friend:' Apfel
recalls. "I was doing a program
for the University of Texas at
Austin where I take 15 of their
best and brightest from their
fashion and merchandising
department and they come to
New York. They stay for a week
at the Waldorf and I try to show
these children that fashion is a
big umbrella. If they can't get a
job as designers, there are many
rewarding facets of the business
that people don't know about
— licensing, style forecasting,

FASHION on page 128

looking for an apartment. Albert
and his wife, Gillian, had an
apartment and a job available. I
became Albert Maysles' weekend
personal assistant for a year, in
exchange for room and board
on the ninth floor of the Dakota
apartments.
The first time I met Al, at his
office on 54th Street, he had

FULL CIRCLE on page 128

May 21 • 2015

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