Iris Apfel is a singular figure in the design world. Even at age 101, the textile master and fashion icon is still releasing new products with her “more is more” viewpoint—and with a democratic price tag. Earlier this year, she launched a collection with H&M with pieces starting at $30. And now, she’s offering 18 rugs and 5 doormats in a new collaboration with the direct-to-consumer washable brand Ruggable. Prices range from $80 to $979 in this notably eclectic range that’s meant to reflect her life’s journey.
The motifs hop without abandon between 18th-century Europe, tropical birds, and a reimagined Kenyan safari. “When I design a collection, it is an expression of my emotions and feelings, and I’m able to make these abstract ideas tangible. It’s great to put a lot of emotional feelings, gut reactions, and things that I like into my designs,” writes Apfel via email. “For this collaboration, I was inspired by beautiful fabrics and worldly influences, as well as my own personal experiences.” Apfel says she started by incorporating designs from the 17th and 18th century into the rugs. “I think we were quite successful,” she writes. “They’re older designs but look very contemporary.”
Apfel found her calling as a child piecing together her grandmother’s textile scraps and shopping for costume jewelry at antique shops in Greenwich Village, before delving into fashion journalism and interior design in her 20s. “I just kind of fell into interior design, and I never got up,” writes Apfel. “I love interiors, and I take the same aesthetic approach to interiors as I do in fashion; only in one I dress the body and the other I dress the space.”
In 1950, she launched a textile firm called Old World Weavers alongside her late husband, which made its name by reproducing antique European rug motifs (and explains why you can see so many paisley and Persian-inspired designs in her new collection). Her work at Old World Weavers led to a nine-president run in interior design restoration at the White House, which began with Harry S. Truman and ended with Bill Clinton.
“You don’t design for the White House. To do a proper restoration, you really must do exactly what was done before or as close as humanly possible. Even if it’s the ugliest thing in the world, you can’t say, ‘Yuck, I think it’s terrible. We’ll have to change this chair or change this carpet.’ That’s a no-no,’” says Apfel. “People don’t understand that. My collection for Ruggable is more of a reflection of myself.”
Apfel’s love for travel and nature drove her designs including monkeys, tropical birds, and florals—making them a strong contrast to the 17th-century rugs in the collection. Meanwhile, a standout in her collection is a rug called On Safari, which layers a (faux) zebra skin atop a Persian rug pattern.
“The On Safari rug in particular was inspired by my childhood,” writes Apfel. “My mother was crazy about zebras, and I always grew up with zebras under my roof. She bought a zebra pelt shortly before she passed away that was passed down to me and I walk on it every day.”
On Safari also plays to a large trend in rugs—layering two or more rugs to make a new look—but it creates that aesthetic in a single piece of fabric. The play works well for Ruggable’s proprietary production process, which prints patterns rather than weaving them. For each of these designs, Ruggable’s own graphic designers translated the work from Apfel and her team into prints that would work for manufacture. Other than that, Ruggable gave Apfel carte blanche.
“You just want Iris to be Iris,” says Jeneva Bell, founder of Ruggable. “We absolutely did not ask her for anything.”
Indeed, Iris being Iris is fundamentally her appeal—just as it is for younger generations of rule-breaking creatives like Tyler Okonma and Salehe Bembury. Apfel’s bold approach to individual taste and style is exactly what’s made the centurion such a creative force. And when I asked for her own advice to the next generation of designers, she insisted that embracing personality is the only road to making an impact.
“First of all, they have to learn to be individuals—too many people today take the easy route and whatever is being done they do, and they just follow along like lemmings,” she writes.“Everybody was born with the ability to have a personality and a viewpoint, and I think they should develop it. Of course it’s not the easiest thing in the world. You have to know who you are in order to be able to do these things. Don’t listen to the experts, listen to your gut. Have fun. Take chances. Be bold. There’s so much around you to be inspired by.”
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