From Golden Girl-turned-filthy-mouthed-grandma Betty White to Zelda Kaplan, the 95-year-old socialite who collapsed and died on the front row at New York Fashion Week recently (Rachel Zoe didn’t know what to say), we love our glam-mas.
But there’s one nonagenarian fashion maven at whose altar the ES team worships each morning, and to whose image we turn in times of sartorial crisis: Iris Apfel, businesswoman, interior designer, wearer of flying saucer-sized spectacles, tribal jewellery guru and all-round icon.
But it's not just us. Iris, 90, is such an inspiration that Jimmy Choo has this month created a new IRIS mini-range in ‘ultimate homage to the grand dame of idiosyncratic fashion’. Its hand-woven leather sandal with a five-inch heel is embellished with a cascade of resin chip ornaments, designed to reflect Apfel’s ‘ethnic’ approach to dressing. It costs £895 - bargain to be one step closer to our idol.
A look like Mrs Apfel’s demands a certain joi de vivre to carry off and it’s her smile that really inspires. When we grow old we’ll be channelling Iris, beaming from ear to ear, wearing African masks as necklaces, dressing head to toe in pillar-box red and bagsy-ing our spot at the top of guestlists for the most fabulous parties in town. We might not be looking forward to turning 30 in a few months, but thanks to Iris we can't wait to be 90.
