Entertainment

Iris Apfel, beloved style icon whose fame peaked in her 90s, dies at 102

Published

2 years ago

March 2, 2024

Iris Apfel, beloved style icon whose fame peaked in her 90s, dies at 102

Iris Apfel, the beloved fashion icon and interior designer whose eccentric style inspired individuality, creativity and joy, has died, according to a post on her official Instagram account. She was 102.

Known for her bold accessories, oversize round glasses and “totally mad” outfits, Apfel never let age slow her down. She was 84 when the Costume Institute of the Metropolitan Museum of Art launched an exhibition showcasing her extensive collection of garments and costume jewelry, earning her global recognition and adoration.

She was 93 when she starred in her own documentary, “Iris,” from filmmaker Albert Maysles. His portrayal of Apfel was “graced with an unforced but unmistakable charm,” wrote Times film critic Kenneth Turan in 2015.

And she was 96 when she published “Iris Apfel: Accidental Icon,” and 97 when she signed a modeling contract with global agency IMG Models, garnering the same representation as supermodels Gigi Hadid, Karlie Kloss and Kate Moss.

She was, in her own words, a “geriatric starlet.”

Her interior design company, Old World Weavers, was contracted with the White House and spanned nine presidencies. She also collaborated with major brands including H&M and Mattel.

But her impact extended beyond the fashion and design industries. She inspired people to embrace their individuality, to express themselves without fear of judgment and to find fun in the otherwise mundane, according to her admirers, who she said wrote her many letters.

Those who worked with and around her noticed Apfel’s undeniable spark of energy and wit. In Maysles’ film, photographer Bruce Weber, who said Apfel was one of his favorite subjects, recalled his first time meeting her.

“There were all kinds of people, all ages, all walks of life all surrounding her, she was so engaging to everybody,” he said. “I could feel the pulse of her life, of her excitement about living.”

Apfel was energized by daring fashion, and more so by the process of assembling a look, from hunting for individual pieces to mixing and matching. She was known for combining high- and low-end items and concocting dazzling ensembles that contradicted themselves in all the right ways.

“I’m just as happy to wear bangles that cost me three dollars as I am to wear valuable pieces,” she wrote in her book, “Iris Apfel: Accidental Icon.”

Her collection, which filled multiple rooms in multiple apartments, contained a waistcoat adorned with colored goose feathers and a chunky beaded necklace so large it looked like it might tip its wearer over. Apfel was an experimental trailblazer, reveling in creating looks never seen before.

“It’s not that I went out of my way to be a rebel or do things that were not socially acceptable,” she wrote, “but I learned early on that I have to be my own person to be content. … I dress for myself.”

Her fashion sense was joyfully eclectic and, according to former Times fashion critic Booth Moore, “a tsunami of style.”

“I like big and bold and lots of pizzazz,” Apfel said in her documentary.

Despite her cult-like following, Apfel said she never meant to become famous. She gained recognition for unapologetically being herself: “Nothing I ever did I intended to do,” she said. “It just kind of happened.”

Born Iris Barrel in the Astoria neighborhood of Queens, N.Y., in 1921, Apfel had a professional decorator for a father; her mother was a fashion boutique owner who “worshiped at the altar of the accessory.” Apfel would take the subway into Manhattan as a child and fell in love with Greenwich Village, where she began collecting an assortment of stylish pieces.

She was about 11 or 12 years old when she bought her first piece from a small shop in the basement of an old-fashioned tenement building. It was a brooch that she had fixated on and she saved 65 cents to make the purchase.

The brooch was a catalyst for her world-famous collection that eventually grew into an overflowing, international melting pot of jewelry, accessories and apparel.

Apfel studied art history at New York University and went on to attend art school at the University of Wisconsin. After graduating, she worked as a copywriter for the fashion trade journal Women’s Wear Daily.

She met her husband, Carl Apfel, on a Lake George, N.Y., vacation in 1947. They married a year later. She wore a pink lace wedding dress, she said, because she wanted a garment she could wear again that she wouldn’t have to put away in a box.

“There was something about her that just got into me,” Carl Apfel said in “Iris.” “It’s not a dull marriage, I can tell you that.”

The two were married 67 years when Carl Apfel died in 2015, three days before his 101st birthday. They had no children.

“We never wanted to,” she explained in “Iris.” “You can’t have everything. And I wanted a career and I wanted to travel.”

The Apfels co-founded their textile company, Old World Weavers, in 1950. The couple ran the business together for 42 years until they sold the company in 1992.

Old World Weavers specialized in making exact reproductions of fabrics from the 17th century onward. In the process, Apfel traveled to Turkey, Lebanon, Morocco and Europe twice a year to find textiles and weavers for their projects.

They created special fabrics for the White House across multiple administrations, including the presidencies of Truman, Kennedy and Nixon.

“Every great house in America has our stuff,” Apfel said of Old World Weavers.

Apfel was well known in the trade, but she was catapulted to fashion stardom in 2005 when the Metropolitan Museum of Art showcased her wardrobe and jewelry in a Costume Institute exhibition titled “Rara Avis: Selections From the Iris Apfel Collection.”

The exhibition, whose name translates to “rare bird,” included more than 80 styled ensembles and consisted of 300-plus accessories that Apfel had amassed over decades.

The initial idea was to showcase her costume jewelry alone, but the museum later asked Apfel to dip into her own wardrobe to style the mannequins that the jewelry would adorn. The result was a small army of Apfel’s creations: colorful, big and entirely unique.

The show “had people chattering with a heat and enthusiasm rare in the fashion world,” the New York Times reported in 2005.

Apfel’s style required both an educated visual sense and a great deal of courage, said Harold Koda, the curator in charge of the Costume Institute at the time of the exhibition. Her showcase was the first time the museum held an exhibit about clothing that was centered around a living person who wasn’t a designer.

The ensembles traveled to the Norton Museum of Art in Palm Beach, Fla.; the Nassau County Museum of Art in New York; and the Peabody Essex Museum in Salem, Mass.

After the exhibition, Apfel’s life became a whirlwind of photo shoots, media appearances and high-profile collaborations. In 2011, she was appointed visiting professor at the University of Texas at Austin in the division of textiles and apparel.

Soaring into her 90s, Apfel starred in Maysles’ documentary, published her book and signed a modeling contract. In 2018, El Segundo-based toy company Mattel released a Barbie doll in Apfel’s image, making her the oldest person ever to have a Barbie based on them.

Apfel, whose looks transcended time and trends, knew no limits when it came to accessorizing and decorating: “If you hang around long enough, everything comes back,” she said at 93.

However, the influential style icon never told other people how to dress or how to live. Nor was she a fan of showcasing her life on social media, she wrote in her book, despite having a verified Instagram account with 2.9 million followers at the time of her death.

“Not only do I not do social media,” she wrote, “I don’t approve of it. What I eat, what I’m doing, where I’m going — that’s nobody’s business.”

And although Apfel said she was “constantly” asked for fashion advice, she hated giving guidelines. “The worst fashion faux pas is looking in the mirror and seeing somebody else,” she wrote.

As for her own fashion sense, Apfel said she relied on her instincts.

“It’s not intellectual, it’s all gut,” she said in the documentary. “I don’t have any rules because I would only be breaking them.”

Apfel is survived by her nephew, Billy Apfel.

Movie Reviews

Film reviews: ‘How to Make a Killing,’ ‘Pillion,’ and ‘Midwinter Break’

Published

4 hours ago

March 2, 2026

Press Room

‘How to Make a Killing’

Directed by John Patton Ford (R)

★★

“Trying to find your niche as a movie star isn’t easy,” said Frank Scheck in The Hollywood Reporter. Take Glen Powell. A year ago, the Twisters and Anyone but You star was being talked about as possibly the next
Tom Cruise. But he “stumbled badly” when he tried to play a macho action hero in November’s remake of The Running Man, and he’s now turned in a second straight box office flop. He took a risk with How to Make a Killing, playing a guy cheated by fate who we’re supposed to root for as he begins murdering off the seven rich relatives standing between him and an enormous inheritance. But c’mon. “Powell is charming, but he’s not that charming.”

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The movie “needed to pick a side,” said Jacob Oller in AV Club. It could have been “a clownish class comedy” or “bitter sociopathic satire,” but it winds up being neither, and “at the center of it all is Powell, making the
same face for an hour and 45 minutes, too unflappable to root for, too smug to magnetize as an inhuman American Psycho.” I’m not ready to give up on him, said Nick Schager in the Daily Beast. To me, he and co-star Margaret Qualley, who plays the femme fatale who eggs on the killing spree, come across as “such alluringly nasty delights” that this reworking of the 1949 black comedy Kind Hearts and Coronets “ survives its potentially lethal missteps and works on its own limited terms.” Though its teeth aren’t as sharp as they should be, “it’s smart and spiky enough to leave a pleasurably painful mark.”

‘Pillion’

Directed by Harry Lighton (Not rated)

★★★★

While this gay BDSM rom-com from a rookie director “might sound niche,” said Amy Nicholson in the Los Angeles Times, “free yourself to see it and you’ll discover it’s a universal romance.” Former Harry Potter side figure Harry Melling stars as a shy singleton who’s figuring out what he wants in a relationship when he happens into a submissive-dominant entanglement with a tall, handsome biker played by Alexander Skarsgard. Soon, Melling’s Colin is obeying his lover’s every order, including by shaving himself bald and sleeping like a dog on the floor. But the “kinky-funny” screenplay, which won a prize at Cannes, makes sure we see that Colin is not stuck but growing.

While the movie’s sex scenes are “refreshingly graphic,” they’re “never used or shock value,” said Odie Henderson in The Boston Globe. “The real shock comes from how emotionally involved the characters become within the construct of their kink.” And when Colin brings his new lover
home to meet the parents, Skarsgard and Lesley Sharp, as Colin’s suburban London mom, do memorable work because “neither of them
approaches the scene in a way you’d expect.” Until the ending, which “feels a little neat,” said Zachary Barnes in The Wall Street Journal, the movie “proceeds with an assurance of tone that’s especially impressive for a first-time filmmaker handling material like this.” Harry Lighton’s debut “could have been simply shocking, revving its engine in sexed-up style. Instead, Pillion purrs.”

‘Midwinter Break’

Directed by Polly Findlay (PG-13)

★★

Lesley Manville and Ciarán Hinds “would be appealing to watch just fumbling for their reading glasses,” said Natalia Winkelman in The New York Times. Unfortunately, this “staid” drama about an aging Irish couple puts that claim to the test. A “slow-moving film with a sappy score and mellow mood,” Midwinter Break opens with Manville’s Stella surprising Hinds’ Gerry by arranging a spur-of-the-moment trip to Amsterdam. Alas, “precious little conflict occurs until long afterward.”

But while Polly Findlay’s adaptation of a Bernard MacLaverty novel is a “delicate” film, said Lindsey Bahr in the Associated Press, its impact can be profound “if you can get on its level.” Stella, a devout Catholic, has an ulterior motive for dragging Gerry abroad, and when she nervously proposes how she’d like to live more purposefully in retirement, “it feels earth-shattering.” This is a couple accustomed to leaving much unsaid,
including how the violence of the Troubles led them to flee Belfast years earlier for Scotland. Manville and Hinds give the movie everything they’ve got, said Caryn James in The Hollywood Reporter. In a scene in which Stella pours out her heart to a stranger, “Manville delivers one of her most magnificent performances, which is saying a lot.” Alas, the script lets them down, “not because it needs more action but because this ordinary couple’s problems seem so unsurprising, their inner lives so veiled.”

Entertainment

After ‘Yellowstone’ and a twist of fate, Luke Grimes rides again as Kayce in ‘Marshals’

Published

6 hours ago

March 1, 2026

Press Room

After ‘Yellowstone’ and a twist of fate, Luke Grimes rides again as Kayce in ‘Marshals’

This story contains spoilers for the pilot of “Marshals.”

When the curtain came down on “Yellowstone” last year, Kayce Dutton had finally found his happily-ever-after.

The youngest son of wealthy rancher John Dutton (Kevin Costner) had secured a modest cabin in a mountainous region where he could reside in secluded peace with his beloved wife, Monica (Kelsey Asbille), and son, Tate (Brecken Merrill), far from the turbulent dysfunction of his family.

“Kayce found his little peace of heaven, getting everything he ever wanted and fought for,” said Luke Grimes, who plays the soft-spoken Dutton in “Yellowstone.”

Grimes reprises the role in CBS’ “Marshals,” which premiered Sunday. But in the new series, Kayce’s serenity has been brutally shattered, forcing him to find a new path forward after an unimaginable tragedy.

The drama is the first of several planned spinoffs of “Yellowstone,” which became TV’s hottest scripted series during its five-season run. And while some familiar faces return and events unfold against the magnificent backdrop of towering mountains and lush greenery, “Marshals” is definitely not “Yellowstone” 2.0.

Luke Grimes as Kayce Dutton in “Marshals,” which combines the gritty Western flavor of “Yellowstone” with the procedural genre.

(Sonja Flemming / CBS )

In “Marshals,” Kayce joins an elite squad of U.S. Marshals headed by his Navy SEAL teammate Pete Calvin (Logan Marshall-Green). The drama combines two distinct brands — the gritty Western flavor of “Yellowstone” with the procedural genre, a flagship of CBS’ prime-time slate.

During an interview at an exclusive club in downtown Los Angeles, Grimes expressed excitement about dusting off his cowboy hat and boots, though he admitted to having initial concerns about whether the project was a fit.

“I had never watched a procedural before, so I had to do some homework on what that was,” Grimes said hours before the gala premiere of “Marshals” at the Autry Museum of the American West in Griffith Park. “And I just couldn’t wrap my head around it at first. In the finale, Kayce had ridden off into the sunset. So I thought, ‘Let him be, let him go.’ ”

Those doubts eventually ebbed away.

“To be honest, there was a part of me that didn’t want to let Kayce go just yet,” Grimes said. “Saying goodbye to him was really hard, so the opportunity to keep this going was something I couldn’t pass up. We get to show his backstory and also this other side of him that we didn’t see in ‘Yellowstone.’ ”

But this Kayce is a man in crisis. “Yellowstone” devotees will likely be shocked by the “elephant in the room” — the revelation in the pilot episode that Monica has died of cancer. The couple’s sexy and loving chemistry was a key element in the series while also establishing Grimes as a heartthrob.

“I think fans will be upset — and they should be,” Grimes said as he looked downward. “Kayce is very upset. It’s the worst thing that could have happened to him. But as much as I’m really upset not to work with Kelsey, it’s a good idea for the show.”

He added, “His dream life is no longer available to him. Now the only thing he has is his son, who is not so sure he wants the same life as Kayce. A big part of the season is Kayce learning how to manage all these new things — new job, being a single father.”

A bearded man with his hands in his jeans looking downward.

Executive producer and showrunner Spencer Hudnut (CBS’ “SEAL Team”) acknowledged in a separate interview that viewers may be stunned by the tragedy. “Real life intervenes for Kayce. Unfortunately it happens to so many of us.”

But he stressed that although Monica is physically gone, her presence will be heavily felt this season.

“She is guiding Kayce, and their relationship is moving forward,” Hudnut said. “His dealing with his inability to confront his grief is a big part of the season. It became clear that something horrible had to happen to put Kayce on a different path.”

As the development evolved, Grimes embraced the procedural concept: “This is a very different show and structure. This is an action show, very fast paced. I meet a lot of fans who say they really want to see Kayce go full Navy SEAL.”

Alumni from “Yellowstone” returning in “Marshals” include Gil Birmingham as tribal Chairman Thomas Rainwater and Mo Brings Plenty as his confidante Mo.

“Yellowstone” co-creator Taylor Sheridan, who had already spearheaded the prequels “1883” and “1923,” will further expand the “Yellowstone” universe later this month with “The Madison,” starring Michelle Pfeiffer and Kurt Russell, about a New York City family living in Montana’s Madison River territory. Later this year, Kelly Reilly and Cole Hauser will star in “Dutton Ranch,” reprising their respective “Yellowstone” roles as John Dutton’s volcanic daughter Beth Dutton and her husband, boss ranch hand Rip Wheeler.

Hudnut said fans of “Yellowstone” will recognize themes that were central to that series: “The cost and consequences of violence, man versus nature, man versus man.”

“We’re trying to tap into what people loved about ‘Yellowstone’ but to tell the story in a different framework,” he said. “The procedural brand is obviously very successful for CBS. And nothing has been bigger than ‘Yellowstone.’ So the challenge is, how do you marry those things?”

Taking on the lead role prompted Grimes to reflect on how “Yellowstone” transformed his life after co-starring roles in films like “American Sniper” and “Fifty Shades of Grey” and playing a vampire in the TV series “True Blood.”

“‘Yellowstone’ changed my life in many, many ways,” he said. “The biggest change is that I now live where we shot the show in Montana. The first time I went there, I would have never thought I would ever live there.

“I would come back to the city after shooting. But a little bit more each year, I felt more out of place here, and more peace and at home there. I’m a big nature person — I never was a big city person, but I had to be here to do what I wanted. But after the third season, my wife and I decided to move there. We wanted to start a family.”

The topic of a Kayce spinoff kept coming up during the filming of the finale, but “meanwhile we were having a baby, so that was the biggest thing on my plate.”

A man in a blue shirt standing with his arms crossed as horses with saddles graze in the background.

Grimes was also dealing with the off-screen drama that impacted production due to logistical and creative differences between Costner and Sheridan. Costner, who was the show’s biggest attraction, exited after filming the first part of the final season. His character was killed off.

Asked about the backstage tension, Grimes said, “I just tried to do my job to the best of my ability, and not get caught up in all that. It was sort of frustrating, but I felt lucky to have a job.”

He recalled getting a call from Sheridan about the plans for a spinoff: “He said, ‘I think you should talk to the guy who is going to be the showrunner. I’m not telling you to do it, and I’m not telling you not to do it. But Spencer is great and he has some good ideas.’ ”

Hudnut said Kayce “was always my favorite character. Also, Luke is not Kayce. Kayce is an amazing character, but Luke is really thoughtful and smart. He is a true artist and has an artist’s soul, while Kayce is kicking down doors and terrorizing people. And Luke has such a great presence. He can do so much with just a look to the camera. He is a true leading man.”

In addition to starring in “Marshals,” Grimes is also an executive producer. He pitched the opening sequence — a flashback showing Kayce in the battlefield. He also performs the song that plays over the final scene, in which he visits his wife’s grave. The ballad is from Grimes’ self-titled country album which was released last year.

“Luke’s creative fingerprints are all over the pilot,” Hudnut said.

Grimes said he does not feel pressure about being the first follow-up from “Yellowstone” to premiere.

“We’re not trying to make the same show, so no matter what happens, its a win-win,” he said. “I had a blast doing it.”

Movie Reviews

Roll On 18 Wheeler: Errol Sack’s ‘TRUCKER’ (2026) – Movie Review – PopHorror

Published

16 hours ago

March 1, 2026

Press Room

Roll On 18 Wheeler: Errol Sack’s ‘TRUCKER’ (2026) – Movie Review – PopHorror

I am a sucker for all those straight-to-video slasher movies from the 90’s; there was just a certain point where you knew the acting was terrible, however, it made you fall in love. I can definitely remember scanning the video store sections for all the different horror movies I could. All those movies had laughable names and boom mics accidentally getting in the frame. Trucker seems like a child of all those old dreams, because it is.

Let’s get into the review.

Synopsis

When a group of reckless teens cause an accident swroe to never speak of it. The father is reescued by a strange man. from the wreckage and nursed back to health by a mysterious old man. When the group agrees to visit the accident scene, they meet their match from a strange masked trucker and all his toys with revenge on his mind.

Roll on 18 Wheleer

Trucker is what you would imagine: a movie about a psychotic trucker chasing you. We have seen it many, many times. What makes the film so different is its homage to bad movies but good ideas. I don’t mean in a negative way. When you think of a slasher movie, it’s not very complicated; as a matter of fact, it takes five minutes to piece the film together. This is so simple and childlike, and I absolutely love it. Trucker gave us something a little different, not too gory, bad CGI fire, I mean, this is all we old schlock horror fans want. Trucker is the type of film that you expect from a Tubi Original, on speed. However, I would take this over any Tubi Original.

I found some parts that were definitely a shout-out to the slasher humor from all those movies. Another good point that made the film shine was the sets. I guess what I can say is the film is everything Joy Ride should have been. While most modern slashers are trying to recreate the 1980s, the film stands out with its love for those unloved 1990’s horror films. While most see Joyride, you are extremely mistaken, my friend; you will enjoy this film much more.

In The End

In the end, I enjoyed the entire film. At first, I saw it listed as an action thriller; I was pleasantly surprised, and Trucker pulled at my heart strings, enveloping me in its comfort from a long-forgotten time in horror. It’s a nostalgic blast for me, thinking back to that time, my friends, my youth, and finding my new home. Horror fans are split down the middle: from serial-killer clowns (my side) to elevated horror, where an artist paints a forty-thousand-year-old demon that chases them around an upper-class studio apartment. I say that a lot, but it’s the best way to describe some things.

The entire movie had me cheering while all the people I hated suffered dire consequences for their actions. It’s the same old story done in a way that we rabid fans could drool over, and it worked. In all the bad in the world today, and my only hope for the future is the soon-to-end Terrifier franchise. However, the direction was a recipe to succeed with 40+ year old horror fans like me. I see the film as a hope for tomorrow, leading us into a new era.

Trucker is set to release on March 10th, 2026