Quotes from Iris Apfel

Self-exploration is very painful, but unless you do that, you will never know who you are and who you want to be.

I think you're born with style, but you have to develop it. You can be born with the talent to be an opera star, but you've got to work and practice it.

You can't just say, "I'm gonna have style." You have to work at it. It's intuitive; some people have it, and some people can work on it all day long, and it will never happen.

You can be born with the talent to be an opera star, but you've got to work and practice it.

I absolutely consider fashion a form of art. Of course, there is some fashion that is not art at all - it's utilitarian, made for the purpose of covering up. And there are a lot of people out there who put a lot of effort into looking awful. But there are also people putting the same amount of energy into making bad art.

I had the good fortune to be able to take a course with Margaret Mead. I had a fabulous art course, where it was explained to me that nothing exists in a vacuum, that everything is a result of the period in which it's done - the economics, the sociology, the politics, all sewn together. That was a very important lesson.

Being an individual takes effort. Most people are pretty lazy. And that's OK! I mean, there are more important things than fashion. If it's going to stress you out to have a sense of style, don't do it. The important thing is to be comfortable so you can get on with your life.

Style is attitude, attitude, attitude!

You learn as you grow up, if you're intelligent - or even three-quarter witted - that there's no free lunch. You pay for things in various ways. Living, loving, everything else is a matter of the same principles: you learn to work with what you have.

Throughout history, clothes represented who you were; they are a great vehicle for explaining who you are. During the Ching dynasty, for example, what you wore and how it was made reflected your status in society. People could literally read your clothes like a book, just by its color and how it was embroidered.

Great personal style is an extreme curiosity about yourself.

Nobody is original anymore. Nobody has any original style.

I live in the 17th century. I don't have a computer. I don't look at the internet. I use a cellphone, and that's about my only connection to the modern world.

I say, dress to please yourself. Listen to your inner muse and take a chance. Wear something that says 'Here I am!' today.

In my view you can't go to the future if you haven't come from the past.