Top 80 Iris Apfel Quotes (2025 Update)

1. “Never be afraid to stop traffic.”

— Iris Apfel

Featured in: Being Yourself Quotes

2. “More is more and less is a bore.”

— Iris Apfel

3. “If you’re lucky enough to get old, I think you should celebrate it.”

— Iris Apfel

4. “Fashion you can buy, but style you possess. The key to style is learning who you are, which takes years. There’s no how-to road map to style. It’s about self-expression and, above all, attitude.”

— Iris Apfel

5. “Style is attitude, attitude, attitude!”

— Iris Apfel

6. “You only have one trip. You might as well enjoy it.”

— Iris Apfel

7. “I think I still keep my sense of wonder, which I call childlike, not childish, childlike. I still have a vivid imagination, and I like to try a lot of new things.”

— Iris Apfel

8. “When you don’t dress like everybody else, you don’t have to think like everybody else.”

— Iris Apfel

Featured in: Fashion Quotes

9. “Being attractive lasts longer than being pretty.”

— Iris Apfel

10. “You have to be interested. If you’re not interested, you can’t be interesting.”

— Iris Apfel

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

— Iris Apfel

12. “I don’t have any rules, because I would only be breaking them, so it’s a waste of time.”

— Iris Apfel

13. “Fashion you can BUY, but style you POSSESS.”

— Iris Apfel

14. “I just never want to completely grow up.”

— Iris Apfel

15. “If you don’t learn constantly, you don’t grow and you will wither. Too many people wither on the vine. Sure, it gets a little harder as you get older, but new experiences and new challenges keep it fresh.”

— Iris Apfel

16. “I was never hurt by what anybody said about my clothes, because I dress to please myself. If somebody doesn’t like what I’m wearing, it’s their problem, not mine.”

— Iris Apfel

17. “I’m not going to be a rebel and offend anybody, but I’m not going to live in somebody else’s image.”

— Iris Apfel

18. “The world is always full of promise.”

— Iris Apfel

19. “Jewelry is the most transformative thing you can wear.”

— Iris Apfel

20. “If you hair is done properly and you’re wearing good shoes, you can get anyway with anything.”

— Iris Apfel

21. “To find out who you are is like putting yourself on a psychiatric couch, but you have nobody to help you. Really it isn’t easy. I was talking with my nephew this morning and he gave me one of the best quotes I’ve heard in years ‘Personal style is curiosity about oneself.’”

— Iris Apfel

22. “I don’t dress to be stared at. I dress for myself.”

— Iris Apfel

23. “In my view you can’t go to the future if you haven’t come from the past.”

— Iris Apfel

24. “My look is either very baroque or very Zen – everything in between makes me itch.”

— Iris Apfel

25. “I can’t tell people how to have style. No amount of money can buy you style. It’s just instinctive.”

— Iris Apfel

26. “You’re not pretty, and you’ll never be pretty. But, it doesn’t matter. You have something much better. You have style.”

— Iris Apfel

27. “Coco Chanel said take one thing off. I always said put another one on.”

— Iris Apfel

28. “I had to be my own person and live my own life if I wanted to be happy, and I just did it.”

— Iris Apfel

29. “You have to look in the mirror and see yourself. If it feels good, then I know it’s for me. I don’t dress to be stared at, I dress for myself.”

— Iris Apfel

30. “I don’t expect to find inspiration. It just sort of comes. Sometimes you step on a bug and you get inspired.”

— Iris Apfel

31. “I think dressing up or down should be a creative experience. Exciting. Fun. For me the key to personal style lies in accessories. I love objects from different worlds, different eras, combined my way. Never uptight, achieving – hopefully – a kind of throwaway chic.”

— Iris Apfel

32. “I think fashion is just part of my life and if it hadn’t of been fashion then it would have been something else.”

— Iris Apfel

33. “I always feel that if you’re gonna be uncomfortable and unhappy in something, just because you think it’s in or it’s chic, I would advise you to be happy rather than well-dressed. It’s better to be happy.”

— Iris Apfel

34. “You have to observe a few simple rules in dressing, which are really not rules; it’s just being appropriate. If you’re 70 and want to wear miniskirts, 70-year-old knees ain’t pretty!”

— Iris Apfel

35. “I’ve always been attracted to unusual eyewear. I thought glasses were an interesting accessory, depending on the shape of your face. People would always ask me, “Why are your frames so large?” And I would say, “The bigger to see you!” And that shut them up.”

— Iris Apfel

36. “My mother worshipped at the alter of accessories and I got the bug. She always said, if you have a good, little, simple black dress and you have different accessories, you can have 27 different outfits.”

— Iris Apfel

37. “Everything that’s happened to me, nothing’s been planned. I’ve never had a business plan. I just kind of fell into it, and I liked it, and I took a chance. I took a lot of chances in my life.”

— Iris Apfel

38. “When the fun goes out of getting dressed, you might as well be dead.”

— Iris Apfel

39. “Given the choice, I would spend my money on accessories.”

— Iris Apfel

40. “I’m happy if I can help anybody. I’m more than happy to, but you have to find your own path.”

— Iris Apfel

41. “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.”

— Iris Apfel

42. “The fun of getting dressed is it’s a creative experience.”

— Iris Apfel

43. “When you’re older, no matter how good your humor is you don’t always feel perky and peppy. But if you sit home all day and brood about it, it gets worse.”

— Iris Apfel

44. “It’s more important to be happy than well-dressed.”

— Iris Apfel

45. “These are things I love, things I’ve worn. I get more compliments on accessories than anything else. I think they’re kind of like herbs and spices. They give zest and zing to an outfit.”

— Iris Apfel

46. “I’m a great believer in common sense, and the older I get I see that common sense is not that common.”

— Iris Apfel

47. “When you go to a nice restaurant, you want to be relaxed and have a drink and everything, you want to look at people who look well. You don’t want to look at some slob with an open shirt and a hairy chest. At least I don’t.”

— Iris Apfel

48. “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.”

— Iris Apfel

49. “To lead the good life in New York, the two most important things for a woman are a chauffeur and a fur-lined raincoat. If you have those two things, you’re made.”

— Iris Apfel

50. “To me there are lots more important things in the world than just having the right shoes!”

— Iris Apfel