Bold, fearless and unapologetically herself, Apfel has inspired millions to be their most daring selves. She’s just celebrated her 102nd birthday – and looks as fabulous as ever. Here’s everything you need to know about New York’s most delightful geriatric starlet.

Iris Apfel grew up in New York’s “roaring 20s”

Born on August 29, 1921, Apfel came into the world the same year the Communist Party was founded in China, and Charlie Chaplin made his first feature length film in the US. She is the daughter of Russian Jewish parents from Queens, New York. Her mother ran a clothing boutique, while her father ran a glass and mirror business.

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She restored vintage fabrics in the White House for nine presidents

Something of a jewellery magpie – and with an eye for gorgeous fabrics – it wasn’t long after graduating that Apfel landed a job at Women’s Wear Daily, according to The Guardian. Then, in 1947 while on holiday in upstate New York, she met Carl Apfel. The pair went on a date back in town, per People, and within six months they were married.

According to People magazine, Carl told Iris that he liked the hat she was wearing when they first met, while Iris later said she’d “figured he was cool and he was cuddly, and he cooked Chinese, so I couldn’t do any better”.

Carl was a textile merchant by trade, and in 1950, the couple started their own company sourcing and reproducing rare fabrics. They called it Old World Weavers. The name might have been quaint, but its clients were as lofty as they come. In total, the Apfels restored the fabrics and interiors at the White House for nine different presidents – from Harry Truman in 1950 to Bill Clinton in 1995.

She became a style icon by accident

She may have had a knack for scouting rare antiques and fabrics for her clients, but New York high society couldn’t ignore the striking style that Apfel herself exhibited.

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One day in 2005, per The Guardian, Apfel received a call from Harold Koda, a curator at the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Costume Institute, asking if she’d exhibit her impressive jewellery and clothing collection as they’d had a last minute cancellation. She agreed and, to her surprise, the exhibition titled “Rare Bird: Selections from the Iris Apfel Collection” blew up.

“I don’t know if there’s been any other show that’s relied so much on word of mouth,” Koda told The Guardian. It seemed people couldn’t get enough of Apfel’s vast collection of colourful vintage accessories sourced from across the globe – not to mention her styling abilities – and at age 84, she became a fashion icon in her own right.

Wit and wisdom

Always outspoken when it comes to fashion, Apfel suddenly had a platform. From 2014’s famous documentary by Albert Maysles, simply titled Iris, to podcasts and interviews with everyone from Vanity Fair to The Times, her opinions on personal style have become legendary.

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“I’m not pretty, and I’ll never be pretty, but it doesn’t matter. I have something much better. I have style,” she proclaimed in Iris.

When asked about the difference between style and fashion, she’s always been clear: “Style is something you inherit, I think it’s in your DNA … Style is attitude and comes from within. Fashion comes from without.”

In other words, the opposite of Coco Chanel’s famous adage that before you leave the house, you should look in the mirror and remove one accessory. “I don’t know how anybody can say less is more” she mused on the HSN podcast. “That doesn’t make any sense.”

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All of this is duly lapped up by Apfel’s Instagram followers, which now number almost three million. “May the celebrations never end!” wrote one devoted fan on her birthday post.

We couldn’t agree more.