1. “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
2. “You have to be interested. If you’re not interested, you can’t be interesting.” – Iris Apfel
3. “If you’re lucky enough to get old, I think you should celebrate it.” – Iris Apfel
4. “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
5. “Being attractive lasts longer than being pretty.” – Iris Apfel
6. “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
7. “The worst fashion faux pas is looking in the mirror and seeing somebody else.” – Iris Apfel
8. “I never expect anything. I just feel things in my gut and I do them. If something sounds exciting and interesting, I do it—and then I worry about it later. Doing new things takes a lot of energy and strength. It’s very tiring to make things happen, to learn how to master a skill, to push fears aside. Most people would rather just go with the flow, it’s much easier. But it’s not very interesting.” – Iris Apfel
9. “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
10. “I’m not a minimalist, as I’m sure you’ve noticed.” – Iris Apfel
11. “Jewelry is the most transformative thing you can wear.” – Iris Apfel
12. “You don’t have to look like an old fuddy-duddy, but I believe it was Chanel who said, ‘Nothing makes a woman look so old as trying desperately hard to look young’. I think you can be attractive at any age. I think trying to look like a spring chicken when you’re not makes you look ridiculous.” – Iris Apfel
13. “It’s more important to be happy than well-dressed.” – Iris Apfel
14. “You only have one trip. You might as well enjoy it.” – Iris Apfel
15. “I was in art school since I was five years old. I’ve always been to art school.” – Iris Apfel
16. “To me there are lots more important things in the world than just having the right shoes!” – Iris Apfel
17. “I can’t tell people how to have style. No amount of money can buy you style. It’s just instinctive.” – Iris Apfel
18. “Fashion you can BUY, but style you POSSESS.” – Iris Apfel
19. “When you don’t dress like everybody else, you don’t have to think like everybody else.” – Iris Apfel
20. “In my view you can’t go to the future if you haven’t come from the past.” – Iris Apfel
21. “You only have one trip, and the present is all you’ve got. The past isn’t coming back, and the future isn’t here yet! So live each day as though it were your last. And one day you’ll be right.” – Iris Apfel
22. “If you hair is done properly and you’re wearing good shoes, you can get anyway with anything.” – Iris Apfel
23. “Whatever happened to the cultivation of the inner self? It’s painful and it’s work, but it always pays off.” – Iris Apfel
24. “Coco Chanel said take one thing off. I always said put another one on.” – Iris Apfel
25. “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
26. “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
27. “More is more and less is a bore.” – Iris Apfel
28. “If you’re happy, have found love, are surrounded by good people, doing what you like, and giving back to others, that’s success. Selling your soul for a buck is not work the real price you pay. . .” – Iris Apfel
29. “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
30. “I’m happy if I can help anybody. I’m more than happy to, but you have to find your own path.” – Iris Apfel
31. “I don’t have any rules, because I would only be breaking them, so it’s a waste of time.” – Iris Apfel
32. “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
33. “I don’t spend my life getting dressed! I have to put clothes on during the day; I don’t get dressed up at all when I’m working. I’ll wear jeans, or something very simple.” – Iris Apfel
34. “When the fun goes out of getting dressed, you might as well be dead.” – Iris Apfel
35. “The fun of getting dressed is it’s a creative experience.” – Iris Apfel
36. “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
37. “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
38. “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
39. “I’ll spend more time getting dressed than I spent at the actual event.” – Iris Apfel
40. “You don’t find out who you are unless you work at it.” – Iris Apfel
41. “Style is attitude, attitude, attitude!” – Iris Apfel
42. “You don’t have to be an artist to be a creator, because creativity comes in a lot of forms, like cooking or keeping a house or dressing well. What you need is imagination, to make things up for yourself.” – Iris Apfel
43. “I don’t dress to be stared at. I dress for myself.” – Iris Apfel
44. “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
45. “I don’t expect to find inspiration. It just sort of comes. Sometimes you step on a bug and you get inspired.” – Iris Apfel
46. “My look is either very baroque or very Zen – everything in between makes me itch.” – Iris Apfel
47. “It’s better to be happy than well-dressed.” – Iris Apfel
48. “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
49. “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
50. “I just never want to completely grow up.” – Iris Apfel
51. “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
52. “Technologically I live in the 17th century. I have a very simple cell phone. I say I live through the kindness of strangers, because if they see something on the Net they type it out and send it to me.” – Iris Apfel
53. “Never be afraid to stop traffic.” – Iris Apfel
54. “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
55. “I find that if I get up and push myself, I get lost in what I’m doing, and I forget about everything else until I stop doing it.” – Iris Apfel
56. “I’m a great believer in common sense, and the older I get I see that common sense is not that common.” – Iris Apfel
57. “Humor is important in everything. Dress with a little humor and you can go a long way.” – Iris Apfel
58. “If you’re over 60, arms are not pretty, so I think you should stay covered up. But wear what’s appropriate for what you’re doing, how you live, and what your lifestyle is.” – Iris Apfel
59. “The world is always full of promise.” – Iris Apfel