Deborah Ross

Dedicated follower of fashion

<span style="color: #333333;">There is something captivating about Albert Maysles’s documentary portrait of Iris Apfel and her mad outfits</span>

issue 01 August 2015

Iris is a documentary portrait of Iris Apfel, the nonagenarian New York fashion icon. Nope, me neither, but that’s irrelevant, as all you truly need know is she is a joy, a wonder, and terrific, as is this film. It’s the final work of documentary film-maker Albert Maysles, who died last year, at 88, and although Iris obviously loves the camera, and plays to the camera, and it is often Iris doing Iris, as Iris does Iris so brilliantly, who cares? Also, you just can’t take your eyes off her. You can’t.

The opening shots show Iris, who is 93, in her Park Avenue apartment, in all her glory. Accessories make an outfit, is a fashion tip often proffered, but why make an outfit, when you can blast it out of the water? That seems to be Iris’s thinking, I would say, and she works it even though you wouldn’t imagine it possible.

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