Dear Iris Apfel

Dear Iris Apfel,

You might just be the hardest woman to reach on earth. I don’t know if it’s your 94 years on this planet that gives you the ability in being this hard-to-get, but lady, you do it well.

My obsession with fashion began around the age of 10, growing up in Istanbul, dreaming of wearing Manolo’s in New York. This was pre Sex and the City mind you. The idea was born out of watching my mother getting dressed, and hoping that all my money – which was probably about 10 lira at the time – would also be on my feet one day.

You came into this picture a decade after, not with your shoes per se, but with the full package instead. Apart from your grand owlish glasses, or your excessive use of accessories, or mixing prints like it’s no one’s business, you made reality look like fiction I wanted to be in. For a woman who has “designed the interior of the White House with the wives of nine presidents of the White House,” launched the textile firm “Old World Weavers,” or contributed to Women’s Wear Daily on her CV, there are so many things to celebrate about you.

As I shed tears of Dior mascara watching your documentary “Iris,” my obsession raised in tsunami waves, causing every single fiber of my being to understand what “being different” actually was all about. However, there is still so much I want to learn from you, because lady, you do it all. So please, Iris, just get back to me.

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

İllüstrasyon / Illustration: Damlasu Yasa