Iris Apfel, an 88-year-old New York society figure, interior designer, and co-founder of textile design company Old World Weavers is style incarnate. She’s been incorporating ideas that magazines are touting like they’re today’s news into her wardrobe for decades. Principles that include mixing high and low (“the less it costs, the better I like it”), celebrating ethnic styles (“my tastes go to the exotic"), and accessorizing the little black dress to create “umpteen” outfits have always been part of her style lexicon. She says, “I just mix and put things together the way the spirit moves me.” Eighty-seven of this style icon’s ensembles are dramatically showcased in “Rare Bird of Fashion The Irreverent Iris Apfel” at the Peabody Essex Museum, on view through February 7th. read more