Iris Apfel Quotes

I used to follow trends and try to do exactly what I saw in the magazines, but I'm not a Victoria's Secret model who can wear anything.

I think I can be relatively attractive when I dress up, but I'm not Julia Roberts or Catherine Zeta Jones.

Models are there to look like mannequins, not like real people. Art and illusion are supposed to be fantasy.

My philosophy was always try to look like Whitney Houston at all times. That did not work out so well.

I often feel like a character actress trapped inside the mean, aging Barbie's body.

People will take a picture of themselves and start looking at themselves and decide their neck looks weird. They see a celebrity selfie and wonder how she looks so good, and why her lips look so big.

I think, even before social media, it was really hard to not look at other classmates and say, 'Well I wish I looked like her.' Or even to look at celebrities and wish that 'I looked like them.'

I wanted to be Barbie.

Of course, I always loved fashion - and I was always the tallest one and the skinniest one, so that helped.

Being good at fashion and beauty and girly stuff has been such a point of insecurity for me; I'm not good at coming up with jokes that make fun of other people for that, because I don't feel like I have a mastery of it myself.

How much of fashion is fueled by insecurity - for better or worse?

There have been times in my adolescence where I gave up. I was like, 'I'm just never going to be pretty. I'm never going to be like one of those people on the front of magazines.' It always seemed really strange to me that the projection of how people are in advertisements looked nothing like the people who were actually buying them. You know what I mean? I never understood that mismatch, and now I really start to see that the people you see in the media are a lot more like people actually are.

I've been realizing lately how horribly vain I am. I do believe that if I'm successful, it's because of my talent and intelligence, but there's pretty privilege in the world - that's a reality. When I was a kid, in middle school, I started going to thrift stores and dressing myself. It was about announcing to the world who I was. That's what fashion was for me, as a kid. You might have an idea of who you think I am, but I'm going to tell you through my fashion choices who I am.

I encourage you to stop saying, "I just want to look not so bad" and instead say, "I want to look fabulous."

Patty knew, in her heart, that he was wrong in his impression of her. And the mistake she went to go on to make, the really big life mistake, was to go along with Walter's version of her in spite of knowing that it wasn't right. He seemed so certain of her goodness that eventually he wore her down.

Elizabeth scowled, feeling like a nobody, a nothing. She felt like her entire self had been made worthless. She could change her interests, but she couldn't change her looks. She'd never be six feet tall. She'd never look like a supermodel.

I find this curious - two photos from today, one edited so my skin is perfect and one real. remember flaws are ok.

Sometimes I worry more about losing weight than gaining weight, because this is how people know and accept me. I do feel like if I wanted to get in better shape, there might be a backlash of, Why isn't she comfortable with herself anymore? So I try to figure out what my own goals are.

It is almost as stupid to let your clothes betray that you know you are ugly as to have them proclaim that you think you are beautiful.

I’m constantly criticised for being too skinny. I’m trying to gain weight but my body won’t let it happen. What people don’t understand is that calling someone too skinny is the same as calling someone too fat, it’s not a nice feeling.

How can any person justify an aesthetic that reduces a woman or child to an emaciated skeleton? Is it art? Surely fashion's aesthetic should enhance and beautify the human form, not destroy it.

I learned never to say, 'That's too tight.' If a woman puts it on and feels good about herself, then it's for her.

People found me ugly and weird looking. All those years of that whole insecurity thing just makes you feel horrible then really slowly you start to think if they can make me look nice in the picture then it's not that bad.

Be the ugly one, look at the nice one.

I wasn't pretty enough to be the pretty girl and I wasn't unattract­ive enough to be the dorky girl.