J.Crew & Iris Apfel movie preview event.

Last night I was lucky enough to get an invite from the lovely folk at J.Crew to attend an exclusive movie preview of IRIS about the utterly awesome style icon Iris Apfel. Shot by the late great legendary filmmaker Albert Maysles for Magnolia Pictures (remember Grey Gardens?) this movie gives us a tantalizing peek into the world of Iris and Carl Apfel and their seriously stylish and eclectic life. Spoiler alert- this movie is for the fashion addicts amongst us only – if you don’t know your Bill Cunninghams from your Bruce Webers or your Jenna Lyons from your Tavi Gevinson, then you might want to stick to MI5 for date night this weekend.

I remember meeting Iris Apfel back in 2011 at a press day in New York when she was promoting her larger than life jewellery range, and even in those few minutes I got the sense that this lady was a whole lot of fun and didn’t really stick to the regular fashion rules. She’s been doing her thing for longer than most of us have been alive (which in my book is what puts the I in Icon). The evening started over at the Picturehouse Central in the West End with a little popcorn to keep the wolf from the door. Once the lights had dimmed the fashion crowd watched enthralled as Iris put the world to rights with her take on style, fashion, life and everything in between.

We then hot-footed it up to the J.Crew Regent Street store for cocktails and nibbles and to listen to a Q&A with Iris and Caroline Issa editor of Tank Magazine.

Once the assembled crowd had all arrived, Iris and Caroline chatted about the movie, creative inspiration, current projects and how this doyenne of fashion manages to keep inspiring us to learn all the old school crafts in the fashion world before the people who can teach them are gone.

All in all a wonderful night – with thanks to J.Crew for the lovely invite – and here’s hoping we’re all still around aged 93 to tell our fashion stories to the world.

For screenings of the IRIS movie take a peek here.