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Barbie immortalizes fashion guru Apfel

'Iris Apfel,' right, and the Barbie she 'styled,' left.

‘Iris Apfel,’ right, and the Barbie she ‘styled,’ left.

Mattel toys has announced a new Barbie doll honoring Iris Apfel, the 96-year-old Jewish fashion guru.

The Apfel doll wears the same green Gucci suit and jewels that the real-life Apfel wears on the cover of her latest book, Accidental Icon, the New York Post reported last week.

The new Apfel Barbie will not be available for sale; however, this fall, Barbie will release a “Styled By” Barbie inspired by Apfel, wearing her signature oversized glasses and layers of chunky beaded necklaces from Apfel’s Rara Avis collection, Fashionista reported.

Apfel, a New York-born fashion journalist and illustrator turned designer, won the Women Together Special Award in 2016. In 2005, the Costume Institute at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York premiered an exhibition about Apfel’s style titled “Rara Avis.”

Since 2014, she has been the subject of two internationally distributed documentaries: “Iris” by Albert Maysles and “If You’re Not In the Obit, Eat Breakfast.”

Earlier this month, to celebrate International Women’s Day, which was March 8, Mattel released a “Sheroes” collection featuring more than 15 one-of-a-kind doll versions of inspiring women, including Olympic gold medalist Chloe Kim, ballerina Misty Copeland and artist Frida Kahlo.



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