At 90, Fashion’s Latest Pop Star

His glasses, round as soup, Iris Apfel give a look of surprise. If she is surprised she has a good reason. Ms. Apfel, the subject of a series of museum pieces, a coffee table book, and even a campaign mode, has long been a magnet for fans, the fashionistas who love their style - a mix is ​​more high fashion and braid hippie meets the eye have been mixed in a Cuisinart.

But now, at 90, seems confused, and clearly tickled that at the dawn of pop celebrity, a celebrity whose fame unlikely to be built almost entirely around their eyes. "I am geriatric star, my dear, I do not know," said the other day. Relaxing in his Park Avenue apartment, a visual feast of cabbage rose patterns, paisleys and brocades, added: "Suddenly, I'm hot, I'm fine." Fan base, "I have"

Heterosexuals, gay history, art and society, tourists, young people and talk, "even small children," he said, tilting his lessons, a blog about him and sends him mash notes. And come September, Ms. Apfel, wearing the signature of an owl-shaped frames and faux festooned in yellow, he will use his fascination with the exotic East, America, selling bracelets, scarves and beads Design your Home Shopping Network.

Dr. Apfel is the appearance consciously disjunctive, and the spirit behind her pie will be a film and a documentary by Albert Maysles, whose film "The Beales of Grey Gardens" was reclusive Edie Beale in a household name. Ms. Apfel has charisma, a mixture of passion, energy and determination, is convincing for Bradley Kaplan, the president of products at Maysles Films. "She is wonderfully willful, stubborn and determined," said Kaplan. "She's not a waffle."

The glasses, he added, "has indeed become a metaphor for his eyes, and through them we have found another way to look at our world." Mrs. Apfel is too much, and what modern audiences seem to want: originality, Free Spirit soaring - and once his intelligent brand of eccentricity asked as part of the goods.

It expects to have a little help, of course. "I never thought in my old age," she said in a tone as dry as rice paper, "I had to find an entertainment lawyer."

It does not need such guidance in close to his heart. Dr. Apfel is the curator for his own demanding wardrobe. Sorting and placed in a large nearby warehouse that incorporates wardrobe pieces commemorating the highlights of his life. "It is a great storyteller," said Mindy Grossman, CEO of HSN. "Everything she wears, she remembers a story behind it."

Some elements are memories of his travels. Dress, he is, for example, acquired during a shopping trip in China, is inspired, Ms. Apfel said, the villagers Miao traditional design. He had a hood, he said, so soon if it broke off. "It changed the look throughout the dress," he said with satisfaction.

His glasses, said: "They are standard equipment, come with me."

His creations, like a scarf printed with images of these frames and other inspired by their personal treasures, will be sold on HSN.

Mrs. Apfel star on the network, and will be sent in the month of September 23, is not his first time on camera. In 2007, Bruce Weber, called him to pose for Vogue Italian. "When I thought at the time, like me, never the opportunity to be photographed by the likes of Bruce Weber?" Ms. Apfel said. "If I have to kill me, I'll shoot."