![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i.mdel.net\/oftheminute\/images\/2012\/06\/image.jpeg\" "\\"image\\"")
<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Yesterday The Metropolitan Museum of Art played host to a conversation between style legend Iris Apfel<\/a>, and Rookie Editor-in-Chief<\/a> (and a budding style icon herself) Tavi Gevinson<\/a>, in honor of the Costume Institute exhibit, \u201cSchiaparelli and Prada: Impossible Conversations,\u201d on view until August 19.<\/p>\n The bringing together of Tavi, aged 16, and Iris, aged 90, was an inspired pairing as each has not only a unique sense of style, but also the reputation for some hilarious one-liners. Apfel\u2019s comments on Rei Kawakubo\u2019s bump collection for Comme des Gar\u00e7ons \u201cThere\u2019s no sense to pay a fortune and look like a freak\u2026 I can look ugly on my own and it won\u2019t cost me a penny!\u201d had the whole auditorium roaring.<\/p>\n The dialogue hit some serious notes too, however, with Gevinson declaring that ideas of good and bad taste are irrelevant, and that what matters more in style is having a sense of humor. Apfel agreed immensely, saying, \u201cWhen the fun is taken out of dressing, you might as well be dead!\u201d Both admitted their secret to braving the stares they might receive for their sometimes outlandish ensembles was to have other things on the brain; \u201cI\u2019m too busy doing other things I love to stop and think about what others think of my clothes,\u201d confesses Gevinson. Even Apfel agreed that \u201cclothing should not be the primary force of your life.\u201d<\/p>\n As for Prada\u2019s and Schiaparelli\u2019s designs, Gevinson commented on the timelessness of Prada\u2019s work; \u201cPrada\u2019s designs exist in a vacuum\u2026 with no cultural references. [Prada collections] are about power or female sexuality, not a certain time or place.\u201d Neither Gevinson or Apfel listed Prada or Schiap as their favorite designers, with Gevinson rattling off Meadham Kirchoff, Rodarte, and Creatures of the Wind as her current obsessions (though she was wearing a Prada lips skirt, gifted to her from Miuccia), and Apfel saying that Dries van Noten, Ralph Rucci, and vintage Ferr\u00e9 make up large portions of her wardrobe.<\/p>\n By the end of the talk both Gevinson and Apfel agreed that if they were tasked with curating a Costume Institute exhibit, they would take on the ideas of style of septuagenarians and older, both referencing style blog Advanced Style<\/a><\/em> as a jumping off point. Gevinson even quoted John Waters on the matter saying, \u201cRight now there is no counter culture\u2026 The way to be rebellious today is to get old.\u201d At sixteen, Tavi is already maturing past the rest of us.<\/p>\n