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After the war ended she met her future husband, Carl Apfel, and they were married in 1948. Two years later, they launched a textile company which they ran until they both retired in 1992. “I started in the interior design business. I was doing very well until one day I needed a fabric and I couldn’t find it anywhere, and I just had to have it.” She explains. “So I found a little old weaver who had a small mill in Long Island City, and he agreed to weave it for me. It turned out very well.” She recalls. “So then he asked me if I had any more fabric designs… so I said yes I have a few. So he said to bring them… and that if he liked them he would weave them for me. So I brought them, and he liked them. And it went very well.” She continued. “So we decided to go into business together. He would do the weaving, and my husband and I would open a small studio, which we did on 57th Street.” They moved into the 3rd floor of an old brownstone building right off of Park Avenue and “Old World Weavers” was born.
Before long, word spread throughout the Manhattan antique and designer community and business was booming. Apfel then decided to branch out and take her business across the ocean and try break into the European design markets. When she arrived overseas, she immediately noticed the Antique textiles she saw that adorned most of the interiors of the old world places she visited. “It became my passion.” She says. “I fell in love with antique textiles and began a lifetime search and collection, and I would go to the end of the Earth to find bits & pieces I could take to mills and have replicas made of what came before. I am very fussy about that.” She scolds. “I don’t like adaptations, I like the real McCoy!”
People not only started to notice Apfel’s keen eye for fabrics and her amazing ability to transform or recreate spaces, but they also started to notice that she didn’t quite dress like everybody else. Whether it was bold colors adorned with feathery or furry shawls, or multiple layers of quirky jewelry and other accessories, she always seemed to stand out. “I have always dressed for myself,” she explains. “I have never cared about what anyone else thinks. My husband always liked how I dressed and didn’t care if people stared. I am not a rebel and I don’t do things to shock anybody… but frankly, I don’t give a damn!” She says defiantly.
After some time, Museums started to hear about and take notice of Apfel’s ability to recreate luxury (Continued)