At the ripe age of 93, Iris Apfel can now add movie star to her long list of credits that include several White House design restorations, a Metropolitan Museum of Art retrospective and a marriage to her beloved husband, Carl, currently stretching into its 68th year.

The new documentary film Iris–from late director Albert Maysles–is a celebration of this cult icon and her innumerable contributions to the world of fashion, art and interior design.

We caught up with Iris over tea at The Carlyle, a week shy of the film's theatrical release.

NewNowNext: How did this documentary come about?

Iris Apfel: I did it on blind faith. What I knew about Albert is that most of his subjects were more gritty and I didn't know how I would fit into this picture. I wasn't interested in the beginning, but then my friends all chastised me and told me I was being very foolish and that people would kill just to have Albert take a photograph of them.

I didn't think I was very well known. I have nothing to sell, I have no legal problems. I thought it would be a big waste of time.

Well, he really liked you.

Oh? Well I liked him too. I thought the film would be Boresville.

Who or what inspired your look?

It's just mine. I picked it up by myself, though there were those I admire–I thought Pauline de Rothschild was divine; I loved Millicent Rogers–my look is not inspired, it's just me.

No because I don't know why, I just do. I don't do it intellectually. I'm wearing this jacket because Kate Spade sponsored an event that I went to and they asked me if I would be kind enough to wear something of theirs. I woke up very early, there it was all accessorized and everything, so lately that's how I get dressed. Next time I wear it will probably be entirely different but I have no time to waste figuring out what to pair with what at the moment.

Where do you go to seek creativity and inspiration?

I don't go anywhere; it comes to me. There is no place to seek it. There's very little of it left. I don't know why, but there's less and less originality and creativity. If you go to the stores it's the same old, same old, same old.

You mention that everyone looks the same, always in black attire.

It looks like you're all going to the same school or something. It's like a uniform. I think it would be more interesting for people to be a little bit more experimental, but if everyone wants to look alike that's fine with me. I don't like it, but I can't pass judgement. Many of the kids I talk to think the world began with Tom Ford. They have no idea about some of the great people that came before. You have to know the past to know what's going to happen in the future. You have to build on it.

People who just think about fashion are pretty dopy. I think fashion is a lovely thing and I think everybody should think about it but not make it a life's worth. Fashion is a reflection of everything that goes on in a period: The history, the politics, the sociology, the psychology, the economics of the time. History should reveal that. I find an appalling lack of curiosity in young people. Curiosity implies involving yourself in the process of finding out. The result is not enough.

What do you make of designers who position themselves as the stars of their brand, like Tom Ford, Marc Jacobs or Alexander Wang?

Tom Ford had a very specific look. I don't think the others are that specific, more mainstream. For me, Tom Ford's idea of a sexy looking babe looked, for me, like a 14-year-old boy. It was not very sophisticated. I think things should be a little more mysterious and not so obvious. But apparently it went over well and was a great force in the market. Everybody liked to buy as little cloth as possible and hang out as much as possible. I certainly don't think it was very pretty. If you're a gorgeous model sure, but the average person can't look like that.

What do you make of Giorgio Armani's statement that gay men should not "dress homosexual"?

Depends upon the person and how swishy you want to get. I have a lot of wonderful gay friends and they dress anywhere from absolutely buttoned up to really very, very flamboyant. It depends on what pleases you. I think that's a pretty dumb statement.

It's evident in the film that you have a deeply intense relationship with the objects you live with. You give them stories.

Well they're my friends. It's not make believe, it's true. I think everybody should keep some childlike qualities. It helps the creative spirit, fun-going. Everything is too cut and dry and there's no mystery life. There's a terrible paucity and sadness that people don't even realize which is why I think so many of my museum shows were so successful. People lust after glamor, which doesn't seem to exist anymore. Either they don't know how or it takes too much effort. Sad.

What do you think about social media?

Oh it's terrible. Who cares who you're sleeping with or what you had for breakfast or what you think about something? I could care less. It's your business.

Are you enjoying your new iPhone?

I hate it. My old one was so compact and so sweet and all I need of a phone is to get a message and send one out. I don't need all the other junk. I don't like it.

What are your thoughts on Kanye West and his aspirations as a designer?

I don't watch the Internet so I had no idea that they posted me with Kanye West. People kept calling me up as though Kanye West was my buddy. I have no truck with him. I didn't even know until someone told me the other day that he designs clothes. That's what I mean, everybody thinks they're a designer. How he can be a designer? What does he know about designing clothes?

I think it's kind of sad that Anna Wintour would put Kim Kardashian on the cover of Vogue. I'm given to think they want to be current; they want to be hip. That's all well and good but they are supposed to be arbiters of taste and they are supposed to keep the flame glowing.

Any thoughts on Ralph Rucci's recent departure from his label?

He hasn't departed. He'll come back. I'm seeing him tomorrow night. I don't know the legal ramifications but he has to come back. He's the greatest. He's the last great couturier that we have. I always tell him that if I had met him before I got married I wouldn't have married Carl, I'd have married Croesus. And people like Jimmy Galanos who were so great and aren't even mentioned in design schools anymore, just pitiful. These kids don't apprentice anymore, they just want to start at the top, and you have to apprentice in this business or you'll never learn how to do anything.

How is your husband Carl doing?

Oh thank you, he's coming along. My husband was quite a dude in his day. After a while, he let me buy most of his clothes and they were a bit on the flamboyant side but calmed down enough. I'm married sixty-seven-and-a-half years–which, people fall down in shock because some marriages these days don't seem to last 45 minutes–anyway a thousand years ago, you remember Johnny Carson, he invited a little old lady on the show on the occasion of her 75th wedding anniversary. He said to her, 'In 75 years did you ever think about divorce?'. And she thought a minute and said, 'Divorce, no. But murder...'.

Iris hits theaters nationwide on April 29.