Last month, there was a really nice segment on the Today Show celebrating older stylish women. It was part of a promotion of a new documentary by a guy named Ari Seth Cohen who runs the wonderful blog Advanced Style. Ari photographs women he meets on the street, asks them about their personal sense of style and strikes up friendships with many of them. The women he profiles are often well into their 80s and 90s and he even has a couple centenarians among them.

One of the women profiled on Ari’s blog was a fabulous 95 year-old woman named Zelda Kaplan. He posted a video interview with Zelda, below, in which she said the secret to keeping young and feeling good was being “healthy and… interested in world affairs.” Zelda said she dresses up everyday and that she “has a beautiful wardrobe I’ve chosen myself.” She mentions that she buys her cloth for her handmade outfits “from the weaver.”

Sadly Zelda passed away at fashion week during a show, while she was sitting in the front row. The NY Post carried this news, along with some details about how well she lived and celebrated life up until the end.

Beloved club and fashion maven Zelda Kaplan died after collapsing in the front row at Fashion Week yesterday at age 95.

Kaplan, New York’s oldest and most beloved night owl and the woman who could famously “out-party even Paris Hilton,” collapsed at the Joanna Mastroianni show at The Studio at Lincoln Center.

Witnesses said the socialite “slumped forward” as the second model came out on the runway, and she was carried out and given CPR by paramedics. An ambulance rushed her to the hospital, but she couldn’t be revived.

Her death left attendees devastated. One told us, “Zelda passed away, right there, in the front row. Security carried her out, but the show just carried on. Everybody is distraught.”

A statement released by her friends yesterday read, “Zelda Kaplan passed away suddenly today at the age of 95 from natural causes . . . She will be deeply missed and always loved.”
Zelda, famed for her African outfits, dramatic hats and large sunglasses, was a club fixture right up to her death. She was at the opening of new XL last month, where she was photographed with Lance Bass and designer/stylist Indashio. Her close friends include fashion exec Keri Ingvarsson, stylist Mia Morgan, artist Andres Serrano and Richie Rich.

After moving here from New Jersey in the 1960s, Zelda became a party and fashion-world fixture, but also made regular visits to Africa to work on human rights issues.
She told The Post in 2010, “I wish more people would have [clothes] made for them. But so many Americans want to look like everybody else . . . I hate to wear what everybody else is wearing . . . I don’t think people should be happy to be a clone.”

Richie Rich told us, “Passing away in the front row was how it was meant to be. Zelda loves fashion, so she died for fashion. She would have wanted to go out in style. Zelda always said, ‘Live, live, live and have fun’ . . . I hope the angels are holding her right now.”

[From The NY Post]

It’s kind of bittersweet and sad yet heartwarming at the same time. She died doing what she loved.

Interview with Zelda Kaplan

Zelda is not shown in this video but I wanted to share it!

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Photos of Zelda alone are from Advanced Style. Other photos credit: WENN.com