Fashion Maven Zelda Kaplan Dies Front Row at New York Fashion Week

Advanced Style blogger Ari Seth Cohen interviewed Kaplan last year.

New York’s oldest and most beloved night owl Zelda Kaplan died yesterday while sitting front row at designer Joanna Mastroianni’s fashion. The 95-year-old fashion maven and social light appeared to be in good spirits, sitting beside her friend Gideon Lewin and fashion writer Ruth Finley before slumping forward in her chair. Emergency medical technicians performed CPR on Kaplan before she was taken to hospital and pronounced dead.

Kaplan had the spirit of a true Zoomer and the social calendar of a 20-something fashion blogger. In a 2010 interview, Kaplan said her bedtime was “anytime between midnight and 7 a.m.” Kaplan also travelled to Africa and southeast Asia. Her travels had a direct affect on her personal style: she bought cloth from local weavers on her treks and would make prints, custom dresses and matching hats out of her finds.

If only we could all die doing something we love.

–Tianna Robinson