If Zelda Kaplan could have chosen a place where she wanted to spend her last moments, my bet is that it would have been exactly where it was: on the front row of a fashion show. Wednesday, amongst the clothes, models and celebrities, New York Fashion Week was hit by the death ‘New York’s oldest and most beloved night owl’.

Kaplan lived a pretty exciting life. Moving to New York in the 1960s prompted a quick transformation from suburban housewife to notorious party girl. However, whilst she gained a reputation as a hedonist in her earlier years, Kaplan dedicated a lot of the second half of her life to championing women’s rights in Africa.

In an interview a couple of years ago, she described her bedtime as “anytime between midnight and 7am”, her favourite drink as shiraz and said  “I’m a curious person…I want to keep learning until it’s over. And when it’s over, it’s over.” Wise words for life and perhaps for death too.