Starting, probably, around the time that Donald Trump first locked Ivana Trump out of her office at the Plaza Hotel (via the BBC), it may have occurred to the former fashion model and perennial fashion plate that perhaps her next business move might be in a field about which she felt passionate.
In any case, after the smoke had cleared from her divorce from The Donald, Ivana set out to build a business empire all her own in the field of fashion, according to WWD. From the ground up, albeit with the help of some beaucoup seed money from her divorce settlement, Ivana built said empire through both QVC and the Home Shopping Network.
According to the Daily Mail, Ivana designed the clothing and jewelry based on her own glitzy taste, and wouldn’t you know it, the people bought it right up. It couldn’t have hurt that Ivana leveraged her own celebrity appeal by turning up on these shopping networks to entice viewers into thinking along the lines of “If I don this fabulous fashion, I just might be able to live a life as glamorous as Ivana’s.”
Ivana also branched out into “lifestyle products” that included fragrances, makeup, and costume jewelry, per House of Francheska. Whatever you may think of the late Ivana Trump’s style, she parlayed said style and influence into a multi-million dollar business, according to her memoir, “Raising Trump” (via People).