Ivanka Trump: A cut above
Ivanka Trump’s fine jewellery collection has the Midas touch.
Ivanka Trump is no stranger to luxury. As the daughter of real estate mogul Donald Trump and former model-turned-entrepreneur Ivana, she has an all-access pass to the finer things in life. But what truly sets this 29-year-old heiress apart from the usual champagne-swilling socialites is her unwavering work ethic. After graduating from the prestigious Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania in 2004, Trump worked at Forest City Enterprises, a national real estate company, before joining the family business in 2005. Clearly she’s earned her stripes. Currently the executive vice–president of development and acquisitions at the Trump Organization (and a boardroom judge on her father’s reality show, The Apprentice), she continues to expand her growing empire—like father, like daughter—from billion-dollar deals to brilliant-cut diamonds.
She launched in 2007 with a New York City flagship store on Madison Avenue, and Canadian sparkler-lovers can now find Ivanka Trump Fine Jewelry exclusively at the Birks Toronto flagship store. “We look for rich materials, the finest quality of diamonds and cut,” she says. The collection is old-world elegance meets modern luxury, with black-onyx cocktail rings, seed-pearl tassel pendants, rose-gold crystal chandelier earrings and platinum Asscher-cut diamond engagement rings. Trump says she draws inspiration from her real estate roots. “You see the art deco aesthetic of all of our hotels, so there are a lot of similarities in the look that I favour—from interiors to our shoe line, to my handbag line to my jewellery collection. My passion for design stems from architecture and my appreciation of it,” she explains.
Her love of jewellery, however, began at a much earlier age, with time spent sifting through and playing dress-up with her mother’s exquisite collection. These days, it seems the tables have turned. “She now has retribution in the form of my jewellery store on Madison Avenue; it’s payback for the many pieces I’ve stolen from her over the years,” she laughs. Besides Ivana’s, whose jewellery collection does she admire? “Elizabeth Taylor had some of the most elaborate fine jewels. Now these aren’t exactly everyday pieces, but I would very much like to sift through that collection,” she says.
Expecting her first child this summer with husband Jared Kushner (publisher of The New York Observer), Trump is beginning to question the lack of balance in her beyond-busy life: “I don’t think it’s going to get easier!” She’s confident, though, in the strength of the fine-jewellery market post-recession. “People are gravitating to quality, craftsmanship and high design. [They’re] investing in pieces that they see as just that. The product has to speak for itself, and anyone who was tentative has come off the fence,” she says. For Trump, investment pieces include diamond studs and pearl necklaces. “These are the things that are timeless and can be passed from generation to generation,” she says, though her personal preference runs north of the neck. “I am very much an earrings person,” she says.
“I like the light around my face.”
Despite her keen business sense, this tycoon-in-training strongly believes in her unique design aesthetic. “A diamond can be a commodity, but hopefully a piece of jewellery is unique and special and will not be replicable by anyone else,” she says. Looks like diamonds trump all.
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