As a supermodel in the 1980s and ’90s, Kathy Ireland graced the covers of magazines like Vogue and Mademoiselle, once appearing in 13 consecutive swimsuit issues of Sports Illustrated. In 1993, she made a pivot into brand marketing, launching kathy ireland Worldwide (kiWW) and in the process becoming one of the most successful model-turned-moguls ever. While she has written many books, including several children’s titles, these days she has added “novelist” to the mix. She has co-written “Fashion Jungle” with bestselling romance novelist Rachel Van Dyken (pictured together, top right), who has penned more than 80 books.
The novel tells the story of four young women getting started in the modeling industry, and all the good, bad and ugly things (death, sex trafficking, sexual assault, and even a Mafia storyline) they encounter along the way.
While it’s a novel, much of it really happened, although the names have been changed.
“When Rachel and I started talking and I started telling her stories, she was very emotional,” says Ireland about the origin of the project. “At certain times I got angry, thinking back and recognizing how things were and still are in many instances. But I trusted Rachel and I saw she was someone who understood. So [Fashion Jungle] is romance, it’s a thriller, there’s political intrigue, and it’s a cautionary tale.
“[Writing the book] did take me back to a lot of times,” Ireland adds. “I dealt with issues as they came up, reporting things to my agents that in retrospect now, I’d go to the police. There was once an instance where I punched a photographer because he crossed a line.”
While Van Dyken is a bestselling author with a huge fan base, writing “Fashion Jungle” was a new challenge.
“This was a lot of pressure because I wanted to do justice to those stories in a way that is digestible to the readers,” says Van Dyken. “So it’s not only entertaining, but people can deal with it in this format.”
Any advice to young people who want to get into modeling?
“What I tell young people is, ‘Have your eyes open,’ ” says Ireland. “Put boundaries in place and know what you’d walk away from.”