Forbes Magazine Salutes Kathy Ireland Furnishings Entrepreneur

Furniture World Magazine

Forbes Magazine, a respected arbiter of what and who is happening in the world of finance and commerce, salutes Kathy Ireland in its current Celebrity 100 issue as a billion dollar a year power player in that world and, highly relevant to what is currently of maximum news interest, as “a latter day Martha Stewart.”  Is Kathy the new paradigm of a queen lifestyle designer?  This story certainly indicates that.  Forbes spells out the differences and quantifies the incredible sales figures that have made Kathy Ireland the leading female lifestyle designer.  I’m sure you’re powerfully aware of how many respected name firms do not gross a billion dollars a year.  For comparison, you should check how that stacks up against a giant name like Apple, or, for that matter, Martha Stewart’s own sales. This story has made Kathy a major news element at a time when an alleged suppression of women’s rights in the workplace has sparked one of the largest lawsuits ever against a top retailer.  It was ten years ago that Kathy tried her hand at manufacturing, starting with socks.  “A decade later,” Forbes verifies, she has utilized her design and sales skills to align her Kathy Ireland Worldwide with “11 manufacturers that sell her products at 34,000 locations in 14 countries” and “generated $1 billion in retail sales last year.”  And now, billions of dollars of sales, 100,000,000 pair of socks and an design empire later, Kathy Ireland is being saluted in Forbes as the lady who is leading the way. The Forbes article (and her own dash and brilliance as a designer) has made Kathy Ireland one of the most imperative news stories and news interviews of this moment.  Celebrity 100 The Model Mogul: The following three paragraphs are excerpted from “The Model Mogul” by Kiri Blakeley in the July 5, 2004 issue of Forbes Magazine: "She employs 37 people ather firm, Kathy Ireland Worldwide, in which she holds a majority stake. In 1993 Ireland started out by slapping her name on a line of socks; Kmart picked it up and the line eventually sold 100 million pairs. Impressed, the big retailer gave Ireland her own clothing line. Now her name adorns everything from sofas to rugs to window blinds. Half of her annual sales are generated by Standard Furniture, which sold $500 million worth of furniture with her name on it last year. "Thus Ireland is a latter-day Martha Stewart, without the storied bitchiness and felony conviction (she even discourages her employees from using the Lord's name in vain). "She has a real wholesome, ethical image that appeals to the housewife and average consumer," says Robert Allen, president of Arrow Industries, which debuts a line of Ireland bedclothes this summer. Her image is burnished by her open embrace of Christianity: Her book, Powerful Inspirations, a memoir of her spiritual growth, is in its third printing; she teaches Sunday school and hopes to include a Bible study area on her Web site. "Ireland sees bigger things ahead. "We're a baby brand compared to where I see us going," she declares. She troubleshoots each offering--will the wiring on a new line of "garden critter" lights be safe even if it gets chewed by pets or children?--and meets frequently with each vendor. On a typical day in May she met at 9:30 a.m. with her staff in Los Angeles, flew by private jet (she leases it part-time) to Anaheim to meet with Arrow, then flew on to San Diego for another meeting before jetting home to Santa Barbara. "Someone once asked me how they could ‘get some of that passive income,'" she says. "I just had to laugh.""