Ivana Trump in New York – The New York Times

In the more modern New York of the 1980s and 1990s, when Ivana Trump was at the height of her power, “social networking” included party pages and gossip columns, and the best way to highlight names Your age is going out. . Much.

Ivana was out.

Author George Rush, who, along with his wife, Joanna Molloy, said: “She definitely knew how to get the paper. wrote the gossip column of the New York Rush & Molloy Daily News from 1995 to 2010.

Ivana has been at all of New York’s major events, grinning alongside the city’s richest, famous, and most powerful.

Hand in hand with Estée Lauder at Lincoln Center. Sit next to Luciano Pavarotti during dinner at the Central Park Boathouse. Laugh it off with Jackie Mason, get Michael Douglas back with stories, be carried like a bride by Fabio, shake hands with Don King.

Her dresses, jewelry, and hair were all lustrous and comically oversized, even by 80s standards: An eye-catching pink metallic floor-length gown encrusted with crystals, adorned with a peplum top and a fitted mini-skirt – pattern draped over one shoulder, finished with a hard pearl and cherry-encrusted choker above.

“She is definitely part of the fabric of the New York nightlife scene, the neighborhood – and downtown,” said Michael Musto, former Village Voice nightlife editor. .

If you have a craving for magazines and tabloids, Mrs. Trump, who passed away aged 73 is announced on Thursday, everywhere. She’s bigger than life and just one of many Manhattan characters that are your neighbors.

Going down FDR Drive in a taxi, you may have caught a glimpse of the yacht, the Trump Princess, moored at the Water Club.

“I would call her daring,” says Patrick McMullan, a photographer and columnist who has taken thousands of pictures over a 30-year career in New York nightlife. “I covered that scene and I mean, I would see Ivana every night. She likes to be photographed. “

Le Cirque. Pierre. La Grenouille. There are cameras and rich people, there she is.

Bob Colacello, author and social commentator wrote: “Donald never showed much interest in so-called New York society. a 1992 Vanity Fair cover story about Ivana. “But Ivana really wanted to be part of the whole social scene. So she began taking a more active role in philanthropy, which is the path New Yorkers have always used to be part of the organization. “

If you grew up in New York, some names are as familiar as they are mansion, museum, street or neighborhood: Hamilton, Bloomingdale, Hewitt, Cooper, Vanderbilt, Astor. But Trump’s name is new, and is inlaid with brilliant gold lettering on a building, rather than carved in this century’s stone.

Maybe at first Ivana was too flashy, too money-hungry, too new-money-hungry for the old money-hungry crowd. But she broke in. “I remember I was going down to the Kentucky Derby once, and Marylou Whitney invited her on my plane,” Mr. Rush said, referring to Marie Louise Whitney, wife of Cornelius Vanderbilt Whitney. “Whitneys is definitely as good a name as you could want it to be.”

“One of the things Donald and Ivana have in common is that they both like to be public,” Mr. Colacello said. Both want to be famous. In a way, they want to be famous more than they want to be rich.”

That said, there is evidence that while Ivana played hard, she also worked hard: “Ivana became a businesswoman,” Mr. Colacello said. “She runs Atlantic City. She is running the Plaza Hotel. She is like a general, barking commands, and she loves it, and she’s good at it. “

After all the benefit events and gags and dinners, it was the divorce news that pushed Ivana – who was completely on top with New York – from the party page to the cover. There are obnoxious puns (“Ivana Better Deals”), but also some sympathetic allies.

Mr Rush said: “I like her and her flightiness, her cheery cheer and her nimble navigation through the social rapids of New York. “And her resilience. Her ability to survive that marriage – and redo herself. “

She is often seen with gossip columnist Liz Smith, and wears Barbie clothes pink on October 1990 cover of New York magazine, she appeared as Zsa Zsa Gabor in “Green Acres” – the beautiful character – or even Patsy Stone in “Complete Fabulous” – shallow but delightful, bohemian, unforgiving. everything in gold.

While her ex-husband became a local villain, Ivana takes on the role of a gay divorced woman – dating younger men, skiing in St. Moritz, sailing in Saint-Tropez, a cameo in the movie “The First Wives Club”.

“She almost became a feminist icon,” Mr. Colacello said. “She is very happy. She’s so funny. She’s warm, and she’s a little squishy.”

And she continued to go out, for decades.

Mr. Musto said: “She went to a party that I organized at Lucky Cheng’s, which was a drag restaurant. He said not only was Ivana “fun” but generous: When a guest admired her jewelry – from the Ivana Trump Collection, naturally – Ivana took off her necklace and gave it to a stranger. . “Of course, I don’t think it’s worth millions of dollars,” Mr. Musto said. “But still.”

Mr Musto added that while he doesn’t know much about Ivana’s personal politics, he admires her for “surviving The Donald with style.” And she is always welcome at parties in the city center: “Trust me, the drag queens were thrilled to see her, because some of them would often dress like her. it”.

Sometimes, if you go out too, you’ll see her, in a mess of clothes, with dyed hair. She and her lavish updo often sit at delicious tables at privilege parties and in the front row at fashion shows.

Some will remember her as filled with the kind of cheerfulness that any wealthy single mother living in New York enjoys.

Mr. Colacello said: “She believes in society with the capital S, but she is very quiet. Her ex-husband lived for four years in Washington, DC, and later moved to Florida; Ivana stayed in New York, a Upper Eastern man until the end.

One of the last photos of Ivana to captivate the tabloids was taken long after her glorious heyday. But she was there in 2018, wearing a leopard coat while she buy some street meat from a street vendor on 64th Street.

Mr. Colacello laughed. “I mean, she probably befriended the guy.”