Ivanka Trump, daughter of Donald, is branching out in her own right but wants to be heir to the family business too, says Vanessa Friedman

Ivanka Trump is “On . She enters downstage right, hand outstretched, smile blindingly white, hair swinging, heels clicking. “Hi! - her voice rings out across the marble anteroom on the 25th floor of Trump International’s Fifth Avenue headquarters. “So nice to meet you, she trills. “I’m Ivanka.

No, it’s not an episode from the 10th season of The Apprentice, the reality TV show that stars her father Donald - who also produces - and which Ms Trump joined in 2006. This is real life. And in real life, the 29-year-old is as polished and controlled as the self she plays on TV. Think of her as Trump 2.0. She’s about to become as ubiquitous as her famous parent.

This month, Ms Trump launches her own Ivanka Trump shoe line, via licensing with Marc Fisher Footwear, which will be sold in more than 300 US stores. In February she will launch an Ivanka Trump bag line via licence with Mondani. She has begun wholesaling her high-end jewellery line, which launched in 2007 and already has a proprietary store on Madison Avenue (projected sales for 2010 at her own shop are $5m, and $7.5m through her wholesale partners). She recently published an advice book, The Trump Card, and has more than 830,000 Twitter followers.

All this while holding down her “day job as vice-president of development and acquisitions at Trump International, her family’s property company, as well as co-founding Trump Hotel Collection.

In other words, she is trying to be both an entrepreneur in her own right and her father’s heir, too. It’s a complicated act to pull off, especially in the glare of publicity that attaches to the Trump family. But she claims to know what she is doing. Indeed, Ms Trump seems acutely aware of the issues that can beset many of the second and third generations of wealthy, well-known families - and while she does not go out of her way to confront them, she doesn’t avoid them either.

“I’ve seen some people really crater under the pressure and long shadow - either trying to distance themselves from the parent so much that instead of using the advantages at their disposal, they just become unproductive, or they get totally paralysed and do nothing because of fear of failure, she says.

Seated at a large desk in her glass-walled corner office decorated with magazine covers of herself, her husband Jared Kushner (also the child of a well-known real estate developer), and brother Donny Jr and Dad, she seems amused that anyone would think she is the cratering type.

Ms Trump joined the family firm in 2004, after graduating from the Wharton School, summa cum laude. The Trump Organisation was at an interesting juncture. “My father wanted to stop developing property and start acquiring, and we thought: How can we grow? says Ms Trump. “Hotels seemed a logical opportunity . . . we saw room to be a strong operator that had a background as an owner and builder. There are now five hotels in the portfolio, with two openings (Panama and Toronto) set for next year, and New Orleans, Scotland and Dubai’s Palm Jumeirah planned.

Ms Trump’s own entrepreneurial career was sparked by a meeting in 2006 with Moshe Lax, president of Dynamic Diamond Corp, a diamond trading company. He wanted to raise his retail presence, while she thought there was room for a new niche brand for people like her -young women buying jewellery for themselves (“My mother always got my father to buy her jewellery, she says).

They became partners - she will not say how much she has invested - in Ivanka Trump Fine Jewelry. It never occurred to her not to use her name, although she knows it comes with certain assumptions attached, and that there are risks in such projects for both herself and her family.

Ms Trump is not a trained designer, and if her personal ventures in jewellery, shoes and hotels fail, she could be seen as an egotist carpet-bagging on her name, which might hurt her family’s hotel business; conversely, if there are people who do not like the way her family has remade certain cityscapes, or who have certain preconceptions about them because of her father’s style, which is brasher than her own, that could hurt her customer base. She says: “Look, if someone hates Trump, they’re just not our customer.

Certainly, although her necklaces and rings are perfectly nice -generally featuring diamonds, rock crystal and onyx - they make no particular design statement of their own. But, by combining these aesthetically accessible products with her own persona, she has made them into a viable business proposition.

Ms Trump is her own best marketer: she wears only her own jewellery - today a diamond bangle and watch, onyx and diamond drop earrings - and only her own shoes. But she is clear on the line between her public and private self.

“I will never be photographed standing in my closet, or eating in my kitchen . . . but I will go on Facebook and show the rendering of a Trump hotel lobby and ask fans, “What do you think? Other companies can’t do that, because no Facebook user really thinks some junior marketing person cares what they think. But they know I do.

For her, the jewellery and hotel businesses are not separate initiatives but complementary paths to brand dominance. “It’s all beneficial to the common good, she says. One tangible example is that concierges at Trump hotels are educated about her jewellery and discounts are offered to Trump guests. The New York Proposal Package offers an Ivanka Trump Fine Jewelry ring and a night (plus champagne and dinner) at the Trump SoHo or Trump International Hotel and Tower.

Similarly, the shoes and bags, which are priced at a more accessible level than the jewellery (the latter’s entry level prices are about $900, while the shoes range from $75 to $150) are geared towards creating an entry point to the “Trump lifestyle that might mature into, say, a night in a hotel, or buying an apartment. Once a month, the managers of her projects meet to discuss ways to leverage their figurehead - and her family.

All of which works in the short term, but is part of a long-term plan too. Ms Trump is in effect planning for the future - changing the image without taking on her father and what he stands for directly.

That said, although carrier bags and boxes for her bags and shoes all feature the same coral colour scheme as her jewellery’s packaging, and the same scripted “IT initials for the Ivanka Trump logo, they are separate companies. If the sales trajectory changes after a few seasons, or she changes her mind, Ms Trump might suffer some image issues, but there would be few financial repercussions for the family business.

Even now, she is careful to insist: “My focus is not to grow my personal brand, but the Trump organisation.

The subtext, of course, is that someday they may be one and the same.

Ivanka on Trump

*On doing deals: “I joke to my father that negotiations are much more challenging for him because people prepare, whereas with me they assume it will be a substantially easier discussion. It can be quite fun to prove people who don’t believe you’re capable wrong.

*On using the Trump name:

“Yes, there have been times when the public spotlight did seep into my life and make me uncomfortable. But I grew up with this . . . I’d be an idiot not to use it. At the end of the daycan’t waste my time worrying about whether everyone respects me because, well, why should they?

*On developing the Trump brand: “The Trump brand has to stay relevant; it has to transcend only one person, and represent generations . . .

Trump was originally a very male-oriented brand, and now it’s both.