Slovakian-born Ivona Bruun and her older sister Martina Gordon like to keep it in the family. At the age of 18, Ivona followed Martina, who was discovered by Elite Model Management while she was at university studying medicine, into a successful modelling career.
“We came from eastern Europe, so this career was not something that people understood at the time,” she tells us. Nevertheless, the same year she based herself in Paris, before moving to New York three years later, when she was 21.
“And that’s where the party started,” she laughs. As well as walking the catwalk for many of the biggest brands, she was shot for beauty campaigns including Max Factor, Chanel and Guerlain.
Ivona moved to Denmark to marry first husband Bjørn Bruun, founder of Bruuns Bazaar, but when her son Finn was born she moved back to Paris and then New York, “because that’s where the work was”.
However, when her daughter Sienna arrived she decided to focus on a new chapter
