David Perry
LOS ANGELES — Kathy Ireland is adding fire-resistant products to her growing stable of home furnishings lines.


Kathy Ireland Worldwide has partnered with McKinnon-Land of Charlotte, N.C., for the use of its Basofil flame-resistant fiber technology, already in use in the bedding industry. This marks the first designer-backed FR product in the mattress industry.

“Safety is definitely a primary value we want to bring to our customers and this is a crucial step forward,” said Ireland, CEO and chief designer of Kathy Ireland Worldwide. “McKinnon-Land’s Basofil technology is providing a huge breakthrough that we look forward to embracing in a wide variety of our products.”

Those products include mattresses and foundations, top of bed, furniture, fashion, carpeting and flooring, lighting, window treatments, bedding, kitchenware and other home-related products subject to fires.

KI consumer products utilizing McKinnon-Land’s Alessandra and Basofil FR technologies will be available in stores late this year.

Gerry Borreggine, president of Kathy Ireland’s mattress partner, Therapedic, said he’s looking forward to learning more about McKinnon-Land’s FR products. “We are a Kathy Ireland brand partner and we have a kinship with other Kathy Ireland partners,” he said. “We would have an inclination to work with a partner over a nonaffiliated vendor, all things being equal.”

McKinnon-Land is a research and development company that is the owner and inventor of Alessandra technology, which provides inherently flame-resistant products for home and industrial uses.

KI products using Alessandra and Basofil technologies do not require the use of topically applied chemicals, McKinnon-Land officials said.

Bob McKinnon, CEO of McKinnon-Land, described the new partnership with Kathy Ireland as “a perfect fit.” He added. “We believe that Kathy and her extraordinary concern for families truly shares the same high standards of comfort and safety as we do. Our objectives were to provide the safest and most innovative flame-resistant products available to her consumers.”

An ambassador for the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s national Firewise campaign, Ireland is a fire safety advocate, KI officials noted.

Kathy Ireland Worldwide also announced a new partnership with Hallmart Collectibles for the manufacture of bedroom linen products that will be distributed as Kathy Ireland Home by Hallmart Collectibles. Hallmart is an importer and designer of home textile products founded in 1997.