Celebrities turn out for lia sophia jewelry

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Lia sophia, the direct-sales jewelry brand that has a strong celebrity following, held an intimate event Tuesday night in the back courtyard of the Sunset Marquis Hotel in West Hollywood. The brand throws a party in L.A each summer, usually at an impressive beach house in Malibu, in order to present its latest Red Carpet collection of costume statement pieces and to get the items into the hands of highly visible celeb fans such as Paris Hilton, Ashlee Simpson, Kourtney Kardashian and Ali Landry, all of whom showed up Tuesday and left with considerably more bling.

And who can blame them? The Industrielle II Red Carpet collection is full of chunky jeweled cocktail rings, Art Deco-inspired collar necklaces and large-but-surprisingly-light angular-shaped earrings that instantly dress up basics and show up like real sparklers in paparazzi and red-carpet pics.

‘The collection is always inspired by vintage, like stuff you’d find in your grandmother’s closet, mixed with trends,’ said Dani Stahl, editor at large for Nylon magazine and the designer of lia sophia’s Red Carpet line. ‘Color is really important, which you can see in the ID bracelets. They’re a pop of preppy color for summer.’

Indeed, the candy-colored enamel ID bracelets looked the most summery among the darker-hued items, many of which were inspired by architecture and Stahl’s recent travels. She leaves next week to visit Israel for the first time, and teased that we shouldn’t be surprised to see inspiration from that trip informing a future collection.

But even with all the notable names flocking to display tables for some sparkly swag, there’s no discounting the brand’s actual business, including a 600-piece collection sold via a 30,000-person sales force holding at home parties and various events to sell the line.

Lisa Petersen, an L.A. resident and lia sophia advisor for the last eight years was also in attendance and shared the impressive sales figure she and her ‘team’ of 1,100 people (other sales advisors she has recruited) bring in: about $15 million annually.

Several fashion industry veterans at the party said they weren’t even aware that the brand was a direct-sales company and had always taken for granted that the pieces just sort of appeared (mostly in gift bags and at parties like the one held last night). They said they were blown away with the amount of money some top sales people are making. ‘Wow’ said one party-goer in disbelief. ‘Well, I guess we’ve all got a plan B.’

-- Melissa Magsaysay

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Upper photo: Fro left, Ashlee Simpson, lia sophia creative director Elena Kiam and Dani Stahl.

Lower photo: Paris Hilton.