Meet the Woman Behind Those Vintage-Inspired Earrings You're Seeing Everywhere

In 2024, it’s not a novelty to see a content creator launch their own brand, turning their mass of followers into customers. But only a few really stick. Pia Mance might know a thing or two about that: In the two years since launching Heaven Mayhem, a jewelry brand that’s been propelled by the vintage earring look that’s trended in recent months, she’s landed her pieces on sought-after stars like Hailey Bieber, Jasmine Tookes and Dua Lipa — and gotten them into major retailers. And it all started as a passion project.

Like many new brands, the idea for Heaven Mayhem came during Covid lockdowns. “I wanted to do something for myself,” Mance tells Fashionista. Growing up, her seamstress mother would often make her clothes, which inspired a dream of having a brand of her own. Plus, Mance’s husband Cody co-founded the beloved shoe brand Naked Wolfe with his brother and sister in 2017 after their father’s successful shoe shop. (The two met when they were just 12, at a pool in their native Australia. “At 14 years old, I was writing ‘I wish Cody Mance would marry me,'” she remembers.) The pair left their homeland for London at the start of Naked Wolfe, before moving to Los Angeles in January of 2022.

The 28-year-old studied public relations at The Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology in Australia, but admits “eavesdropping” on the family business proved to be an invaluable learning experience; at times Mance would also help Naked Wolfe with influencer partnerships and PR, before launching her own brand in June 2022.

“I’ve eavesdropped [on Cody’s family business] my entire life. They would do things and I’d be like, ‘Oh, that’s interesting, I would do it differently,'” she says. While this proximity to another fashion business endeavor may have been helpful in developing her own, she clarifies, “Cody’s never, in his life, done any work for me.”

Mance introduced Heaven Mayhem two summers ago through a single product style: cord necklaces with vintage pendants. “I just started sourcing [vintage pendants] all over L.A.” she says. “It was kind of like a side hustle, a hobby.” Each was different, until Mance secured deadstock of a particular circular charm. “That ended up being my best-seller, which then gave me enough capital to invest into other products, which is then when I went into earrings, which I’d always wanted to do.”

As for the name, she loved the contrast between the two words: “If I look like a mess – messy hair coming from the gym, no makeup, whatever — I add some jewelry, and it’s heaven.” More importantly, the domain and handle were available, so she grabbed it.

Mance didn’t go to Etsy or an outside retailer with her creations — instead, she spoke to her sizable following on Instagram (around 70K at the time) directly, posting about the necklaces on her account under the guise that they were gifted to her, thanking the brand and encouraging her followers to go shop the one-of-a-kind necklaces. “I made it feel like it was sold out and really hard to get,” she says. “They were one-off pieces, so I was making it feel really exclusive.”

She also credits influencer seeding to friends like Marianna Hewitt and Matilda Djerf, whose respective brands, Summer Fridays and Djerf Avenue, she had already been shopping and supporting on her own. “I think that really helped propel the brand into the eyes of a lot of other people, because those influencers were really happy to get behind me.” After organic sales picked up speed, Mance publicly attached herself to the brand by putting the name in her Instagram bio in early 2023.

Mance started noticing vintage jewelry, particularly big vintage earrings, gaining popularity at the end of 2022 and was inspired by “the kind of stuff that my grandma had and passed down to my mom.” The brand launched its first earring collection in April 2023 with 12 items, ranging in price from $90 to $140. 

“That was around Coachella time, and I got on a lot of influencers just by asking them and naturally being friends with them already. I just offered to send them a gift, and they posted,” she says. 

Perhaps the most crucial event in the brand’s trajectory, though, was serendipitous: Back in June 2023, Mance went for her daily matcha at L.A. hotspot Community Goods, where she ran into none other than Hailey Bieber and Justine Skye; the latter had placed a sizable Heaven Mayhem order and had just been spotted wearing its pieces on vacation, so Mance wanted to thank her. They all started chatting, and Bieber chimed in about being an entrepreneur with a brand herself. 

“The next day, Dani Michelle‘s team reached out and was like, ‘Hailey’s requested your brand, specifically. Can you drop it off at her house today?,'” Mance remembers. “I was like, ‘I’m on the way.'” Bieber has been regularly photographed in Heaven Mayhem earrings ever since.

The designer attributes some of her success to manifestation: Bieber and other achievements, like an appearance on the “Skinny Confidential” podcast, were once on her vision board. What’s she manifesting next, you ask? “It would be a really sentimental goal to have Heaven Mayhem in Selfridges. And I would love Forbes‘ 30 under 30.”

Heaven Mayhem has gradually expanded into other categories, launching belts last August, watches last month and a collection of brooches this week, with more categories on the way. You can shop Heaven Mayhem on its website, as well as on Revolve, Shopbop and Bloomingdale’s, and follow its Instagram for future updates.

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Source: Fashionista.com