In 2022, influencer Pia Mance used $900 of her own money to set up a website, buy some vintage pendants from a flea market in Los Angeles, and make a set of 20 necklaces to sell online under the label Heaven Mayhem.
Three years on, she’s built a $10 million demi-fine jewellery and accessories business, known in particular for its viral knot earrings.
This month, the brand launched a pop-up in London’s Selfridges that runs until November, aiming to boost brand awareness and demonstrate the breadth of its offering.
“It all happened really fast.
The growth has been insane,” says Mance over lunch in London a few days out from the pop-up opening.
The luxury jewellery market as a whole has been more resilient than fashion in recent years, but in the demi-fine jewellery space, which relies on increasingly discerning aspirational shoppers, growth has slowed after a post-pandemic boom.
Heaven Mayhem has also faced some headwinds, with production delays on some of its launches this year.
The LA wildfires in January had a small impact, too, as the brand manufactures its belts locally.
Mance says her initial ambition of doubling revenues to $20 million in 2025 now seems out of reach, but she remains optimistic:
“I know a lot of brands are struggling right now, and maybe we won’t grow as fast, but we’re still on track to grow a further 80 per cent this year.”
Mance started her career as a model in her native Australia, before moving to London in 2017 with her husband, Cody, co-founder of footwear label Naked Wolfe.
During Covid, Mance pivoted from modelling to influencing, creating fashion and lifestyle content on Instagram and TikTok, amassing 45,000 followers.
But when the couple moved to LA in 2022, for Cody to work on his brand, Mance decided to launch her own.
“After six months I was like, ‘I’m working every night till 10pm on boring shit and waiting for furniture to be delivered, so let’s build something.’
” She didn’t want to put “a tonne of money” into Heaven Mayhem, so she used a retro Sony digicam to capture lo-fi product content for the website.
At first, she had no clear plan for the business, though knew she ultimately wanted to design her own pieces and produce on a bigger scale.
Mance’s first four drops were small, limited by the amount of pendants she could get hold of.
But then the vintage store she was sourcing from found 180 pendants hidden away in a box.
“I bought them all, but then got to my house and they are all the wrong size, way smaller.
At that point I couldn’t waste $1, so I was like let’s just try — and that [smaller size] ended up being a bestseller.”
She sold them for $80 each, racking up $14,400 in revenue, which enabled her to travel to China to find a jewellery manufacturer — unlocking her ability to sell her own designs.
Today, Heaven Mayhem manufactures between Dongguan and Guangzhou in China, alongside LA.
Some 80 per cent of sales are direct-to-consumer (DTC) via its website, while 20 per cent are wholesale.
In addition to Selfridges, stockists include Neiman Marcus, Moda Operandi and Ounass in the UAE.
Earrings (retailing for around £80) are now the “bread and butter” of the business, says Mance, representing 50 per cent of sales, while watches (priced at around £200) represent 20 per cent.
The rest of the business is split across eyewear (which the brand launched in February this year) and other accessories like belts, jewellery storage boxes and laptop cases.
How it blew up Naturally, Mance’s influencer status helped get Heaven Mayhem off the ground.
But she also admits she bent the rules of influencing in the early days.
“I would wear [Heaven Mayhem] and tag it, but I never said ‘this is my brand’.
Then, people would like a photo on Heaven Mayhem and then I would DM them like, ‘Hey, you interested?’” she says.
Ahead of Coachella 2023, Mance gifted earrings to the likes of Summer Fridays co-founder Marianna Hewitt and It-girl Emily Ratajkowski, among other influencer friends.
Another factor in her early success was cheap Facebook ads.
“I was getting them for like $3 [per 1,000 impressions], now they’re $35.”
And then came Hailey Bieber.
Bieber’s friend, American singer-songwriter Justine Skye, was actually first to discover the earrings.
Then, after a chance meeting with the pair in LA, Mance offered to send some to Bieber, too.
The next afternoon, an assistant to Bieber’s stylist DM’ed the brand requesting some earrings for a fitting — three hours later.
“I had to drive over to [the assistant’s] house and drop them off,” recalls Mance.
It paid off.
Bieber was first spotted wearing Heaven Mayhem’s now-signature knot earrings in public in August 2023, and has worn the style several times throughout the last two years.
She didn’t tag the brand, but the uplift in site visits and press coverage was almost immediate, Mance says.
Every time Bieber wears the earrings, Heaven Mayhem is covered by scores of titles, from Vogue and Teen Vogue to Elle, Cosmopolitan and Women’s Health.
“It’s the brand awareness she [creates].
The Hailey effect is so real,” Mance says.
Does it have longevity to last beyond these influencer moments?
“The brand has a highly engaged community and brings a strong point of difference,” says Sarah Cartwright, buying manager for fine and fashion jewellery, watches, shoes and eyewear at Selfridges.
Already a stockist of the brand, Selfridges decided to host the pop-up to create some buzz around it.
The stock sold out in days, Cartwright says.
“Gen Zs want more than just product, they’re seeking experience, self-expression and exploration,” she continues.
“We’re seeing a distinct move away from seasonal trends and towards jewellery that feels expressive.
The popularity of brands like Heaven Mayhem shows a desire for individuality over trend-chasing; whether it’s their vintage-inspired, statement earrings, cotton-strand shell pieces, or playful sunglasses.
Customers want jewellery that feels like an extension of themselves, and they’re willing to explore new and emerging brands to find it.”
Becoming a go-to for accessories That said, Mance still has to navigate shifting consumer sentiment as the brand’s customer base grows.
It’s important to keep evolving the assortment, even once you’ve had a viral product like the earrings, she says, “I don’t want it to become too mass or something that’s not cool.
So I still want to keep doing niche drops that are interesting and sell out and have that special feeling.”
Every time Mance wants to launch another category, she goes on the hunt for suppliers via word of mouth, helped by her husband’s existing supplier network.
“My husband spent two years living in China.
During that time, I would visit and join him on factory visits, explore markets and meet suppliers, which gave me an early understanding of how production and sourcing worked before launching the brand.”
She has also expanded her network through trade shows like Lineapelle in Milan, where she met many of the suppliers she still works with today.
“When I decided to start my brand, those connections introduced me to factories specialising in jewellery hardware, which became instrumental in bringing the brand to life.”
When hoping to develop belts in 2023, Mance went to Downtown LA to several leather shops, before one pointed her in the right direction.
As she develops the range, Mance is trying to educate the consumer on how to style the full Heaven Mayhem collection.
“We know that they like to shop quality pieces for occasions, so we’re doing a lot of styling and trying to educate them — like these pieces you can wear every day, here’s your occasion pieces.
We want to be the go-to for accessories,” she says.
Beyond this, Mance still doesn’t have a business plan per se, preferring instead to rely on her instincts and the opportunities that come along.
Over lunch, she smiles:
“I don’t know if you believe in manifestation, but I do.
I’m figuring it out as I go.”
So far, it’s working.