| Jewelry With Blossoming Appeal
Although overnight successes can be years in the making for many
Hollywood hopefuls, jewelry designer Leyla
Spada is one of the lucky souls who can genuinely claim she’s
found it. Just six months after launching her company, her fashionably
earthy collection—Brasilian Roots—has
made major in-roads into the collective consciousness of celebrities
and Hollywood trendsetters alike.
Her dramatic but very wearable earrings fashioned from sterling
silver and semi-precious Brazilian stones have found their way onto
famous lobes, thanks to auspicious placements in gift bags for Entertainment
Tonight’s 56th Annual Emmy Awards event as well as
the high-profile holiday season shopping event Gallery, which raised
funds for the Covenant House. Her
earrings, in fact, have made a lot of people very happy by design.
“I can say my work is much more influenced by Brazilian people,”
says Spada. “They have a special way of moving, a different
way of living happily. And that's some of the same of what you see
in my work.... spirals, flowing movement, curves! (The designs are
inspired by a time) when I traveled to Bahia in Northeastern Brazil.
I met a guy selling "henna" tattoos. He had very strong
hands, and I was taken by the fact that his movements were so precise.
So then I asked him to teach me how he did it. He spent an hour
with me just showing me the way he would make the curves. After
that trip, I started drawing tattoos and they inspired me to design
the jewelry”
While Spada’s journey to Bahia marked an auspicious start
to Spada’s career, her entrée into Hollywood circles
proved to be equally fortuitous. Lisa
Foxx, a personality from Star 98.7,
was among the first to discover Spada’s earrings and was quickly
smitten. Foxx took it upon herself to contact Entertainment Tonight
and show them her designs. They, in turn, liked it and offered Spada
the opportunity to be a featured part of their gift bag. In the
first six months, as Brasilian Roots took root, and several celebrities
(Shannon Elizabeth and Lara
Flynn Boyle) were overjoyed with their earrings, other people
in the industry offered their support and encouragement.
“I think the most interesting and inspirational feedback
from the Hollywood community came from Celeste
Atkinson, Editor of Special Projects
for Hollywood Life Magazine. She contacted me to tell me
how much she loved the earrings and that she had worn them every
day since the Emmy Awards. That was the best compliment, especially
given her associations with Hollywood trendsetters. When I heard
her say, ‘I wear them everyday,’ I thought that this
was exactly what I wanted Brasilian Roots to be—special and
different, but you can wear them every day.”
Spada’s primary goal is to have wearers feel like they’ve
got more than just a piece of jewelry. She hopes each pair of earrings
can be integrated into their personality. Each piece of her ‘wearable
art’ has a meaning, just like paintings do. “When you
look at a painting, it's much more valuable and interesting to know
about the painter and what the painter wanted to say through the
art,” she notes. “The more you know about something,
the more comfortable you are about it, and that is exactly what
we want for the wearers of Brasilian Roots.” To build upon
this meaning, Spada plans to continue building her earring collection,
and down the road, flesh out ideas for a men’s collection
and necklaces. Some of the stores where you can find Brasilian Roots
include Weekendz Only in Toluca Lake,
Artful in Santa Monica and Jeneral
Store in El Segundo, and you can see the entire collection
of earrings at www.brasilianroots.com.
This week 5 Lucky readers will discover
just how easily a pair of Spada’s creations will grow on them.
|
