Sahar Manley graduated from high school at age 16, finished junior college a year later, and was working full-time in fashion before most people are old enough to vote.
Her career since then hasn’t followed a straight line, let alone a traditional path, Manley acknowledges. She’s worked as a stylist, interior designer, in high-end real estate, and in sales for Rolls-Royce, a title she wears proudly even in her Instagram name.
Two years ago, she added jewelry designer to that résumé, launching CAMILLA SERETTI just before the pandemic shut the world down in 2020. Manley ran the entire business from a two-bedroom condo, working trade shows with her daughter in tow and showing the world exactly what she could do with her expertise in luxury, fine jewelry, and design.
What unites all of these roles is her determination, a personality trait that has followed her through all the highs and lows of her personal and professional life. That includes a whirlwind marriage and, later, divorce from high-profile sports agent Dwight Manley, who Manley credits along with her family for showing her a world of experiences, which she is now channeling into her jewelry.
“Everything I have built in my little CAMILLA SERETTI empire has been on my own two feet and with my own two cents,” Manley says.
Manley grew up in Newport Beach, Calif., where she got her first job at a luxury French boutique inside South Coast Plaza. Manley says she was its youngest employee by far at age 16, but she quickly worked her way up to assistant manager. She thought about college and was accepted to the University of Southern California. But that’s when Armani came calling, so college had to wait.
“Being in the fashion world always seemed so natural to me,” Manley says. “And even at such a young age, I loved the opportunity of styling clients and sharing my fashion input with them. Ever since then, I have been working in fashion, whether as an interior designer, stylist, or, now, jewelry designer.”
By 19, Manley was working at Georg Jensen as the manager of the luxury brand’s fine jewelry department. Manley says she loved jewelry in part because her father would bring her along when he bought jewelry for her mother.
“I was maybe 10 years old when we went to a jewelry auction, and my dad bought my mom a 20 carat emerald necklace. It’s been an iconic piece in my family ever since,” Manley says. “I designed our Zizi earrings from my memory of that pendant.”
Being a classic “girl’s girl,” Manley says she wants her jewelry to make women feel as good as the pieces they choose to wear, whether they receive them as gifts or, more importantly, buy them for themselves.
“I am just a woman that loves jewelry and being feminine. I love that I get to be myself and create pieces for women to feel fabulous,” Manley says.
Her next goal? Continue her brand’s U.S. expansion and take it international.
“I want to continue with the success and reputation we’ve built in the U.S. and take it to Europe,” Manley says. “Having CAMILLA SERETTI jewelry grace the cover of over 30 magazines in the last year and a half has really exposed us to a fabulous new clientele in Europe, and that is where I see us expanding over the next year.”
Top: Sahar Manley founded CAMILLA SERETTI out of her love for fashion and jewelry. She also is a serial entrepreneur with ownership of more than 50 domains (photos courtesy of CAMILLA SERETTI).
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