Sonia Petroff
Sonia Petroff is a Luxury Accessories brand founded by Maria Leoni-Sceti, after inheriting an 800-piece archive of jewellery from the legendary designer in 2015. Sonia Petroff was a highly respected Couture accessories designer of the 1950’s who gained notoriety with her iconic designs for Valentino, Blamain and Nina Ricci. After spending several months going through the archive left to her and once the entire collection had been catalogued, Maria knew it was time to revive the brand and bring Sonia’s vision back to life.
US born Maria Leoni-Sceti has a BA Hons in Economics from Wake Forest University, a Masters in International Management from Thunderbird AGSIM and has studied in Vienna, Oxford and Paris. She is on the UK Board of Room to Read, a patron of the RPO and speaks 4 languages. Her first job was in Rome at Saatchi and Saatchi, enabling her to learn skills that would soon prove essential for her own brand journey. While living in Paris, Maria founded Global Access, a language school for corporate management, based on the avant-garde method of phone conversation learning, and is passionate about girls’ education.
Every purchase from the Sonia Petroff collection helps fund girls’ education through her partnership with Room to Read. These contributions not only improve the daily lives of these incredible girls, but encourages them to become strong, confident and over time increases their chances of becoming financially independent. In less than one year, Sonia Petroff has helped to provide more than 36,500 days of school, making a difference to the lives of girls around the world.