LIA

LIA is a German fashion and cosmetics brand founded by Sara Naggar, a German-born designer of Syrian heritage. It began as a modest-fashion label producing hijabs, abayas and loungewear, and later expanded into halal-certified, vegan colour cosmetics. The brand designs in Germany and produces its garments in its own atelier in Turkey; its cosmetics are made in Germany. Sources disagree on the founding year: a February 2021 interview places it about seven years earlier, around 2014 [10][11], while the brand's own about-us page describes it as established "nine years ago" [3], which would point to roughly 2017. LIA operates as a sole proprietorship under Naggar's name and carries the tagline "CLEAN, MODEST, FAIR" [8].

Sara Naggar was born and raised in Germany to a Syrian entrepreneur family. By her own account she grew up inside the family business, working through departments from accounting to production, and founded her first fashion label at the age of 21 while pregnant, traveling to Italy to source fabrics. Her father, she says, studied in Croatia, earned a doctorate and worked initially as a veterinarian before spending more than 40 years in the German dietary-supplement industry.

LIA grew out of Naggar's own experience as a hijab-wearing woman who found that the German fashion industry did not cater to her. According to the brand, she began designing and sewing her own clothing, then built a label around modest dressing aimed not only at Muslim women but at anyone wishing to dress more modestly. Editorial coverage and the company's registry record place its origins in Rüsselsheim am Main, in the Groß-Gerau district of Hessen [11]; the brand's current legal notice lists an address in the neighbouring town of Nauheim [8].

LIA's founding flagship is its halal nail polish, sold in 36 or more shades and made in Germany. The company describes the formula as vegan, cruelty-free and "20-free" — free of 20 substances it regards as problematic in conventional polish. Its defining feature is permeability: LIA states the water-based formula, built on natural resin and plant-derived polymers, is water- and oxygen-permeable and laboratory-tested, a property tied to the Islamic ablution ritual (wudu), which requires water to reach the nail. The brand says the polymers are drawn from sustainably grown plant feedstocks such as wood, potato, beetroot, corn, cassava, sugar cane and spelt.

From nail polish the cosmetics range expanded into colour makeup, including a powder liquid lipstick, a silky matte lip liner and a mousse multistick, alongside a nail-polish remover the company describes as eco-friendly and made in Germany. In the beauty context, LIA defines "halal" as meaning that ingredients and ethical values must be compatible with Islam, with animal-derived materials ruled out.

LIA is run as an Einzelunternehmen — a sole proprietorship — under Sara Naggar, with no separate limited-company (GmbH or UG) form recorded; the legal notice lists only her name, address and a German VAT number [8]. The associated company registry entry, "Sara Naggar Bekleidung und Accessoires, LIA Fashion & Beauty," confirms a personal-name registration [13]. Naggar has separately co-founded a sister brand, MANIA Concept, a health and supplements venture started with a business partner that she links to her father's decades in the supplement field.

The company frames LIA as "fashion and cosmetics with values," describing itself as inspired by elegance, empowerment and a conscious lifestyle. Its stated mission is to let every woman "feel confident and expressive without compromise," and Naggar positions the brand explicitly across religion, culture and migration background, saying she wants to make fashion accessible to all women regardless of whether they wear a headscarf. She has described herself as "the role model I once couldn't find in media." On the fashion side the company says it works to a slow-fashion model, producing in limited quantities and offering small collections rather than fast fashion.

LIA and its founder have been profiled mainly in German-language media. The sustainable-business magazine Good Impact (also published as enorm) ran a 2021 founder interview centred on modest fashion [10], and the Turkish-German broadcaster TRT Deutsch featured the label as a case study in the mainstreaming of modest fashion [11]. Regional coverage has appeared in the Rüsselsheim newspaper Main-Spitze, and Naggar has been booked as a speaker at the German e-commerce conference eCom Business Live [12]. The company also reports that its cosmetics appeared twice in Douglas advent calendars, which it says reached around 500,000 people [12].

LIA is active. As of mid-2026 it operates direct-to-consumer storefronts at liathebrand.de and liacosmetics.de, sells its cosmetics through the German retailers Douglas and Flaconi, and maintains an expanding product range and active social channels. No regulatory actions, recalls or other adverse signals were found in the available sources.