She threw a spectacular bash one weekend in Las Vegas, then woke up that Monday morning and decided there must be something more.

That defining moment became the seed of OmniPeace, a humanitarian fashion brand -- popular among the celeb set -- that donates profits to social causes in Africa.

Now, Miami native Mary Fanaro is at the intersection of philanthropy, fashion and pop culture, and her company has donated more than $500,000 to charity and help build a school in a Senegalese village. She is also working on a campaign to stop violence again women and children in the Congo.

Fanaro had worked in the entertainment industry more than half of her life, as an actress, a producer, and for a decade, as a tony event planner.

Four years ago, she was the party planner behind the 10th anniversary celebration for the Hard Rock Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas.

The next morning, she gave up her career.

``It was really a change, a shift in my spirituality,'' says Fanaro, 44, who lives in Los Angeles. ``I knew I could throw a party, I knew I had a gift for gathering people and exposing people. I just felt like I needed to expose people to something that matters.''

Inspired by the Live Aid concerts -- which raised money for famine relief in Ethiopia -- Fanaro worked to develop a brand that could raise awareness of and funds for the epic social and economic issues facing Africans.

One of the primary beneficiaries is Millennium Promise Alliance, the organization founded by economist and U.N. advisor Jeffrey Sachs. The group is working to end extreme poverty in Africa by 2025.

Fanaro formed the lifestyle brand as a licensing company and has partnered with more than a dozen brands including Ed Hardy to produce a collection of T-shirts and accessories. She got some high-wattage help from celeb friends including Courteney Cox, Jennifer Aniston and Sheryl Crow, and counts Zac Efron, Sienna Miller, Gabrielle Union, Gwen Stefani, Kevin Costner and Common among her fans.

``I am not a designer in the technical sense,'' Fanaro says. ``It's really about co-branding with larger companies to raise awareness for humanitarian campaigns.''

We caught up with Fanaro to talk about OmniPeace, a health scare and her Miami Vice days.

Q: How did the idea of OmniPeace evolve?

A: I had been to Africa in my 20s and had seen how much help is needed. You just can't go to Africa and not be changed. . . . My original idea was to do chocolate bars. I called them A Peace of Chocolate. I remember showing them to a friend who said, it's a great logo but there's not a lot of profit in chocolate bars. He said, put the logo on a T-shirt and get your friends and celebs to wear it and see if it sticks.''

Q: When did you launch OmniPeace?

A: I had been developing the idea since 2005 and launched it in June 2007. Naomi [Campbell] launched it with me at Scoop in the Meat Packing district in New York. In Los Angeles, Courteney launched it with me at Kitson. But two weeks before the launches, I was diagnosed with ovarian cancer. I had worked so long on this that I wanted to see it through. I launched OmniPeace on June 12 at 8 p.m. [in Los Angeles] and started chemotherapy at 8 a.m. on June 13. I remember seeing a guy that morning wearing one of the OmniPeace T-shirts from the party the night before.

Q: You are a proud Miami native. How did you land in L.A.?