One $weet Sixteen
A new Range Rover. Christian Dior sandals. A shopping trip to L.A. But the birthday bash is what really takes the cake.

By Laura Yao
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, August 30, 2008

A red Lamborghini pulls in front of Love nightclub and everybody's surging onto the street, peering into the car's windows. The crowd clamors: Is that her? Is tonight's star finally here? And, man, that's a nice ride.

The rest of the motorcade is all Bentleys and Ferraris and the like -- about 10 cars, led by a police escort. The doors of the Lamborghini lift up, and Ayse Halac (it is her!) climbs out onto the red carpet. Emerging from two Maybachs are the rappers Soulja Boy and Bow Wow, who put their arms around her. Trailed by flashing cameras, the three walk into the club together, through glass doors etched "Ayse Halac, Sweet 16."

Wait, wait. This is a birthday party?

Ayse Halac, as it turns out, is a high school sophomore from Leesburg, celebrating her 16th birthday Thursday night at the Northeast Washington club. And the crowd of "paparazzi" are in fact a posse of girls in short dresses with little digital cameras -- friends of the club owner's daughter, brought in to complete Ayse's chosen theme of "Hollywood Chic."

Soulja Boy and Bow Wow are performing, and Ayse's mom threw in some extra money to fly in R&B singer Mario on a private jet to croon "Happy Birthday" -- a last-minute surprise for the birthday girl.

Love, which organized the event under the Halacs' direction, is decked out with 10 chandeliers, a six-foot-high ice sculpture and giant photographs of Ayse on the walls. Fifty television screens continuously loop even more photographs of Ayse (pronounced AYE-sha).

Seventy-two LED panels, brought in just for the night, show a live feed of her entering the club. The 15-foot JumboTron outside the club displays Ayse's face, the first time a non-celebrity has graced that screen.

Everywhere Ayse looks, Ayse is looking right back. Ayse with Nicole Richie, Ayse swimming with dolphins, baby Ayse in a tiara. But even though real-life Ayse is smiling at all the attention, she seems quiet, almost subdued, and smooths her hair compulsively. When Soulja Boy hands her the microphone in the middle of his performance, she giggles and says, "Just have a good time tonight," before thrusting it back at him.

Her older sister Sibel, 19, who masterminded the party, is much more engaged, dancing on couches and chatting up Bow Wow.

Cost of the party: $300,000.

Did her dad flinch at the price tag? Not really, "Just as long as it was what I wanted," Ayse says.

Her father, Ahmet Halac, immigrated from Turkey 17 years ago with almost nothing to his name. But he's made a fortune in the iron industry since then, and has become known for his fleet of luxury cars and fantastic parties. Standing in a raised VIP lounge and watching a shirtless, tattooed Bow Wow singing to and dancing around his daughter, he is radiating pride.

"This is nothing for him," says George Anton, one of Ahmet's employees chilling in the grown-ups-only area (read: open bar). "His 50th birthday party had some of the biggest people in the D.C. metropolitan area."

There were a few parents there, too, some dancing to Soulja Boy and others, well, not. Ayse's mother is one of the dancers -- and she is really, really into it. Her shoes are off, she's waving them in the air.

"Honestly, it's been challenging at times raising our daughter around all of this," says Melanie Braun, mother of Ayse's best friend Maddy. She gestures around the club. "It's not our lifestyle at all. But the Halacs are a wonderful family, very generous. I think Ahmet contributes to charities in Turkey, or something."

Everyone, of course, is floored by the lavishness. Even though Loudoun County has the nation's highest per capita income, few locals have seen a party on this scale. Even the talent is awed.

"I've seen grown people with parties like this. Not often. But never a 16-year-old," says host Big Tigger, a local television and radio personality.

"You would think she's a celebrity," says Soulja Boy. (He, by the way, is a little miffed because he thought it was a club performance, not a private party. He charges more for those.)

Ayse's friends and acquaintances -- about 200 of them -- were picked up at Stone Bridge High School in limo-buses and chauffeured to the club at 8 p.m., a full two hours before Ayse arrived, fashionably late. They had to present their invitations and photo ID at the door; the invitations, shipped from China, were fake American Express black credit cards engraved with the guests' names.

Of course, not all of the 200 guests are close with Ayse. Asked whether he is, Kaine Higgins shrugs. "Eh," he says.

Colored wristbands correspond with how closely you orbit Planet Ayse. Those with the red can enter the performers' VIP lounge, those with the blue can stand onstage during the performance, and those with the gold can get into the grown-ups' area. The vast majority have no wristbands at all.

Ayse named the evening's three mocktails after things she likes, says the club's general manager, Sherwin Robinson: "Hollywood Mojito because that's the theme, Sunset Smoothies because she likes sunsets, and Sweet Devil, I don't know, I guess she has something with the devil."

Ayse herself doesn't talk much. Of the commotion, she says, "I liked everything about it." Of Mario's surprise serenade, she says, "I was excited."

Gifts from her family include a tricked-out Range Rover from her dad with "Little Devil" plates. "My mom got me a ring from somewhere exotic; I don't remember where. My sister got me a bunch of clothes and makeup because I love clothes and makeup."

Her birthday was July 10; her dad took her shopping in Los Angeles last month as another present. There, she bought three designer dresses for the party. She's wearing the strapless white number now, with the same Christian Dior gladiator shoes that Carrie wore in the "Sex and the City" movie. They were able to find the shoes because "my dad takes us shopping at Neiman Marcus so we know the people who work there," Sibel reports. "We were like, 'You have to find us these.' "

So how did Ayse celebrate on her real birthday? She and a few friends and family went to Mie N Yu in Georgetown for a small dinner party.

"I'm a low-key kind of person," Ayse says.