in conversation with Jude

our womanhood ~ chapter II

As part of our latest campaign, we invited our community to take part in a shoot for womanhood. As with all our images, they remain untouched. 

We had a chat with Jude about what womanhood means to her and the journey she has been on. 

"Right now I’m going through a period of intense change, I just welcomed my second baby into the world in the middle of a pandemic. I became critically unwell when giving birth to my daughter which really shook my sense of self. It left me feeling powerless and broken for a while but I am slowly recovering and rebuilding.

I am now a mother of two tiny humans and feel the intense weight of that responsibility every day but also see the privilege I have for being afforded this role.

I want my daughter to know that as a woman she can change the damn world. I named her after an architect and a WW2 French resistance spy so she is always reminded of the power and complexity of womxn. I want her to know her worth beyond size or looks and know she is capable of whatever she chooses to do. Have confidence in all that she is and to never apologise for taking up space.

I’ve historically had a difficult relationship with my body image and have always been my own worst critic. If you had told 20 years old me she would be willingly photographed in lingerie 12 weeks after giving birth I would never have believed it. I couldn’t have imagined being comfortable in a body so soft, stretched and scarred from pregnancy and birth. Yet being captured with nothing to hide behind like makeup or filters, has been amazingly empowering and challenged me to see my own strength and beauty where I previously would have only seen flaws.

My relationship with my womanhood has changed so radically throughout my twenties and thirties I barely feel like the same person. I spent 6 years of my twenties in an abusive relationship which forced me to hide anything that defined me as a woman. I spent the rest of my twenties picking up the pieces of myself and trying to redefine my sense of identity. My thirties have been a much happier time but equally brought a lot of change. I became a mother for the first time 2 years ago which made me see the unrelenting strength women possess.

I finally value myself and have confidence in who I am."

 Jude is wearing sets by Dora Larsen.