Lady LUX

Julia Teachey, designer of Julieri accessories, is known for her simple, handcrafted jewelry. Coming this fall, Teachey will add another collection to her label, a new endevour that is very close to the heart.

In 2001, Julia was finding immense success in her career but she was still insatiable in one part of her life, she wanted a child.

Her fertility journey, which went from 2001 to 2006, inspired her to create a collection called Bump in 2005. The collection featured a charm on a necklace, the shape of a women’s body, with a large jewel on her lower half.

“I wanted it to represent the beauty of the journey,” Julia said. “From early menstruation all the way past menopause.”

The collection launched at fashion week of that year and Teachey gave 20 percent of all the proceeds to the What to Expect foundation, which teaches low-income families about pre-natal and post-natal care, dispelling common cultural myths.

For four years Julia tried to have a child and it wasn’t until she gave up and completely let go, that she and her husband became pregnant naturally. In 2007, she gave birth to Harper. Now three years old, Julia says her personality was clearly defined by her struggle to get here.

“She’s the feistiest. A super strong kid,” she said.

This fall, Julia is once again combining her passion for jewelry and motherhood in a new fertility inspired collection for Head First Doula Services, which will be called the “Head First Circle of Life Collection.” Julia herself used a doula after the birth of her daughter Harper, and believes there is something very powerful about the process of working with the caregivers. For those that are not familiar with doulas, the name comes from the ancient Greek meaning “a woman who serves”. They are women equipped to lend physical, emotional and informational support to the mother before, during, and postpartum.

Julia gave LadyLux the sneak peek on the new designs. Available in shades or gold, rose gold and silver, with diamonds that accentuate the women’s womb. Julia believes the piece works for everyone, whether they are pregnant, have children or would like to.

“It’s for anyone that wants to embrace the beauty of what we can do with our bodies,” she said.

The image isn’t new to HeadFirst, whose motto is “supporting families from pregnancy to parenthood.” Taking a look at their web site, the logo looks rather familiar. “The logo was designed by a good friend of mine,” Julia said. “There always was talk of it coming to life in a three dimensional piece.”

That’s where Julia came in. A unique endeavor for the jewelry designer, who usually has the only hand in the start-to-finish creative process. This time around, she used the logo as the prototype for her fertility-inspired line.

Yana Katzap-Nackman, founder of Head First, showed the piece in early August at the DONA International doula conference in New Mexico. The pieces received a positive response from Yana’s unique audience.

“People that are familiar with my jewelry might say ‘It’s a beautiful piece but I’m not quite sure what it means’,” Julia said. “But with Yana’s audience…The people understand the pieces.”

Although the line had a soft launch at the DONA conference, Julia will formally debut the line to retailers at the Designers & Agents show this September in New York City.

All profit from the sales of the collection will go directly to Head First. Julieri will only be compensated at cost, for materials and labor.

Tagged in: lux exclusives, jewelry, gold, necklace, rose gold, baby, fertility,

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