About

Julia Cameron De Villiers is the creator and visionary behind the JCDV Jewellery Brand. Julia designs jewellery with soul incorporating symbols and designs with an empowering aesthetic.

A multi-expressive creative and people connector known for having her finger on life’s pulse. Jules has contributed articles to magazines such as Hip & Healthy, Women’s Health and The Incredible Magazine. She is the go to blogger for top wellness brands and has designed jewellery worn by celebrities such as Keira Knightley and featured in Harpers Bazaar. She has spoken at TedX, Love X and many more.

She is an entrepreneur at heart, writer, and designer with a passion for wellness, creativity and helping others overcome fear and self doubt so that they can live the kick ass dream life of freedom they deserve and in the process become the best version of themselves.

Media

Julia is a successful blogger writing on lifestyle, luxury travel and personal development. Through her blogging she offers advice on how to live a high vibe, fear free life full of abundance, connection and dreams fulfilled. She shares her vulnerabilities on stage and through her blogs to inspire others to be open, confident and proud of who they are.

She is also a contributing writer to several publications including Inspire Psycle Magazine, Hip and Healthy and Well and Happy and was was most recently featured in Health and Fitness Magazine as part of their transformation series.

As well as being a TedX speaker at Tedx Stormont 2016, Shape Your Destiny and LoveX London.  Julia has been interviewed on NVTV for Gaining ground, The Just Eve Show (Ben TV) and The Michael Serwa Show. She was also a presenter for Kapri TV digital fashion channel.

Julia’s jewellery has been featured in publications such as Harpers Bazaar UK and China, Conde Nast Brides and Grazia magazine. Her designs have been seen on actresses such as Keira Knightley and Oonah Chaplin and presenters Ashley James and Fran Newman Young. In 2013 Julia was chosen as part of Triumph Lingerie’s Makers Collective Campaign.

Jewellery

Julia’s debut collection consisted of a line of unique headpieces which took influence from a Pre-Raphaelite and a Grecian aesthetic. Each subsequent collection resonates with an eastern undertone and design that is a signature of the Julia Cameron De Villiers brand and gives it its distinctive soulful and powerful feminine nature. Julia’s current line The Ascension Collection brings together the depth of meaning she finds in her personal development work and integrates some of the more powerful practises used in her own transformation.

Heritage and Inspirations 

I owe a huge amount of personal and creative inspirations to my pioneering ancestor Julia Margaret Cameron. I am lucky to have a heritage rich in artistic archives of books, photographs, stories and iconic women such as Virginia Woolf. These women were trailblazers, fearlessly pushing boundaries in the creative arts. Thought leaders amongst the men and women of the 18th century, their legacies live on and are culturally celebrated to this day.

My great great great grandmother Julia Margaret Cameron was a pioneer British photographer, amongst the first to be known as an artist in the photographic sense. Certainly the first female photographer from the Victorian era whose photographs are still held in such high regard today. Her life story, eccentric character and celebrated circle of friends continue to be a great source of fascination to me. I have spent hours consuming book, articles and various archives of images many of which are held at the Victoria and Albert museum where she once had a studio.

Born in Calcutta, India in 1815, Julia Margaret became most notably famous for her portraits of celebrities of the time including Charles Darwin, Alfred Lloyd Tennyson, her niece Virginia Woolf, Alice Liddell, G F Watts and John Herschel. Some of her more iconic images took on Arthurian and other legendary or heroic themes. Many of her images captured Pre Raphaelite beauties adorned in jewellery and headpieces that she had collected from her time living in India. In many of my previous photo-shoots I have referenced these images in style and artistic feeling even naming my collection ‘A Pre Raphaelite Utopia’ in honor of her memory. Cameron resided on the Isle Of White for most of her photographic career where she created a world frequented by artists, poets and revolutionaries of the day where no one was commonplace. A magical world where all were welcome and liberated.

Cameron’s photographic career started late in life, at age 48 when she was given a camera as a gift from her daughter to keep her occupied in times of solitude. She took this on not as a part time hobby as one might assume but as a dedicated passion with such focus and vigor that she produced thousands of images within her ten-year career. Tirelessly creating and engaging everyone from celebrities, maids to orphans she found on the street who would sit for her in whichever way she decided.

Although her style was not widely appreciated in her own day, her work has had an impact on modern photographers, especially her closely cropped portraits.

Julia was from a family of celebrated beauties and was considered an ugly duckling among her seven sisters. As her great-niece Virginia Woolf wrote in the 1926 introduction to the Hogarth Press collection of Cameron’s photographs, “In the trio [of sisters] where…[one] was Beauty; and [one] Dash; Mrs. Cameron was undoubtedly Talent”. The trio of sisters were known for their personal style and tastes, which were deemed to be unusual. Having moved to England they continued to dress in the style to which they had been accustomed when growing up in India. Swathed in colourful saris and adorned in vibrant gemstones. They were also known for their eccentric characters. Labelled as the collective Pattledom as from the outset they appeared to live in their own world where the conventionalities of the day were outside of their concerns.

Having this powerful and pioneering strong woman in my heritage has helped me find connection within myself. The more I read about her the greater I see my own quirks as bearing a remarkable resemblance to hers. Whenever personal doubts arise I think of her. She set the bar in encouraging anyone with a vision to move forward fearlessly despite perceived lacks or negative opinions from others. The confidence and self-belief she had to begin a career when women were resigned to be confined to the house and not much else demonstrates her ferocious and progressive nature. She gave little thought to the presupposed obstacles and barriers placed upon women of the Victorian era. Her passion for creative freedom and capturing beauty was unprecedented.

An incredible role model to me and surely one of the original feminists. She lived her life according to the beat of her own drum. She lived by her rules and no one elses.

Contact and Collaborations

For Jewellery and wholesale enquiries please email julia@julia-cameron.com

If you are a PR/ Brand that would like to collaborate feel free to get in touch.  

Find Julia on Instagram – @julescamerondv

For all other enquiries email – julia@julia-cameron.com