Check Out Jessica Christine’s Story

Today we’d like to introduce you to Jessica Christine.

Hi Jessica, please kick things off for us with an introduction to yourself and your story.
I started my career as a creative director and writer, working between California, Qatar and Europe. Over time, my work naturally combined visual storytelling, writing, and curation, with a focus on beauty, atmosphere, and meaning picked up and shaped through my travels. After becoming a mother and relocating back to Europe, I began building independent projects that could support both creative freedom and a different kind of beauty.

DeerWomen began as a personal brand centered around botanicals, wildness, ritual, and written work. It started with small-scale offerings – teas, readings, and visual content – and gradually expanded into a broader creative platform including beauty products, consulting, publishing, and ongoing writing projects such as The Witchery of Beauty. The brand developed organically through direct connection with an audience interested in depth, aesthetics, and ritual in everyday life.

UNTO.Antwerp emerged as a physical extension of that work. It operated as a short-term storefront and studio where I combined events, cocktails, tarot, film, and fashion, collaborating with artists and creatives in Antwerp. Although the physical space was temporary, it clarified the direction of the project and validated the concept of merging high aesthetics with experiential formats.

At this stage, I’m based in the Antwerp and Paris and the mountains of California. Plus continuing to develop DeerWomen and UNTO as a hybrid creative studio. My focus is now on publishing, product development, and curated experiences that can exist both online and offline, while building a sustainable structure around my work.

Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
There have been many moments where things felt unstable or uncertain. I’ve moved countries several times, navigated motherhood, languages, and had to deal with legal and practical constraints while still trying to build something independently. A lot of it happened at the same time, which was challenging.

One of the biggest struggles has been turning creative ideas into something sustainable. When you work independently, with or without a large team or institutional support, everything depends on you – creatively, financially, and logistically. Projects would grow, but then I would hit limits around time, money, or infrastructure, and I had to find new ways to continue without burning out. Also, people always expect something quite soon after one project is done. With social media, the rush to produce is much faster and the quality has been better but less valued because there is often so much visual consumption.

The UNTO.Antwerp space was a good example of that. It was a very intense and meaningful project, but the physical space ended earlier than planned. That was difficult at the time, but I had great support from the people around me including ELLE magazine eand was able to pivot quite sharply into new ventures. It forced me to pause and reassess what kind of structure actually supports my life and work long term.

Looking back, those struggles taught me to trust myself more and to be flexible, switch timelines and choose the right people because life is short. I’ve learned that setbacks don’t necessarily mean failure – sometimes they’re just a signal to change the format, the scale, or the pace.

Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
I’ve always been someone who feels deeply in tune with myself, and from an early age I could read other people quite intuitively. Bringing people together, matching sensibilities, or shaping a shared vision came naturally to me, which is what eventually led me toward creative direction. I am a creative director and writer, and the founder of DeerWomen and UNTO.Antwerp, working across publishing, visual storytelling, and experiential formats. I like to think I’m known for creating worlds – for other brands, for my own work, and for people who want to feel something intensely rather than consume something passively. I work with clients who give me a lot of trust and I’m very proud to have formed some beautiful friendships all over the world.

I experience synesthesia, including chromesthesia, where sound, color, taste, and emotion overlap. That way of perceiving the world shaped how I move through it. From an early age, I was curious about different perspectives and drawn to understanding what motivates people beneath the surface. I’ve never been particularly impressed by things that are glittery or performative; what has always mattered more to me is authenticity, genuine character, and often an esoteric underside — something sensed rather than immediately seen.

As I grew older and began traveling, that sensitivity deepened. Meeting people from different backgrounds taught me to see individuals outside of labels, timelines, or context. I don’t measure relationships by duration; some of my closest connections were formed quickly, through shared presence and openness rather than history.

My work includes writing, limited-edition products, film projects, and curated public events, developed both online and in physical spaces in Antwerp, where I am currently based. Through DeerWomen, founded as a private beauty and ritual publishing and product platform, and UNTO.Antwerp, which functioned as a physical studio and salon, I’ve developed a public-facing practice that operates across cultural contexts rather than within a single scene.

Over time, that way of moving through the world became a form of metamorphosis. I’ve reached a point where I genuinely trust myself and my intuition. I still question things, but I rarely believe that something can’t be done. When a problem or a goal presents itself, I see it as a question of movement – sometimes it requires an extra turn, sometimes a leap, but forward motion is always possible. Every place and every situation leaves its mark, even the difficult ones, and that accumulation of experience creates something quietly otherworldly: a clarity about what matters, what endures, and how to cancel out the noise and just never take for granted the shared strangeness and wildness that exists in people and things. To protect it no matter what.

If we knew you growing up, how would we have described you?
Growing up in Washington, I was very introverted and shy. When I was little, I lived poorly my dad was absent, he had some addiction issues and alcholism. My mum was unique and strange looking to me, which later I realised made her beautiful to others. She did her best but we often lived in a car, or a trailer or rented a room in a log cabin. These shaped my survival skills and later on, I learned how to adapt when I traveled. I grew up as an only child, often devouring books and music. I was part of the “gifted” program at my school, which didn’t make me feel special, just more alone and isolated.

I started modeling early when I moved in with my dad. It was the most unhealthy thing for me, but it changed how I saw myself again. I switched out my metal shirts and black for purple dresses and lace stockings. I moved from Washington at 15 to California and my father lived in a motel, so I saw a lot very early on.

I went to my later years of high school, graduated early and started blogging at internet cafes and discovered I was a writer. I created worlds online for myself and found community through them. I was quite a character, eventually found the LA goth clubs and then the travel bug hit me and I moved to LA and from there, it all spun into a life of discovery.

Contact Info:

• Website: http://www.deerwomen.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/deerwomen
• LinkedIn: https://be.linkedin.com/in/jessicachristineritchie
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@deerwomen

Image Credits
Elien Jansen

Felkor Fitz

Sonny Hall

James Mountford Studio