Unconventionally Camille Escudero: The Not-So-Dark Journey
Camille Escudero does not want to talk about herself.
Even when she divulges details of her personal healing or the anxiety moving back in with her mother, the conversation eventually ends with anything but her.
For a woman of her creativity and candor, Camille is remarkably closed off, barely visible on the internet and intensely curated in the few channels where you might find her. But she has realised the power of talking—publicly, that is. And so, despite her uncanny ability for deflection and natural tendency to self-deprecate, she is speaking up.
And she has a lot to say.
Camille is the founder of Lily of the Valley, a practical and innovative lingerie label that’s currently addressing the unspoken yet desperate needs of women.
It is underwear that is sexy, but primarily practical, having made a name for itself for its “period panty.” Lily of the Valley is as poignant as it can get: the name is meant to represent the female reproductive system.
“At that time, we thought “lily”, which was the flower, was sort of representative of the reproductive system of a woman,” she explains. “The valley,” she hesitates, “the valley is like…down there.”
Her pause is indicative of how many women, particularly Filipino women, continue to feel about topics that go beneath the lace and nylon, but Camille herself has already taken the first steps to change that.
“I want to be provocative. I want to empower people,” she says with the conviction of someone who knows exactly what do to: she needs to put herself out there. “For so long, I didn’t want to show myself, but others have told me that it’s good to put a face to the brand because people connect to people and not products.”
“It is a good thing to talk about yourself and let people know about the good thing that you do. It allows other people to do the same and it makes it okay to do it. It proves that you are doing something good and significant — I mean, me. I am,” she cringes slightly and corrects herself. “I am amazing, I am remarkable.”
The Return Journey
Camille was programmed by her mother to be a doctor. She went to a science high school and took a pre-med bachelor’s degree. In her third year of university, however, she decided to listen to her own voice and quit, enrolling herself to a more tech-oriented college. “My mom didn’t speak to me for two months!” she reveals. Her father, incidentally, worked in the software industry.
But despite the teenage rebelliousness and many other diversions, she still wound up back on her mother’s path—and back home. After capitalizing on the BPO boom and a variety of careers, the death of her father in 2010 prompted her to stop and restart.
“I moved back home into my mom’s house after 10 years of being on my own. That was a huge adjustment. Lots of learning, relearning, and unlearning.”
The same confusion followed her at work, especially considering she’d been the boss for a long time. In her mother’s company she felt crowded to the point that she questioned her own value.
It wasn’t a sudden breakthrough or a magic mantra that pulled Camille out of her slump. She admits she needed a lot of help, beginning with the acceptance that she needed it.
“For a few years, I was going to healing sessions with different healers,” she says, adding that she took it especially seriously in 2018. She felt so burdened by her personal struggles that she had trouble sleeping at night. “I went on a path of self-discovery and healing myself and improving my relationship with my mom and my family, which eventually helped me improve my relationships with the people around me”.
Lily of the Valley
Despite the allegories offered by lilies of the valley to intimates, Camille was surprised to learn that the small woodland flower is extremely poisonous. It all seems to fit, however.
‘Well, it’s power,” she says matter-of-factly. “Women have power within themselves.”
After years of giving delicate underwear as gifts, Camille received a request from a friend to make period panties. She set off researching about this utilitarian innovation, interviewing hundreds of women who all encountered period-related woes.
“There are so many things that women experience during their period and we just don’t talk about them or we solve them on our own because that’s how resourceful women are. We just endure,” she observes.
The period panty was born, and Lily of the Valley officially launched in 2014. The product was great — niche but with an immediate clientele, and just the right kind of originality that travels quickly through social media lines.
It was a product with tons of potential, but the things didn’t go according to plan. While she poured her efforts into manufacturing, marketing the product was difficult. Bazaars weren’t worth the back-breaking exertion and online shops, like Zalora and Lazada, weren’t as effective at the time. And timing is everything.
But 2020 is a different time and she is a different Camille. Apart from better market readiness, she’s also coming into her own.
“There was that timing within myself. There were internal struggles and internal programming that was blocking my ability to take that business further and maybe take myself further. I feel that I needed that time to learn more about how to become a better businessperson and how to become a better brand spokesperson.”
But Lily of the Valley is as much a movement as it is a product.
In 2021, Camille is organising online forums to normalise menstruation. Her goal is for women to stop whispering when they’re asking for a pad or menstrual cycles the way people talk about breakfast or hair color. “It can be a superpower, thinking about our menstruation and managing our lives better by knowing about it, having a premenstrual strategy versus premenstrual syndrome.”
“It’s really positivizing menstruation, even with your dads, even with your bosses,” she adds.
There are many things Camille can speak of — from the overuse of the term ‘sustainability’ to her so-called dark days, but hers is a life that can’t be encapsulated in an hour. But that’s okay. She’s still talking.
Follow Camille on Instagram:
@camille_escudero
Check out Lily of the Valley in IG @my_lilies and shop at www.mylilies.me
Get 15% off with LOVXGINA15 for minimum P1000
Watch the full video interview with Camille
on my @iamginaromero Facebook page
