As creative director and CEO of Naked Princess—an L.A.-based company featuring effortlessly chic loungewear, lingerie, beauty products, and home goods—Jordana Woodland has pursued a mission of encouraging the busiest of women to take time to restore and rejuvenate. By guiding women in creating a boudoir of their own, Woodland aims to erase the undeserved guilt of self-care and replace it with radiant self-confidence.
HBM: When did your interest in fashion and beauty begin?
Woodland: “As a young girl, I fell in the love with the “art of dressing.” I believe that creating a boudoir is not only about curating a beautiful physical space, but an emotional place for women to balance the many facets of their daily lives. It’s about taking a moment for intentional self-care. Naked Princess’ products are created with this passion. I wanted to create a company that made women feel confident, sexy and honored.”
HBM: What motivated you to start your company?
Woodland: “My mother. She’s the reason I set out on this path in the first place. When I was a child, I remember watching her get ready at the little station in her bedroom, almost like she was on a movie set. It was her uninterrupted time to herself, separate from her time with her family. I love that she always took that time and wasn’t ever ashamed of it. That’s where my love for the “art of dressing” was born and that love inspired what I do today.”
HBM: What were your biggest challenges when establishing your business?
Woodland: “I started this company because I believed in my vision and simply threw myself in. I worked hard and figured things out as I went along. I thought I knew what I was getting into when I started Naked Princess, but it has been a journey full of surprises. As an entrepreneur you have to be willing to evolve and adjust while keeping a firm grasp on the core of what you create. It took a moment for me to truly understand how I wanted to communicate my vision for the company. I had to find the confidence to turn the ship when I saw that we were headed in a direction that didn’t feel right. I’ve found though, that If you believe in what you are doing and have the determination to back it up…even with the detours, you will get to where you want to be.”
HBM: Is there one person that inspires you the most?
Woodland: “I think Jessica Alba is such an inspiration. She balances being an entrepreneur, mom and public personality with such grace, class and authenticity.”
HBM: What does a day in the life of Jordana Woodland look like?
Woodland: “5:30am: Wake up to the gorgeous Montana view outside my window and see what my inbox looks like.
6am: Workout – I make it a point to workout every morning at 6am before my kids get up. On days that I can’t fit in Mommy time AND Me time, I strap on 2.5 lb. ankle weights and chase my kids around that way. I wear them for at least 6 hours a day and I feel like I’ve run a marathon when I take them off.
7am: Kids/Breakfast/School – Once my kids are up at 7am we’re off to the races until I drop them off at school or camp at 9am. Mornings can be frantic, but this sort of morning rush is a big inspiration behind the creation of my company Naked Princess. Everything we design is made to help our customers feel that getting ready and feeling feminine is simple and effortless. Currently I’m in love with slipping on our Ava Ribbed Bodysuit under a pair of jean shorts and layering our Gianna Cardigan on top for the early morning chill. Then with a spritz of our Body & Boudoir Spray and a swipe of Tinted Lip Treatment in Naked Petal, I feel ready to conquer the day.
9am: Phone calls and Coffee – I try to put my phone away during my morning time with my kids, so as soon as I drop the kids off I grab a latte at our local coffee shop and hop on conference calls with my staff.
10am: Downtown Whitefish Office – Our Naked Princess Boutique is located on the bottom floor of our Whitefish office, so it always makes me smile to walk in and see Naked Princess products everywhere as soon as I walk in the door. We make sure to light one of our Boudoir Candles upstairs and downstairs to set the stage for the “ultimate boudoir experience.”
I’m extremely hands on when it comes to all aspects of our company, so I make sure to stay in communication with every department to ensure that all aspects of the business are working in concert with one another.
SALES: Our products are carried at incredible hotels, spas and boutiques throughout the US including The Ritz Carlton, The Mandarin Oriental, Four Seasons, Montage Resorts and more, so as you can imagine it takes a lot of organization to ensure that our retail partners and their clientele have the best experience possible.
CREATIVE TEAM: I’ve always been a very visual person so I love working closely with our creative team to ensure that all of our collateral and imagery reflect the vision of the brand.
MARKETING & PR: I work hand in hand with our Marketing and PR teams to ensure that we are always presenting the true voice of the brand and reaching out to our customers in an authentic and captivating way. I love brainstorming with the team to come up with new and exciting ways to encourage our customers to “live the boudoir life.”
PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT: We custom formulate all of our Body & Lip Products, so from ideation to formulation to box design to the finer details of proofreading ingredient labels, we are hands on from start to finish. I personally test all of our products to refine them until they are perfect! Nothing goes out to market without an enthusiastic approval from myself and my staff.
APPAREL DESIGN: Apparel development is such a fascinating and constantly evolving process. I feel like with each season we refine our voice even more. We design every piece to be effortlessly chic, comfortable and sexy, so nothing gets produced that doesn’t meet those criteria. We’re currently developing the Spring 2018 collections and I can’t tell you how excited I am to see them come to life.
That’s just a handful of the departments that I work with on a daily basis, so needless to say the day flies by!
3pm: Time to pick my kids up from school or camp to take them to their after school class (Spanish, Mandarin, Soccer or Guitar Lessons).
4pm: Phone Calls – I take a lot of conference calls while I’m out and about. Sometimes my car will transition to my office while I wait for my kids. I can some times be found parked in a parking lot with my laptop open and my ear piece in talking with my staff in California.
5pm – 7:30pm: Kids/Dinner – I’m a big believer in family dinner time. NO ELECTRONICS ALLOWED! I love sitting with my kids to find out about their day and make sure that we have true quality time together. We get to play, get them ready for bed and read bedtime stories. These hours are so precious to me.
8-9:30pm: Kids in Bed and I re-energize to work through the night with more emails and phone calls.
10pm – Wind down. Listen to an audio book.
10:30pm- Asleep!”
HBM: How has being a mother changed how you do business?
Woodland: “I launched Naked Princess in 2011 when I got pregnant with my first child. I now have three children and it really hit me hard when I started balancing running a business with raising children—I started feeling that guilt about taking any time out for myself. I believe that personal time is so important, so I wanted to create products that helped women feel beautiful, but that were also very practical and easy.”
HBM: What are your best work/life balance tips for working mothers?
Woodland: “Patience and Perseverance. You CAN do it all but you will NOT do it perfectly. You are going to make mistakes. You are going to drop some of the balls you are juggling and that’s okay! Pick them up from off the ground and get right back to juggling. You’re a strong, smart and powerful woman but no one is perfect. Letting go of that expectation is key.”
HBM: What’s the most important piece of advice your ever received?
Woodland: “Don’t compare yourself to others, you’ll never be happy!”
HBM: What’s next for the Naked Princess brand?
Woodland: “We are focusing heavily on expanding Naked Princess through our wholesale and e-commerce platforms, which is really exciting. We feel so honored to be carried in prestigious hotels, spas and boutiques around the country (Ritz Carlton, Four Seasons, Mandarin Oriental and more). I’m excited to see our company reach the next level of success and go global in the next five years.”
HMB: Anything else coming up that you are excited to talk about?
Woodland: “We’re really excited to launch our new custom embroidered bridal robes. This has been such a hot request for us from our brides-to-be and retail partners, so we’re thrilled to be able to offer them starting this fall.”
