That JJ Martin is provided with an extra supply of energy coming from God knows where is a fact proved with ample evidence. On a day so hot it made the asphalt melt on streets, with people panting for air, she looked fresh as a May rose, clad in one of her breezy caftans and gliding into an appointment as if she were weightless. She had just landed from a long flight from NY. Jet lag is a word that you don’t find leafing through LaDoubleJ’s dictionary.
For resort, she added new styles, fabrications, and silhouettes to the ever-growing collection. “We get copied a lot,” she explained. “We find cheap collections around trying to replicate our prints.” And so her strategy is a sort of catch-us-if-you-can situation. “We just raised the bar on the Made in Italy execution, we used more high-end fabrications, like rich brocades, silk fil coupés, beautiful lamé that’s very difficult to replicate.” Finding the silver lining in rainy days is what makes her approach so effective. “It actually gave us the opportunity to expand in a different direction,” she said. “You want to copy us? Great! We move on!”
There were lots of covetable new propositions, versatile enough to cover different occasions and body types: an expanded swimwear line with bodysuits that can go from the beach to the yoga lounge; plenty of superchic caftans; hourglass-y sundresses with a ’50s twist à la Sophia Loren; new trench coats bonded on the inside with printed lining; sumptuous evening gowns in luscious taffeta and metallic-jacquard brocades that would’ve been at home in Jackie O’s fastidious wardrobe.
Martin’s Instagram provides an account of the head-spinning schedule of collateral events she pulls off. In the last couple months she has traveled to Egypt, Los Angeles, Hawaii, Ischia, Munich, and New York. (“I hosted a breathwork session at Bergdorf's. Instead of doing cocktails on the sales floor, I just brought a shaman from Upstate New York,” she said.) And that’s not all. At Milan’s Salone del Mobile she launched a new collection of glass vases; then she was off to Lake Como for the opening of her first interior decoration project at Villa Passalacqua, an idyllic new hotel at which she swathed the pool solarium and lounge area in her ebullient prints, as well as provided an ample selection of LaDouble J tableware, pillows, cushions, and various porcelain pieces and Murano glasses. “I’m swirling in a soup of collaborations, it’s really intense!” she chirped. I insinuated that she’s fooling us all, and she’s actually a clone, or an avatar, or some entity that fell on earth from a distant planet. “Well, I do sometimes feel that I’m an alien from another star system,” she said unfazed. She’s probably already living in the LaDouble J version of the metaverse.
