“You can’t have all print all the time, not even I can,” said J.J. Martin during her spring La DoubleJ collection presentation at her store on Via Sant’Andrea on Thursday. “So we’ve mixed in the solids and the umbrella stripes, we have new terry cloth you can wear straight from the beach with all our swim.”
The developments signal how fine-tuned Martin’s business is becoming, as it grows to include unisex pieces such as the new varsity bomber jackets, silhouettes with different women’s bodies in mind, like the new Sta Da Dio! dress with a built in corset and adjustable sleeves that can be worn on or off the shoulder, more elevated knit, swim coverups and accessories.
“We want a dress for every occasion and every body shape. And when someone tells me they don’t like print, I take it as a challenge,” Martin said, pointing out a white poplin twist front, cutout minidress as another new silhouette.
Even so, La DoubleJ’s joyous, collectible placed prints are what makes her truly unique in the market, and for the price. She offered a feast for the eyes, with tiles, mosaics, vases, lemons, flowers and much more splashed on silk sets, maxi and mini dresses with petite sizes in mind, all inspired by a trip to Naples.
“We visited every palazzo, museum and pizzeria,” she said of the collection, which lets you dress like you’re on vacation in Italy even if you’re not. “We picked items off plates, floors, ceilings…this entire print was made from emblems we found all over Naples that we pasted together, this was based on a marble intarsia table from the 17th century.”
Next up for Martin and her ever-expanding lifestyle brand — she’s leading a trip to Egypt, sniffing out yet another category, perhaps travel. JJ’s Spirit Guides has a nice ring to it.
