When JJ Martin arrived in Milan in 2001, she had in her hand a degree in Rhetoric and Composition/Writing Studies from Berkeley (University of California) and a handful of good contacts in the world of print media, a legacy of her work in communication agencies in New York and in marketing at Calvin Klein. “I moved here like every American did in the early 2000s,” she recalled recently in an interview. “I met an Italian guy, I fell in love and I left New York!”
New city, new life. Her sharp eye, attentive to all that is style, and a decidedly brilliant pen led her to prestigious collaborations: Harper’s Bazaar, WSJ Magazine, Wallpaper*. Which were also a privileged gateway to fashion and design, a world of creativity that has its epicentre in Milan.
At the same time, her passion for vintage fashion exploded: she enthusiastically collected clothes and jewellery and at some point decided to put this talent to good use. In 2015, she then founded LaDoubleJ, an online magazine (where everything could be purchased) that also became a way of introducing the world to the lifestyle of Milanese ladies (“sciure”), which JJ finds fascinating, a constant inspiration: their way of dressing, furnishing their homes, setting the table, travelling.
A lucky encounter with some textile archives gave rise to the idea of re-editing some patterns and using them for clothes that were different from all the others: wide, exuberant, maximalist. After a short time, the first collaborations began, leading to the creation of plates, glasses and home accessories. Today LaDoubleJ has become a lifestyle brand, with a shop in Milan’s fashion district, opened in 2021.
All this is in a recently published book: Mamma Milano (Vendome Press, 288 pages, US $60), in which JJ Martin talks about herself and her vision of the world, which combines yoga, spirituality, love of colour (“In my house there is not a single white wall!”) and admiration for a style – the Italian style, in this case that of the Milanese sciure of all ages – that she has reinvented from within and made her own.
