Some designers go on inspiration trips. JJ Martin does vision quests. Her latest was to Ireland, where she visited “crumbling ruins, galactically charged rocks, and energy portals.” The experience culminated at Trinity College in Dublin where her group had the opportunity to see the Book of Kells, a ninth century illuminated manuscript. “It literally looks like they were all taking psychedelics,” Martin shared. “I couldn’t believe what I saw and I got super inspired.” The swirling, kaleidoscopic motifs and animalistic designs of the Columban monks’ colorful drawings were reimagined by Martin and her team as prints on pajama sets, jumpsuits, and dresses, including a striking new style with a single goddess-like draped sleeve. They also became oversize intarsias on a knit cape.
At La DoubleJ, a swingy exuberant maximalism still rules, even as the rest of Milan seems to be retreating to the safety and reliability of black. Each mannequin on the galactic deck of her starquarters, as she calls her headquarters, was accessorized with pendant necklaces from her booming jewelry line—24K gold plate, enamel, and gemstone fireflies and scarabs and portal portal pendants and brooches—and colorful tasseled leather sandals made by Indian artisans. All of the ready-to-wear is made in Italy save for the embroideries, which are also done in India, and proliferate not just on dresses, but on some of the more sober tailored pieces: a gray coat sprouting pink feathers and pearly buttons, a camel wool skirt suit with confetti-like fringe erupting from the jacket arms and skirt hem.
Martin was wearing glasses, and the tortoiseshell frames swirled in a manner not unlike that of her Kells-inspired prints. Is an optics line next for La DoubleJ? “Do I need one?” she laughed. It will be no surprise if this optimistic doer gets it done by the next time we gather to see what she’s up to at the starquarters.
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