MILAN — J.J. Martin can add another title to her résumé — vintage fashion dealer.
The Milan-based fashion journalist and California native has turned her passion — or self-professed obsession — for vintage clothing and jewelry into a serious online business, which debuted this week.
A play on her name — J.J. aka Jennifer Jane — LaDoubleJ.com blends text and products to offer the combined experiences of a magazine, a blog and a retail shop. Developed and managed by Milan’s fashion-focused e-commerce provider The Level Group, LaDoubleJ.com allows users not only to shop a selection of vintage fashion and jewelry pieces, but also to discover the lives and work of a range of Italy-based women who are active in fashion, art, design, architecture and food. For the launch, Martin involved 15 women, ranging from fashion designer Marta Ferri to illustrator Liselotte Watkins. In keeping with Martin’s personal style, which mixes vintage and new, the women are featured in photos wearing not only pieces sold on LaDoubleJ.com, but also clothes and shoes from current fashion collections –links re-direct users to the Web sites of several other retailers that signed on with Martin.
“The goal is to provide a happy shopping experience,” said Martin, who also highlighted the city where she lives. “I also wanted to do something for Milan. All my friends think it’s boring but it’s actually not true,” she explained.
In order to offer a complete à-la-Martin experience, the journalist-turned-entrepreneur designed the colorful and chic packaging used for deliveries.
To celebrate the launch of LaDoubleJ.com, Martin also selected 20 Ugo Correani vintage jewelry pieces, which will be available from Tuesday on German luxury e-tailer Mytheresa.com. The partnership will be feted with a cocktail party in Paris on Tuesday in a private apartment.
“It’s very rare that you get an opportunity to do something truly unique in the modern world of online retailing. It’s also rare to meet someone like J.J. Martin, aka ‘Double J’,” said Justin O’Shea, buying director at mytheresa.com. “Throw in her curated archive of ‘one of a kind’ vintage couture jewelry and the only real description I can manufacture to encapsulate this amazing collaboration is… BOOM!“
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The pieces selected for Mytheresa.com are part of a collection of 180 Ugo Corrine rare items that Martin found while researching an article she was writing about the legendary jewelry.