Vintage destination La DoubleJ debuts its own dress collection with Mantero Silk

JJ Martin, our exuberant Milan editor, knows just about everything there is to know about vintage clothing, which has long defined her colourful style on the fashion circuit. It therefore made perfect sense for the vintage obsessive to launch her own online designer vintage destination La DoubleJ, in January of this year.

However, as even the most committed fossicker knows, sometimes these original finds are not always the most figure-flattering. So, to remedy this style situation Martin teamed up with MatchesFashion.com to launch one extremely versatile, season-less dress, cut from a selection of righteous vintage prints.

'I wanted to start offering something in larger numbers but with a distinctly vintage feel,' explains Martin. ‘It’s as comfortable and easy wearing as a long T-shirt and doesn’t hug any of the problem areas,’ she adds of the short-sleeved, crew neck design, which will evolve into additional silhouettes in the months to come.

The idea for the capsule collection exploded when Martin visited Italian silk experts Mantero’s extensive print archive in Lake Como. 'Given that LaDoubleJ.com has such an Italian flavour, I wanted to start doing collaborations with unique Italian heritage brands,' she says.

Surrounded by literally thousands of boldfaced designs, many of which have graced the catwalks of Chanel, Dior and Pucci, Martin edited down the vast offering to seven punchy patterns, which range from ‘Minimale’, a more abstract graphic motif, to ‘Margherita’, a blossoming floral bouquet.

To celebrate the online launch, last night La DoubleJ and MatchesFashion invited their nearest and dearest to new Milanese gem Potafiori – a flower-shop-cum-restaurant that’s run by an equally vibrant jazz-singing florist and designed by architect Michele Pasini. Right on brand then.

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Photography: Mattia Lotti