The past few months have tipped the scales of both joy and despair for JJ Martin, the founder of the fashion brand La DoubleJ. She lost her first flagship boutique in America in the Los Angeles fire and opened her brand-new headquarters – aka the Star Quarters – in Milan, a magnificent project that’s been 10 years in the making. 

“It was a huge hit – devastating on so many levels,” JJ Martin explains of the wildfires that tore through Los Angeles in January. “I grew up in the Pacific Palisades, so my kindergarten, preschool, church, grandmother’s house, aunt’s house, mother’s house…all those historic places in my life burned down in addition to the store.” 

“But, she adds, “I’m always looking at symbols and meaning, so you could say that a deep ancestral clearing just took place.”

A firm believer that “everything that happens is meant to be in some way”, JJ Martin intuited her way through the challenges. “If I’ve learnt one thing through all the energy practices I do, when you get hit by anything difficult in your life, you need to spend the appropriate time grieving and allowing yourself to feel all the feelings. There were times I was stomping and punching the air. But then, you just get to work and create a new reality. So that’s what we’re busy doing.”

And busy she is… There’s huge momentum behind the brand and, thankfully, the flagship store was just one of a multitude of projects and launches. Just two months after the fires, she opened the Star Quarters. 

This was followed by the brand’s Palm Beach store, with another boutique opening in Dallas soon. The Star Quarters is the new beating heart of La DoubleJ – the physical manifestation of everything JJ Martin has built, curated and created over the last 10 years, a destination that encompasses all that the brand has to offer. And that’s because La DoubleJ is much more than just a lifestyle brand. It’s a community, a sisterhood, a spiritual awakening for those who want to surround themselves with the positive energy and feel-good vibes of a company that transmits on a higher plane of consciousness.

“It was after Covid that I started really bringing in more of this language about spirituality, consciousness, and frequency, and what ‘Raise Your Vibration’ means,” Martin says. “I started to see the women who were buying my dresses connecting with all these practices that I’ve been doing for a long time. It was a natural fit.” 

Since then, she’s hosted over 200 spiritual events, workshops and retreats, whether it be a breathwork session at Bergdorf Goodman or a sound-work session in Dubai. Now, courtesy of the Star Quarters, this constellation of experiences has a permanent home. Complete with office space for her 90-strong team, the new HQ also has a photo studio, archive, showroom, lobby with “a crazy mural designed to inspire and uplift people”, and an entire rooftop level dubbed the Galactic Deck, where all of La DoubleJ’s ‘Raise Your Vibration’ activities will take place – from live programming to workshops to meditation sessions to meetings – for her team, La DoubleJ’s Sisterhood community and the public.

It’s also an ode to Milan, the city she moved to in 2000, which proved to be the stimulus for the brand. “Growing up, I wasn’t surrounded by fashion. My family was very sports-oriented and, while I had exposure to luxurious environments, the style, fashion, and aesthetics part was missing,” she says. “But I was built to appreciate beauty from an early age. I was always watching and looking – anytime I saw something that had a pattern or a sparkle, I was immediately transfixed.”

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 It wasn’t until JJ Martin moved to Milan 24 years ago that her fashion education truly began, covering the industry as a journalist and mixing with impeccably dressed Milanese women. “That’s where I was schooled in the art and science of fashion and design, even though there was always a reverberation in me with those frequencies,” she shares.

In 2015 she founded La DoubleJ – otherwise known as her “joy baby”. “It really was born out of love. Born out of my obsession, passion and excitement for vintage and the Italian creative women of Milan. I was shooting all my vintage products on them and telling their stories and that’s where the company got its momentum, because it was fuelled by joy.”

This unbridled joy ripples through the brand – from how JJ Martin has built the company to the pieces she designs and the over-riding good energy that pervades it all. “Everything came from joy and an intuitive feeling,” she recalls. 

These were gut-instincts, run by her heart, belly and womb. “Your nervous system knows what’s going on before anything. And then the head is always in service to that. Especially as I’m a Virgo Rising, my head comes in with a heavy dose of scepticism, asking all the questions,” JJ Martin laughs. 

Joy, however, is the brand’s barometer. “We’re taught in business to use your head and be logical and rational, to think about consumers and merchandising, etc., but I think that should come secondary, and that joy needs to be at the very beginning to drive everything else. When your creative projects are fuelled by joy, they just have more superpowers,” the designer explains.

It’s infectious, this joy – her prints and patterns spark pleasure, from dresses to dinnerware coupled with mood-boosting colours, to the comfortable feeling that underscores our conversation. It’s impossible not to be drawn in – and this is a sentiment that reverberates from America to Milan to the Middle East. 

Last October, she says she had “wonderful experiences” meeting women from the region. “I’ve been invited into women’s homes, and it’s just been the most beautiful thing to see. I really love Middle Eastern women. There’s just a real earthy excitement, a real vibe,” she recalls. “We’ve also done a pop-up event, sound healing, guided meditation, smudging… And while some of the women don’t necessarily know about this spirituality stuff, they’re resonating with the product, which I love. Just because you like La DoubleJ doesn’t mean you need a spiritual practice – it’s more like you’re just opting in for joy, for an energy-elevating experience on any rung that you might wish to do that on.”

Martin will be back in Dubai towards the end of the year to host an event, the designer is also hoping to expand the business to the Middle East. “I think the customer is just right – they love pattern, they love colour…” 

Until then, she’s leading a spiritual trip through Cappadocia, launching a collection with [RED], Bono’s charity organisation, speaking at events in Nantucket and New York, and taking a spiritual trip to Ireland to visit sacred sites. There are also two important store openings in America planned for later this year, and upcoming collaborations with two hospitality and furniture companies. “Growing, growing, growing!” she laughs. 

Most significant, however, is growing the Sisterhood Academy, an initiative launched earlier this year to further celebrate the La DoubleJ community. “The Sisterhood gets you access to my global healer book, as well as 50 online practices, from yoga to breathwork to sound healing, as well as Academy classes – we just did one on the inner child.” But more than that, it’s about spreading the La DoubleJ love. “It’s so satisfying when you can show someone how just one of these things can truly change their lives and make things better,” JJ Martin says of the power of the Sisterhood. “No, we’re not changing the lives of millions of people, but it’s important in life to start small and humble. Our mission is an energy and elevation experience wrapped up in the message of inclusiveness and community. We just want to wrap the world in joy.”