FLOWER POWER: La DoubleJ, the Milan-based lifestyle label founded by J.J. Martin, has brought a second spring to Paris with the launch of a furniture and home goods collaboration with French label The Socialite Family.
“Everyone has an inner flower inside them, an inner print, an inner joy,” said Milan-based Martin at the presentation of a range decked out in prints drawn from La DoubleJ’s sizable archive of exuberant graphics.
Martin and Constance Gennari, a cofounder of the Parisian brand, met in 2014 when she went to capture Martin’s stylish Milanese digs for the brand’s decor-centric digital media, which later started to edit its own furniture and home goods.
Related Articles
After their initial meeting, as both brands grew separately, Gennari eventually felt it was time to call up Martin when she started to get a hankering for florals that wouldn’t end up looking like you were moving into your grandma’s place.
You May Also Like
“Italy and prints like [La DoubleJ’s] are what Parisians dream of” even when they simply dip a toe with a sole cushion, confessed Gennari.
The result is a seven-piece collaboration of popular The Socialite Family items, ranging from cushions and lamps to seats and a three-seat sofa sized so generously that half a dozen people were piled onto it at the presentation, decked in La DoubleJ’s zesty vintage florals in of-the-moment colorways.
While cushions and plates are slotted alongside La DoubleJ’s fashion, furniture was a category Martin was keen to explore as her label’s “prints lend themselves so well to furniture pieces and statement pieces, especially for people that have [more] minimal environments,” she added.
Imagine, say, a tasteful Parisian apartment with its white plaster moldings and herringbone hardwood floors. That sofa decked out in the pink, white and black “Big Blooms” print with its accents of green and yellow would be “a bit of a flower bomb,” said Martin.
She finds colors to be “so uplifting” as they “work to bring joy into our lives, which makes us feel better, which just puts us in a higher state.”
Don’t think your living space needs a complete floral overhaul. The Milanese designer explained that, like a stylish wardrobe, a home should be “about layering and the mix” of time periods and styles.
Hence why Gennari wanted to apply La DoubleJ’s colorful florals to items with removable covers “because that’s how you can have fun with a motif,” she explained. “When you get bored, you undress it and dress [the item] with something calmer.”
Plus new takes on vintage florals are “something you don’t see anymore and does you a world of good — it’s joyous,” the Parisian entrepreneur said.
Adding a splash of color will start at 105 euros for a Bomboloni cushion, while larger furniture pieces from the Rotonto line, all with changeable covers, will retail from 1,070 euros for a square pouf up to 4,400 euros for the three-seater sofa.
The seven-strong collaboration collection is sold at The Socialite Family’s Parisian store and on its e-store. Selected styles, including quilts, cushion and lamps are also available from the La DoubleJ store in Milan and the Italian label’s website.