JJ Martin: On Transcendental Travel and Raising Your Vibration

Traveling Through with David Prior

Fashion entrepreneur JJ Martin discusses her transition from journalism to founding the maximalist label La DoubleJ in Milan. The conversati

Key takeaways

• JJ Martin uses maximalist fashion to facilitate a mission of 'raising your vibration.'
• Her career evolved from writing for the International Herald Tribune and Harper's Bazaar to running a global brand.
• She views sacred sites like Egypt's temples and Bali's water temples as essential for spiritual expansion.
• The concept of 'spiritual normalization' aims to bridge the gap between mainstream life and esoteric practices.
• Travel to energetic centers like Sardinia and Cappadocia helps ground the physical body during spiritual shifts.

Main topics

• La DoubleJ brand philosophy
• Transcendental travel and sacred sites
• Fashion journalism history

Notable quotes

Raise Your Vibration.

Conclusion

A deep dive into how aesthetic beauty and spiritual exploration can me

Transcript preview

Speaker 2 (0:05) Pushkin. Speaker 2 (0:41) Instead, she's exploring sacred spaces, ancient traditions and spiritual practices. But in my experience, it's always a mistake to dismiss JJ as a wellness guru or particularly woo-woo. Because once you embrace her energetic pursuit of the energetically charged, you just can't help but be energized yourself. In this chat, we sit under waterfalls in Bali, go to the edge of volcanoes in Sicily, retreat to caves in Cappadocia and hang together from the branches of a tree. Here's my conversation with my friend JJ Martin. Speaker 2 (1:16) JJ, welcome. Hi, Davey. This is the final episode of season one. And actually, I thought that you might be in season two or season three when we have an opportunity to meet somewhere else or be in Milan where we both or at least I live half the time and you live full time. But as with everything with us, fate intervened. Always. And something happened a block and a half from here. a lighthouse appeared off Madison Avenue, a five-story lighthouse, which is your flagship store, not only in the United States, but globally. And you just opened it. So congratulations. Thank Speaker 1 (1:59) you so much. I mean, you and I are always synchronized in this way, and it's beautiful to see. This, I did have to blink a few times as I was standing outside and look at five stories of Upper East Side, which I never imagined would ever, ever happen. But it's magnificent. And I feel so grateful. And it feels like things are shining within and without in so many ways. So it's great. Speaker 2 (2:26) Maybe we can start with you moving to Milan. How many years ago? 20? Speaker 1 (2:32) Well, actually 25 this August. And you Speaker 2 (2:35) moved there for love? I moved there for Speaker 1 (2:36) love. Very cliche. Speaker 2 (2:37) And you stayed Speaker 1 (2:37) for? I stayed for work. Speaker 2 (2:41) So we have a not dissimilar background in the sense that we were both writers, reporters, editors for newspapers and magazines. But you really started working for which wallpaper? Speaker 1 (2:55) First job was bottom of the barrel media world, the world's first online. fashion news service, which was Fashion Wear Daily, then got hired to write for the International Herald Tribune, which was sort of like my big break. And that's when I got hired by Harper's Bazaar and really developed a family of women. in fashion, writing, and media that I'm still friends with to this day. And it was really funny because at the time, you know, Harper's Bazaar was always second fiddle. I would say there was no argument in that to American Vogue. And it's really interesting about being, I wouldn't say the underdog, but sort of not in the Champions League level all the time. It just, the grit creates so much more depth. and hardworking mentality and your ability to really go out and launch yourself because so few things are actually handed to you on a plate. And all of us who worked under Glenda, I would say we all kind of developed that real hardworking mentality, which isn't to say that at other magazines they don't. I just meant that like there was this real idea that we had to go the extra mile in order to get that scoop or to get that access. But Speaker 2 (4:11) then you sort of kind of, came from like out of the words land kind of behind the magazine behind the newspaper when street style blogging kind of started right which like people don't remember that right you know it was nuts the Speaker 1 (4:28) Japanese the Japanese magazines invented that they sent their photographers over and I think this was before the advent of Instagram And it was this nutty thing where we would all get swarmed by these Japanese photographers. Really funny. So we were big in Japan. It's exciting. But Speaker 2 (4:44) I also think of like Harper's Bazaar as being way more kind of directional, not bright patterns, maximalism, which has always been your style and which I think, how would we describe the double J, your brands? It's Speaker 1 (5:01) definitely maximal. It's definitely joyful. It's definitely colorful. But people don't realize we also do like 10 variations on a white shirt. Right. So we've broadened beyond that. But I've always lived in both worlds everywhere I've been. So I used to work at Calvin Klein. There wasn't a single color. Anywhere, including the yellow sticky pads. They were white. So I've had like a lot of duality in my life. I grew up in a family of surfers, volleyball players. My dad was a hunter fisherman. We did a lot of scrappy things. And then my mom was very like debutante. So there was a lot of ins and outs of many different worlds. Yeah, I wear black now too. Every once in a while. Speaker 2 (5:40) Sometimes. Rarely. Rarely. One time you were being interviewed, well, in terms of color. I was at the V &A where you were being interviewed for, I think, your book, Mama Milano. And it just so happened, again, in this symbiosis thing that we were staying. Speaker 1 (5:56) That you just happened to be there. Speaker 2 (5:57) No, no. Well, in hotel rooms next to each other, completely, completely randomly. I just so happened that I had a few hours spare. And I was like, OK, well, I'm going to come with you to see the talk. And aside from the fact that I was sitting in the audience and you pointed at me and said. That's my friend Davey, Mr. Beige, which I resent actually. But one thing that you said to me when you said during the talk, one of your, you know, customers or fans, let's say, got up and said, you know, what is it about color? And what would you say to people that don't want to wear color? And you said you looked her dead in Speaker 1 (6:39) the eye. And I wonder if you remember what you said. This comes up so often that people who have an aversion to color, worn on themselves, typically have a difficult relationship with being seen from the outside world. They don't really want to stand out. When you're wearing a lot of color, when you're wearing a lot of print, people will notice. People will look at you. People will point. And I think... What's been amazing about this company and this journey is that, yes, it's about maximalism and color and pattern, but it's truly about this mission that I call Raise Your Vibration. And really, that's about your radiance, like allowing you to be in touch with your radiance, feel your radiance and show it to the world. And there's so many different ways that you can do that. And it's obviously not just shopping and it's not just color. There's so many different ways. And that's what I'm really into, to be perfectly honest. Are Speaker 2 (7:36) the clothes like a Trojan horse for a bigger idea, Speaker 1 (7:39) essentially? Yeah. I mean, I feel like they are. You and I have talked about this so much. I mean, that's why we have the lighthouse in New York. And it's why we have the star quarters in Milan with these temple spaces. So on the roof of our offices, on the top of this store, we've got a temple space where We're bringing in people who know about energy frequency and different ways to help people connect into that, to clear that. That's what I'm probably the most excited about. And even though, of course, my business partner, who also happens to be my ex-husband, is always like, do we really need to be paying for this space like right off of Madison Avenue? He's like, can't that be a store space? But it does feel like, in a way. They feed each other and I know that they feed me. So that's what I'm doing. Speaker 2 (8:32) I don't think I've ever told you this, but the first time that, not when we met, but the first time I heard of you or you kind of came somewhere in my periphery and then I remembered it years and years later, actually relatively recently. I used to go to Milan quite often because it lived in the countryside and that's where the clubs were. used to go on the weekend. Plastique. I feel like you knew about plastique before I did. And, you know, now I have a lot of mutual friends that work in the fashion world, but I was at kind of agriculture and food school, so I wasn't in that world. But I do remember, you know, the Californian, La Californiana, about you because it was this moment, you know, Milan. when you crack it is very warm and inviting. Oh Speaker 1 (9:20) my gosh, Speaker 2 (9:20) it's Speaker 1 (9:20) the Speaker 2 (9:20) best. But it can be very cold and closed and those doors are closed to you until you kind of push them open ever so slightly. And I remember, I remember like, you know, people weren't necessarily that kind to you in the beginning. No. Speaker 1 (9:38) Also, it's not that they were not, it's not that they were mean. It was just more that they... didn't give a shit and there was no interest level and there was very little access. The Italians, it takes a long time to get to know an Italian. And once you do, it's Speaker 2 (9:53) a Speaker 1 (9:53) friend for life. This is like the exact opposite of someone in America who you get to know in 20 seconds at the coffee counter. But then, you know, then, you know, friendships sort of come and go much easier, I feel like, in America. Whereas this is what I noticed so much about the difference between New York and Milan. All the energy that I put into New York, I felt was like depleting me. All of the time and energy I put into Italy came back to like feed an enormous garden for me. Well, Speaker 2 (10:24) this is what I was going to get at is like, you know, Milanese typically are not skeptical, but they definitely. you know, aren't the first embracing of spiritual modalities. It may have changed now in a way. So the reason I asked about the clothes being kind of a vehicle for something else is like, how do you deal with the skepticism of spirituality? Like as you being an advocate for that, because that certainly exists, right? It's less so in Milan now because it's coming from a very pure place. I always think of you as a California cheerleader in a way. I really Speaker 1 (11:02) am. Speaker 2 (11:03) In a very genuine way. 100%. Speaker 1 (11:04) I love Speaker 2 (11:04) California. Speaker 1 (11:05) But I also love Milan. I had to cheerlead for Milan all those years that everyone hated Milan and no one wanted to come for the fashion shows. For Speaker 2 (11:11) sure. For sure. Speaker 1 (11:11) But I would say there's, I wrote a biography for myself, my spiritual biography that says something like, she's a spiritual normalizer, which basically is like, I think I can be a good bridge between the woo-woo and like regular people. Because I myself lived through all of that. So I was on that other side of like a very go-go type A, you know, grew up in California, but was always like on a path and very rigorous. I was a competitive gymnast for many years. I went to Berkeley. I don't think I ever took a summer off ever. I don't think I ever really took any time off. So there was so, and I had a couple of life crunches. Big time. My dad died when I was in college. I went through a really big depression. Then I went through a real challenging infertility process while I was in Italy. And that's what kicked off my spiritual practice. That was probably like in 2013. And then I started really getting into all these energy healers and teachers. And I... felt like also having had the journalism background gave me the ability to talk to people. And every time I went to go see a healer, I would interview them. Speaker 2 (12:21) That's Speaker 1 (12:22) why Speaker 2 (12:22) I Speaker 1 (12:22) have all the stories in the bank. And I've got all these hilarious stories. I would write an article basically every time I went to go see someone. What I've learned is