LMC x LDJ: Leandra Medine Cohen and La DoubleJ’s founder JJ Martin have joined forces on a capsule collection with a charity bent.
The joint project marks the debut of La DoubleJ’s Sisterhood Collections, special collaborative capsules, a portion of sales from which is donated to support a charitable cause.
For this seminal line, Medine Cohen and Martin developed a five-item range crafted entirely with Cooperativa Alice, an Italian organization focusing on the rehabilitation of incarcerated women by training them in textile manufacturing and tailoring.
The collection includes two apron dresses — originally inspired by the La DoubleJ ones worn by the staff at the Ladurée patisserie in New York — an apron top and two flared pants, all imbued with a flamboyant vibe via patterns, brocades and feather trims. In sync with La DoubleJ’s ethos, each piece can be either worn in coordinated sets or mixed and matched.
Retailing between $590 and $950, the Leandra Medine Cohen x La DoubleJ capsule collection launched Tuesday on La DoubleJ’s online store. A portion of sales will be donated to Cooperativa Alice.
Launched in 1992, the organization has been fighting prejudice and supporting the rehabilitation of incarcerated women through fairly paid work, while affirming its commitment to protecting traditional Italian crafts.
Working members of the cooperative in the women’s sections of Lombardy’s prisons learn a trade while help to preserve a local know-how and, thanks to their work, they can return to assume active roles in society. So far the organization has enabled more than 450 marginalized women to achieve economic independence.
“The cooperativa is a unique case study in having purpose and how much it can impact a person’s life — giving the women somewhere to go every day and an opportunity to earn a wage while still incarcerated. It demonstrates an inspiring commitment on the part of the country to the rehabilitation of its citizens,” Medine Cohen said.
“This is one of the things that I’ve always loved about Italy — there is this sense of social duty and civic duty,” echoed Martin. “There’s so much beauty that comes out of that because they really try to take care of people and they [Cooperative Alice] have an incredible success rate.”
Martin is not new to collaborating with women. As reported, last year she teamed with Valentina De Santis, as La DoubleJ took over Lake Como’s Passalacqua luxury hotel helmed by the latter, marking the brand’s first interior design project.