Zoë Jordan: Making It All Add up

By Beth Schepens

Having studied architecture and worked as an equity trader in the City, Zoë Jordan brings a mathematical mind to her three-year-old Irwin + Jordan fashion label.

At her show Friday, in a narrow room at the Haymarket Hotel, that attention to shape and symmetry (and a self-proclaimed love of Savile Row tailoring) was evident in the little lace dresses, the well-cut blazers, the scalloped capes and the body-con numbers.

“Everything is quite clean,” she said after the show. “I like for it to all add up. There’s no asymmetry going on, if you know what I mean.”

But Ms. Jordan, the daughter of former Formula One racer and team boss Eddie Jordan, isn’t all about numbers and facts, though she is all about figures — and playfully works with fabrics and style prototypes to show them off.

Her autumn/winter designs mix and mash up the pinstriped banker, the tweed-clad English lord and the London party girl, perhaps best seen in a ladylike tailored jacket worn over a lace top and skinning riding pants.

“I like classic and elegant, but I definitely like to put that modern, boyish twist to it,” Ms. Jordan explained.

Not unlike what the designer herself was wearing.

And does she design with her own wardrobe in mind? “Kind of,” she says. “Or kind of this girl you really hate. She’s kind of the boy’s best friend, and then also you’ll ring her up to talk to her. She’s a girls’ confidante as well.”

With her fun work-play combinations and moderate price range (£120-£700), Ms. Jordan will no doubt continue to collect a following among fashion hipsters. Whether you hate them or not.