Dublin-born, Hong Kong-based designer ZOË JORDAN talks to LYNN ENRIGHT about babies, banking, FASHION AND FAMILY …
It’s a week before Zoë Jordan is due to give birth to her first child and she’s posing gamely for a photographer in little dresses she picked up in a market near her home in Hong Kong. Her skin is glowing and her bump is easily disguised; she looks stunning. “The weather is much better here so I can still do lots of outdoor things, lots of walking. I still go to the gym and do Pilates,” she says by way of explanation. “I’ve been really lucky; I’ve had quite a good pregnancy actually. I’m just hoping it will come to an end soon because it’s bloody boring.” It’s not difficult to imagine how Jordan could get bloody bored easily; the fashion designer is a workhorse used to filling her time with frenetic activities, be they work-related (waiting till evening to Skype the studio in London, which lags seven hours behind; travelling to Vietnam to find the finest silks) or leisure (hiking in Hong Kong’s national parkland; throwing parties to celebrate her husband’s birthday at the hippest restaurants in the territory). She doesn’t sit on her laurels, which, as the daughter of Formula One multimillionaire Eddie Jordan, she could do quite comfortably, but instead pushes herself towards ambitious and impressive achievements. Achievements like being on the 2012 shortlist for the British Fashion Council/Vogue fashion fund award alongside designers like Mary Katrantzou, Peter Pilotto and the eventual winner Jonathan Saunders.
Inclusion on the prestigious shortlist was, Jordan says, “the icing on the cake” for her business, which she established in 2007: “The other nominees were very established, successful brands so that really helped put us on the map, especially internationally.” She was the only designer on the list not to have gone to a big-name design school (most trained at Central Saint Martins while the duo behind Peter Pilotto went to the well-regarded Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Antwerp) and the only one who began her career in investment banking. “I worked as a bonds trader in New York for several years,” she explains, “but I studied architecture at university. I’ve always had both sides – the design, creative side and the more mathematical side – so I tried to fuse my business background with my love of design. I learned about fashion on the job; I worked with a men’s shirt tailor and I worked with great pattern cutters. I’m practical and I prefer to try things out rather than learning from a book or in a classroom. It seems to be working out okay so far.” Indeed. As well as being lauded by fashion insiders, her collections sell well and the brand is stocked in top boutiques and department stores all over the world. Looking at her pieces, it’s clear to see why they are so commercially successful: they are wearable and timeless in colours and fabrics that suggest laidback luxury. “Having grown up around mechanics and racing drivers, I am influenced by the tomboy-ish side of things,” she says, “that nonchalant glamour.”
Jordan picks up objet d’arts wherever she travels. She and her husband bought War Child, the painting pictured above, when they ran a half marathon in Bath. The sculpture is by Camie Lyons, she bought the orange glass bowl at a bazaar in Turkey and the mismatched plates come from Sri Lanka.
Jordan was born in 1980 in the Coombe maternity hospital in Dublin 8, the first of four children for Eddie and his wife, Marie. Her early life was peripatetic: “We spent quite a lot of time going from track to track. We didn’t really settle; it was more nomadic,” and it’s a lifestyle she follows to this day. Her plummy tones (picked up perhaps at Marlborough College, the boarding school she – and the Middletons – attended) suggest a very English identity, but she sees herself as more international. “When my family meet up we could be anywhere. We’ve always travelled so being in Hong Kong doesn’t feel that different.”
She’s lived in Hong Kong since 2011 and says she and her English husband, who works in finance, made the decision to move there together. “We both suggested Hong Kong as something we wanted to do. We can work in a financial centre of the world and be on the beach in 15 minutes. I really like the lifestyle and it’s an inspiring place. There are lots of ideas and opportunities and the outlook is very bright. Hong Kong is the gateway to Asia, and the best place to capitalise on the booming economy here.” She flies to London regularly to oversee work at her Mayfair studio and will be in the city, new baby in tow, in late September when her brand gets its first on-schedule catwalk show at London Fashion Week. “I’ll probably be feeding the baby as the girls are going down the catwalk. It could be an awful mess. I’m going to need a good sense of humour for this trip.” “You’re so calm,” I marvel. “Being chilled out is the only option,” she replies, laughing.
The drawings hanging over the bed are by Mark Demsteader; the images were used to create limited-edition Zoë Jordan dresses. The cushions come from South Africa.
And will she continue to work and travel as the baby gets older? “I’m going to be a working mum,” she answers. “I haven’t quite figured it out yet but work is my passion and it’s what I love doing and I think I’ll be a better mother in the long term if I continue to do what I love.” It’s an attitude that makes sense when you look at her upbringing. “I was witness to someone who believes they can achieve whatever it is they want to achieve and whatever they set their mind to,” she says of her father. “So I don’t have any fear. And that’s a really amazing gift.” Talking to this dynamic, hard-working woman, who heads up a growing international fashion business, it is obvious that the very useful gift will be passed down to another generation of Jordans.
www.zoe-jordan.com
Images by Sean Lee Davies
Lynn Enright
This article appeared in a previous issue, for more features like this, don’t miss our March issue, out Saturday March 5.
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