Photo courtesy of Zoë Jordan

Born in Dublin and raised in Hong Kong and London, Zoë Jordan studied architecture before deciding to work as a bond trader in New York for HSBC and later Credit Suisse. After a few hectic years on Wall Street, she left the world of finance behind in order to pursue her real passion, clothing design. Her eponymous brand launched in London in 2011 and went on to be shortlisted for the BFC/Vogue Designer Fund in 2012. Zoë, who now shows her collections in New York through Milk Studios , is an unusual fashion creative with a fresh spin and objective view on what women want to wear. She has become well known for melding androgynous and feminine aesthetics. Here, she tells us about making her big career move.

In terms of seeing and understanding the world, banking was an interesting place to start. It also gave me invaluable discipline— having to be in at 6.15 every morning—and to trade you have to understand the worlds of geography and politics; they were all good skills in life.

I started by quitting my job and then went travelling around factories and markets in Vietnam, Hong Kong and old men’s shirting factories in the middle of England. Eventually, I put together a little capsule wardrobe of samples and started going to see stores with them—back of the car stuff. After a little while, I picked up my first store and it went from there.

Photo courtesy of Zoë Jordan

Cashmere previously has been quite a staid, frumpy category. My plan was to bring a more fashion-forward element to the market.

My father was in motor racing and we were always on the move from circuit to circuit. We were kind of gypsies. I think once you have that travel bug it’s hard to get rid of. It’s influenced the clothes I design: they are quite minimal, fuss free, easy to wear and easy to travel with.

 I tend to wear samples of my designs for a while to judge people’s responses. There’s an emphasis on practicality and comfort in the clothes I design. They are somewhat utilitarian. The idea is to build the perfect wardrobe. Each season the piece you buy should go with the pieces you bought in previous seasons.

 

 Photo courtesy of Zoë Jordan

Last June we launched Knitlab, our season-less knitwear concept. Knitwear has become a much bigger category than it used to be. So last year with all the crazy seasons and varying climates I decided to take all my best knitwear pieces and build out a collection and I launched it last summer. It’s seen a really strong response. It’s a separate collection but it works in complement with the main collection.

Stores love the seasonless aspect because they can withhold stock and take stock as and when they need it. It takes out a lot of risk for the stores.

 

Photo courtesy of Zoë Jordan

I just launched some menswear called Knitlab: XY. I am trying to give that cashmere menswear market a little bit of a contemporary edge.

The Zoe Jordan girl wears a cashmere jumper and tracksuit pants as the new suit. She is the boy’s best friend and the girl’s confidante. She is equally comfortable with either sex and has a nice quiet confidence to her. 

I think knitwear can be partywear. We are working on some pieces for Selfridges and Saks with foiling on the cashmere which gives it quite a party vibe. And I think some black knits with strong silhouettes are perfect for eveningwear.

 

Photo courtesy of Zoë Jordan

I get my inspiration from observing what friends and people on the street are wearing. My favourite thing to do is to sit on top of red double-decker bus and drive around London observing people.

My advice to anyone thinking of starting a label would be that you need to be really resilient. There are lots of highs and lots of lows and its about how you come back from those lows in way more than it is about enjoying the highs. In terms of changing industry, I think that if it’s something you really want and it keeps coming up every 3 to 6 months and you still want it, then you have got to make it happen. There is always a way.

I believe that if you want to do something you should just do it. Because if you think about it too long you will never do it and there’s always going to be reasons why it doesn’t make sense.