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You may know that Zoë Jordan is the daughter of former Formula One team boss Eddie Jordan. You may not know that I am a HUGE F1 fan and have been for as long as I can remember. Keeping these two things in mind, picture the kind of ecstatic facial gymnastics I performed when I walked into the show space for Zoë's autumn/winter 2014 presentation. I suppose the invitation and the collection's title, Chicane, should have given me a clue, but I wasn't prepared for the awesomeness that awaited me.
A million fashion years ago (12-13 regular years), when ASOS still stood for As Seen On Screen, I discovered in amongst the few dozen items that it stocked a (very) little denim skirt replete with replica motor racing-style badges. It was 'in the style of' Liberty X, I was told, and I duly forked over the £15 or so for it and eagerly anticipated its arrival. Then I proceeded to wear it to death with a faux leather jacket and probably my stompy biker boots. When it fell apart, I sewed some of my own lovingly-collected patches on to a pair of Miss Sixty spray-on jeans, which I wore with red pointed-toe stilettos. Later, I acquired a t-shirt in a similar style and wore it with a leather mini.
Do you see where I'm going with this? What I'm basically saying is that I have unironically worn this stuff on and off for over a decade and I am SO HAPPY that Zoë Jordan is allowing me to indulge my apparent underlying desire to be an F1 brolly dolly, but in a rather more grown-up way.
There is a lot more to this collection than the appropriation of her dad's team logo on leathers, though. There's also an abundance of the pared-backed relaxed tailoring that Zoë has made her name on, and splashes of cherry red and cobalt blue amongst a largely neutral black, white and grey palette. The standout pieces for me are the moto jackets, rendered in wool, leather and fur – and yes, alright, that particular race leathers look at the top there. Now where did I leave those stompy boots ...?
