đź’ JordanLuca for ODDA Magazine
This article first appeared in the ODDA Magazine website.
JORDANLUCA
London Fashion Week and The British Fashion Council is embarking on its first-ever gender neutral fashion week that, starting June 12th, will merge womenswear and menswear into one venue and timeframe. That venue is a digital-only platform that was created to keep the country’s fashion week alive while still protecting the fashion loving community as it continues to deal with the social distancing directives designed to keep everyone safe during the current environment.
ODDA reached out to Jordan Bowen and Luca Marchetto, the designers behind JordanLuca, an up and coming menswear brand that will be showing during this event to learn more about their plans to connect virtually with their ever-growing fan base. But also to dive more deeply into the slow burn origins story of both the label and the duo, who first met 10 years ago in a club in East London but only launched their brand in 2017.
“JordanLuca is irreverent. We are quite irreverent in what we do, and how we work together, and how we treat design and how we treat garments and ideas,” explained Bowen about the label’s aesthetic.
“I think fashion is not only going gender-neutral, which is fundamental, and digital. But as well, sustainable. And sustainability should be another keyword that has to be taken into consideration moving forward. We can’t go back to the way before,” pronounced Marchetto about the brand’s intentional stance to make sustainable sartorial choices such as incorporated upcycled and recycled fabrics and yarns into their designs.
The duo does have an interesting approach to menswear. One that mixes the hands-on more industrial and production sided skills of Marchetto, who worked alongside Vivienne Westwood for 7 years, with Bowen’s eye for detail that comes with his training as a milliner alongside another living legend, Stephen Jones. The result of their combined talents is an interesting subversive hybrid approach to fashion. One that blurs together Italian tailoring, sophisticated yet state of the art fabrics and a more rebellious determination to make high design concepts grounded in practicality. Clothing that both pushes the envelope and is unquestionably refined in its raw approach.
The recent global lockdown helped to sharpen the designer duo’s choices when it came to planning out the future of their company. It has them asking fundamental questions about wholesale and e-commerce. Not to mention the seasonality of their designs and how the fashion system is currently run. With clothing arriving in stores at times of the year that are out of sync with what their customers are needing. This is one reason why the label will be going with a see-now-buy-now capsule drop in September. One filled with pieces designed specifically for that season.
JordanLuca is a very intriguing fashion offering. It is modern and daring, and yet it has a solid creative foundation. The designers spent years getting to know each other before starting their label. It is hard to underestimate how important that “honeymoon” creative period will be for this brand as it continues to grow internationally. By testing the waters with bitesize creative collaborations before launching their line the duo now has a creative shorthand and ease of communication that any fashion start-up would be enviable of. And there is something to be said for having a partner to help carry the weight of a brand, to be one another’s support system when the fashion spotlight begins to burn like a thousand suns. Which is certainly a strong possibility for JordanLuca in the near future.
To see the latest JordanLuca collection go to http://www.londonfashionweek.co.uk
Photographer PAUL PERELKA
Fashion Editor ANNE LAURITZEN
Models AMADOU and SHADEN @Select
Make-up/Hair Artist MARTA WOZNIAK
Set Design MARCEL NIETO-GLOWACKI
Interviewed by ULYA ALIGULOVA
Words by JESSICA MICHAULT
Special thanks BRITISH FASHION COUNCIL & AGENCY ELEVEN
