Jordan Outside of SEX

SHEILA ROCK (B. 1952)
Jordan outside of SEX
signed in ink (lower right); numbered 7/30 photograph
sheet: 20 x 16 inches (50.8 x 40.6 cm) image: 17 3/4 x 15 inches (45.1 x 38.1 cm)
executed in 1977. This is number 7 from an edition of 30.

Pictured here is Jordan (born Pamela Rooke) standing outside 430 King's Road, the storefront that Malcolm McLaren and Vivienne Westwood had taken over as SEX in 1974 and outfitted with Andrew Logan's inflated pink foam letters across the awning. She leans against the doorframe in the shop's own black rubber uniform, hip cocked, with the sunlit facade behind her framing the George Bernard Shaw quote McLaren had painted in yellow above the sign ("Craft must have clothes, but truth loves to go naked"), a piece of provocative shop branding as characteristic of the King's Road moment as the fetishwear that hung inside. A passerby in a suit lingers at the entrance to the right, unclear whether he is entering, staring, or simply caught in the composition. Jordan was arguably the most photographed shop assistant in the history of British fashion — commuting daily from Seaford in the extreme punk looks the store sold, appearing in Derek Jarman's Jubilee (1978), and becoming one of the defining faces of the movement's first year.

Literature: 
Young Punks, Omnibus Press.

Exhibition History: 
Orlando Museum of Art, 2024
Street Level Photoworks, Glasgow, 2025
Dimbola Museum, Isle of Wight, 2025