Jordan Bowen and Luca Marchetto founded their namesake menswear label JordanLuca in 2018, seven years after meeting in line for the toilets at London’s iconic gay dive The Joiners Arms. Fast forward to 2025 and the club has been sadly demolished, but Bowen and Marchetto are still going strong. So much so that today, at their fall menswear runway show in Milan, the pair tied the knot. They shared the news about their upcoming nuptials on a video call, which they took from yet another bathroom. “We’re doing fittings today, and this is the only quiet space we could find,” Bowen said with a laugh. “We’re back in another bathroom,” Marchetto laughed back. Talk about being married to one’s job. Better yet, call it married on the job.
The wedding-cum-fashion show comes as JordanLuca kicks off its third year showing in Milan after launching in London as a punkish, unabashedly queer men’s label. The nuptials are the cherry on top of this phase of change for the designers, which saw the evolution of both their romantic relationship and of their label. (Speaking of caketoppers, the designers 3-D printed mini versions of themselves for their wedding cake, a photo of which features in the show invitation. They look like two fabulously gay action figures.)
Ending their show with a wedding was a more straightforward decision than you might expect. “Well, everyone we know is going to be there,” said Marchetto, “we thought since we are all going to be together, the people we love and people we respect,” added Bowen. Also less complex than one would think was the planning. “It took over our lives the past four months,” Bowen laughed, “but it was really all quite organic.” They had gone back and forth between whether or not the ceremony should kick-off the show or come at its climax. “But it’s still a runway show, so that defines which one comes first,” Bowen explained, with Marchetto interjecting, “fashion comes first!” Doesn’t it always?
To fully merge both events, Bowen and Marchetto invited their would-be wedding guests—friends, family, community—to walk the show wearing their new collection. The pair then came out with the officiant and their witnesses, members of their now joint family, to start the ceremony portion of the proceedings. “I know it’s traditional that the couple doesn’t see what the other one is wearing, but it was inevitable in this case,” Marchetto joked. An added bonus, of course, was being able to pick out the outfits of each of their wedding guests—a true fashion person’s dream.
A bigger decision, expectedly, was that of tying the knot. “Part of us still doesn’t really believe in marriage, because so much of the institution is about ownership,” reflected Bowen. “I mean, even when writing our vows, it was interesting because we don’t feel the need to make these promises because we have already made them and we live them every day,” he continued, “but what we do believe is that love should be seen.”
Back in 2013 Karl Lagerfeld closed his spring couture show for Chanel with two brides holding hands in support of same-sex marriage. Around a decade prior, Jean Paul Gaultier used his spring 2005 menswear runway to address the controversy swirling around gay marriage in France. Fashion is no stranger to a demonstration, but Bowen and Marchetto want to clarify that their wedding is not merely a political statement. “Of course, because of where we are socially and culturally in the world and in Italy, it feels right,” Bowen said, “but, politically, we don’t want to go there,” he said, in reference to framing their celebration as a declaration.
Still, “fashion is inherently political,” Bowen noted, with both designers remarking that they understand that celebrating their nuptials in Milan and during the menswear collections does send a rather clear message. “I mean, we do think that it’s important for people to know where you are,” Bowen said. “It’s important to draw a line in the sand, and this… this is where we stand.”