With her Mondrian-inspired make-up, outrageous hairstyles and shocking sartorial signature, Pamela Rooke, aka Jordan, described herself as “a walking work of art”. To the public, however, the fearless provocateur who travelled on the early morning train from the Sussex coast to central London in the mid-Seventies became the face of the most significant youth movement of modern times: punk.
Jordan’s eye-popping appearance, which took two hours a day to create, came from a deep desire to reinvent herself. Ricocheting between skintight latex rubber to translucent attire, often exposing breasts, buttocks and pubic hair, this innately shy girl affronted her fellow commuters. Describing their reaction decades later as “apoplectic” she was seated in a first-class carriage by British Rail staff for her own safety.
