It’s been a big year for Johanna Ortiz. After staging her first Resort show over the summer in New York, the Colombian designer is marking her brand’s 15th birthday with another milestone: her first Pre-Fall collection. Ortiz ventured out of her exotic floral-print comfort zone this season, adding animal motifs to her repertoire (also a first). The mottled feline that appears on midi-length pleated and ruffled silk dresses is no ordinary jaguar, though; this one in particular is indigenous to the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta mountains of Ortiz’s homeland and a potent symbol in pre-Columbian culture. Colored in earth tones and dusky shades of blue and green, the most eye-catching pattern in the bunch drew from the ceramic traditions of the region and lent a soulful, vaguely vintage vibe to cotton maxi dresses, the Central American answer to India’s famous block-print silks.
Ortiz is well known for her party frocks—usually ruffled, usually floor-sweeping—and added minidresses to her lineup for the first time. The label is expanding its daytime offerings, too, building on shirtdresses and peasant tops with smart summer tailoring, including a Western-inspired take on the pajama suit. Longtime fans of the line will remember the days when swimsuits were the designer’s mainstay. She went back to her roots for Pre-Fall, so to speak, with a series of statement-making maillots, part of a growing new business that she’s calling beach-to-bar wear. Styled with the sculptural floral belts and her paneled straight-leg jeans, the new bathing suits will make for fun going-out tops and seem primed for midsummer vacation selfies.
