62 DECEMBER 2017
As she progresses, her collections have
become more multilayered and versatile, with
dresses styled to be worn over jeans for a more
daytime look, or buttoned up at the front for
night. “My collections are now much more
about dressing up or dressing down in a
muchmore easy way. Women, like me, they
are running around the whole day – we want
to feel more comfortable.” And though she
hasbeen designing her label since 2001,
shehas since spoken about how it is only
morerecently that her designs reflect what
she actually wants to wear. More recently,
hermodels are styled with oversized flowers
in their hair and large earrings that she has
designed in collaboration with designer
Rebecca de Ravenel – a similar vibe to her
wedding look 13 years ago, where she wore a
white flower in her hair and danced the salsa
with her husband into the night.
And while Ortiz has made a name for
herself with eveningwear, it is her more casual
pieces of reconfigured shirting inspired by
wearing her husband’s shirts on holidays –
off-the-shoulder, striped ruffled peplums,
one-shouldered wraps – that have picked up
steam on the retail front and have inspired a
whole host of other labels around the world.
“Tops are useful for women,” she says
pragmatically. She is constantly challenging
herself to redesign and to propose new top
options with prints or different sleeve shapes.
“I thought maybe people might get sick of
them!” she says, laughing down the phone.
It was in this autumn/winter ready-to-wear
collection that she sensed the significant
impact of her customers through Instagram.
“I felt more acceptance when people started
tagging me, like when they’re at parties, or
their packages have arrived – they try it, buy
it. It made me so happy,” she says. “I love it
because it only adds to my productivity to see
people wearing my Johanna Ortiz designs in
so many different ways.”
That buzz? It’s not going anywhere. ■
Floral gowns from
Johanna Ortiz’s autumn/
winter ’17/’18 collection.VOGUE VIEWPOINT
CANDICE LAKE