Johanna Ortiz is the Next Designer to Collaborate With H&M

Swedish fast fashion brand H&M is renowned for partnering with designers on limited-edition collections, offering clothes created by some of the world’s top fashion houses at a more affordable price point. Now, for the first time in 15 years of collaborations, a Latin-American designer has teamed up with the brand.

Colombian designer Johanna Ortiz is bringing her signature feminine aesthetic to the newest collaboration with elegant options you can take from day to night. Loved by celebrities like Beyoncé, Michelle Obama and Lady Gaga, it’s also a fash pack favourite – and you’ll be able to pick up a piece for less than CAD 100.

An exclusive pre-drop of four items will hit stores and online early next month (December 3rd to be exact) and includes pieces finished in exotic floral prints from the designer’s archive. Though they’ve been used by the designer before, they are featured in brand new colourways for this collection of dresses: a vibrant-yet-warm yellow, dusty-pink, forest green and a maroon. In an exclusive with H&M, Ortiz says that her creative process always starts with colour. “It’s a cliché, but colours always come to me from what I see in nature. I’m always taking pictures, even if I’m dropping off my kids at school, there’s always something to find inspiration from, even in a tiny flower. Colours are my passion. I always work from them. I need to have a colour palette that forms the root of my collections.”

The main collection will arrive in March 2020 with more dresses, separates and swimwear on offer to drag us out of the winter mood slump we’ll no doubt be in by then. If you are looking for inspiration to style these dresses, Ortiz suggests there is a life for them outside of weddings and garden parties. Wear them to a bar, at the dinner party you are hosting or out “with flats and no makeup,” she says. “It’s just embracing being feminine. I try to make collections really comfortable, designs that you can wear every day—but you can wear them with big earrings or whatever and go out in them too.”

Ortiz has been building her brand for 16 years out of a small city in Colombia—specifically, her hometown of Cali. What is a proud moment for Ortiz, is also great recognition for her heritage. “I’m taking a bit of my design and a bit of Colombia and reaching a new audience of women. I think that’s really satisfying.”