By Gabriela Afanador
Tuesday 5, May 2026
There is a particular discipline required to translate a design language rooted in equatorial heat and tropical abundance into a winter wardrobe, and Johanna Ortiz met that challenge in Alma, her Fall/Winter 2026/27 collection, with a precision that felt less like adaptation and more like revelation. Presented in the Ballroom of the Círculo de Bellas Artes in Madrid, a neoclassical cultural institution that has stood since 1880, the show staged a conversation between European architectural gravity and the fluid, kinetic sensibility that has defined Ortiz’s work since she founded her house in Cali, Colombia in 2001. That dialogue was not incidental. Ortiz has built one of the most socially and artisanally rigorous fashion houses operating today, employing over 460 people within a fully Colombia-based manufacturing infrastructure, 78% of whom are women and many of whom were trained through La Escuela, the brand’s internal haute couture program that offers free craft education to vulnerable local populations. The clothes that come out of this system carry that weight quietly, in the precision of a drape, the density of an embroidery, the way a hand-rolled edge catches light. Alma is the most complete expression of what that infrastructure can produce.
Johanna Ortiz | Fall Winter 2026/2027 | Madrid
Credit : FF Channel
The Concept and the Silhouette
The thematic anchor of the collection is the Garden of Eden reimagined not as a place but as a psychological state, specifically the unscripted hour after a grand celebration, a woman barefoot, wrapped in a borrowed jacket, sequins still catching the early morning light. It is an image that could easily tip into sentimentality, but Ortiz keeps it structural, channeling the tension between formality and ease directly into the architecture of the garments themselves. The silhouettes in Alma represent a meaningful deceleration from the high-contrast tropical drama of her previous work. Ruffles remain but they are integrated rather than declarative, botanical motifs persist but they are shadowed and abstracted, and the overall line of the collection moves toward elongated columns and fluid draping that prioritizes the suggestion of the body in motion over any static sculptural effect.
The opening look, the Gaucha Diaries Silk Maxi Dress in 100% silk crepe de chine, established this immediately: a floor-length column gown with a deep cowl back, long fluid sleeves, and a draped waist that moved with the body rather than imposing shape onto it, styled with the Sacred Magic of the Petals belt and western leather boots that brought the whole image back to earth. It announced the collection’s central proposition clearly, that luxury does not require effort to be visible. The La Primera Luz Silk Maxi Dress extended this sensibility further, its hand-painted humid tropical landscape rendered across 100% printed silk satin in deep forest greens and blacks, cut with soft halter neck draping and an open back that made the print feel like something the wearer had stepped into rather than put on. Paired with flat metallic sandals and a structured mini tote, it was one of the most considered looks in the collection, the kind of piece that communicates its craftsmanship slowly rather than immediately.
The adaptation of Ortiz’s tropical vocabulary for a cold-weather wardrobe was achieved through a layering system that placed lightweight, luminous base pieces beneath structured outerwear without sacrificing the movement that defines the brand’s identity. Lurex georgettes and printed silk satins function as inner layers that carry the collection’s warmth and botanical sensibility, while shearling vests, cashmere-blend capes, and tailored wool coats provide the weight and protection the season demands. The Salty Air Shearling Vest, worked in curly cream shearling with a natural suede backing, exemplified this approach layered over a printed silk garden dress, the contrast between the textural heaviness of the shearling and the delicacy of the silk beneath it was the whole argument of the collection in a single look. The Twilight Grove Cashmere-Blend Cape in a deep chocolate brown, composed of 90% cashmere and 10% silk with hand-rolled edges, moved with the kind of unhurried elegance that only an exceptionally weighted fabric can produce, worn over the Distinctive Embellished Top and Herencia Viva wide-leg wool trousers. At the opposite end of the outerwear spectrum, the Gilded Night Wool-Blend Coat made the case for structure with equal conviction, a long double-breasted coat in dense wool broadcloth with sharp padded shoulders, wide lapels, and a belted waist that recalled the tailored severity of European dressing while remaining entirely within Ortiz’s visual world, styled over the Island Metallic Silk-Blend Top and the Unbothered Metallic Maxi Skirt for a total look that felt genuinely metropolitan.
Fabric, Embellishment, and the Collaborations
The material palette of Alma is one of the richest Ortiz has assembled, and it is in the specific choice and handling of each fabric that the collection’s sophistication is most legible. Devoré velvet appears in two significant looks, the Divine Femininity Asymmetrical Mini Dress and the Noche Floreada, where the burn-out technique creates the impression of shadowed forest ecosystems moving across the surface of the garment, botanical imagery rendered in negative space rather than applied decoration. The Hidden Flower Silk Maxi Dress took a different approach to the same darkness, working a shadowed floral print across 100% silk twill in deep forest greens and blacks with a high collar and long flowing sleeves that gave the look an almost monastic gravity, one of the quieter pieces in the collection and arguably one of the most beautiful for exactly that reason. The Garden of Becoming Maxi Dress in silk lurex georgette pushed toward luminosity rather than shadow, weaving metallic threads directly into the ground fabric so that the gown caught and released light with every step rather than reflecting it statically, a technical choice that aligned precisely with the collection’s morning after atmosphere and wore, in motion, like something close to liquid gold.
Johanna Ortiz | Fall Winter 2026/2027 | Madrid
Credit : FF Channel
The New Destiny Silk Maxi Dress introduced one of the collection’s most architecturally inventive details, a draped asymmetrical shoulder with an attached flowing scarf that trailed behind the wearer and created a second silhouette entirely dependent on movement, styled with the Mystical Stage Necklace from the Omar Hurtado collaboration and simple drop earrings that kept the focus on the garment itself. The Rebellious Pleated Maxi Dress worked heat-set knife pleats across silk georgette in an elongated column gown with a high halter neckline, the pleats expanding toward the hem in a way that transformed walking into something genuinely theatrical. The Mystical Gaucho Silk Mini Dress, cut short in 100% silk crepe with padded shoulders, a low neckline, and a pleated draped skirt panel, brought an entirely different energy, more irreverent and immediate, and demonstrated that the collection’s range extended well beyond the stately evening gown territory it occupied at its most formal.
The four collaborations that structured the collection each brought a distinct technical register to the whole. The partnership with Colombian designer Pepa Pombo produced the standout outerwear piece of the entire show, the Dark Opulence Cape at $5,950, a sculptural oversized knit in textured wool-cashmere with hand-knitted geometric tribal patterns and an asymmetric draped hemline that managed to be both architecturally forceful and surprisingly light in wear. The collaboration with Spanish house The Extreme Collection introduced a tailored rigidity that Ortiz’s signature draped pieces rarely carry on their own, and the three jackets that came out of this partnership were among the most discussed pieces of the show. The Herencias Del Alma Cotton Jacket in structured black cotton velvet, with its peak lapels, gold-tone metal buttons, and embroidered palm tree lining, placed Colombian botanical imagery inside the skeleton of Spanish military tailoring in a way that felt genuinely new rather than simply referential, styled over the fluid Golden Vibe Silk Midi Dress for a masculine-feminine tension that the collection returned to repeatedly. The Mosaic of Stories Jacket in cotton-viscose jacquard pushed the same tailored silhouette toward pattern and complexity, its geometric mosaic weave giving the structured blazer a textile richness that the cleaner velvet pieces deliberately avoided, while the No Expectations Jacket translated the military line into a slightly softer polyester-viscose crepe and introduced custom jacquard palm tree motifs that felt more playful than the formal precision of the velvet version, paired with the Joy Fusion wide-leg silk trousers and flat botanical embroidered ballerinas for a look that landed closest to the collection’s barefoot glamour ideal.
The embellishment in Alma reached its most intensive point in two specific pieces. The Fluvial Adventure Embellished Mini Dress was a sleeveless cocktail sheath entirely covered in hand-applied seed beads and sequins arranged in flowing wave patterns, layered under the Metallic Furry Jacket, a cropped open-front piece woven from silver and gold metallic yarn in a high-pile shaggy texture that mimicked fur with considerably more wit than most faux-fur treatments manage. Together the two pieces produced one of the most visually arresting looks of the show, the precision beading of the dress visible beneath the loosely luxurious jacket in a combination that felt genuinely unexpected. The Fearless Embellished Vest, a sleeveless tailored cotton-wool piece with dense floral chest embroidery and a clean single-breasted closure, offered a more restrained version of the same impulse, worn over the Living Power Midi Dress and paired with a hand-beaded mochila that carried the embellishment logic from the clothing into the accessories without any loss of coherence.
The jewelry collaboration with Colombian goldsmith Omar Hurtado provided the collection’s most emotionally resonant pieces, hand-hammered necklaces and asymmetric earrings that drew from pre-Columbian goldwork and incorporated raw Colombian crystals and semi-precious stones. The Vuelo de Libertad Necklace, worked in hand-hammered gold with raw quartz in asymmetric organic forms referencing the Andes, worn against the open backs and fluid collarbones of the silk gowns, functioned as wearable archaeology. The leather goods from Spanish brand Moi and Sass completed the picture with origami-structured bags finished with fluid silk tassels, accessories that moved with the garments rather than existing in contrast to them.
Color, Reference, and the Larger Argument
The Force of Nature Jacquard Jacket, a double-breasted piece with wide peak lapels woven in a deep black-and-gold botanical pattern, was perhaps the single look that most precisely summarized what Alma was trying to say: Colombian craft operating at the level of European tailoring, botanical heritage formalized into structured luxury, the tropical and the architectural in complete equilibrium. Styled over the Cutout Midi Dress with western-style embroidered suede boots, it moved down the runway of a century-old Madrid ballroom and looked as if it had always belonged there.
The color story of Alma was deliberately restrained in a way that served the collection’s emotional register without diminishing its visual impact. Deep forest greens, rich blacks, chocolate browns, and layered gold metallics formed the dominant palette, punctuated by the cream of the shearling and the constant flicker of lurex throughout. It is a winter palette that manages to feel warm rather than austere, which is a difficult balance to achieve and one that speaks directly to the precision of Ortiz’s fabric selection. The structural nods to Spanish equestrian culture and the traje de luces, the bullfighter’s embroidered suit of lights, appeared throughout in cropped bolero silhouettes, padded shoulders, and decorative metallic embroidery, but they were always filtered through Ortiz’s own visual language rather than presented as literal quotation. The La Interprete Embellished Wool-Blend Jacket made this reference most explicit, a strongly padded bolero-cut piece in structured wool-blend crepe heavily ornamented with metallic threadwork and botanical hand-embroidery that balanced the Spanish structural reference with Colombian decorative sensibility in a single garment. The Night in the Arena earrings, asymmetric gold and baroque pearl drops developed by Hurtado, were perhaps the most direct invocation of this reference, baroque and assured in equal measure.
Johanna Ortiz | Fall Winter 2026/2027 | Madrid
Credit : FF Channel
What Alma ultimately argues, and argues convincingly, is that a design identity rooted in a specific geography and cultural heritage does not become diluted when asked to travel. It becomes tested, and in testing, it reveals its actual depth. The Círculo de Bellas Artes was the right room for this collection not because it provided a glamorous backdrop but because it provided resistance, centuries of European cultural weight against which Ortiz’s Colombian craftsmanship had to hold its own. It did, without concession and without performance. That is the more interesting achievement.