On Wednesday afternoon, Colombian designer Johanna Ortiz officially opened the doors to her first New York flagship at 799 Madison Avenue on the Upper East Side.headquarters, a logistics and stock room, and two retail floors with the designer’s seasonal collections, swim and resort wear lines, homeware, specialty gowns and exclusive NY styles — was designed to transport shoppers and give them the full Johanna Ortiz experience.
Ortiz’s resort collection, which launched the same day as her retail opening, was designed with this expansion in mind. New knitwear and leather pieces were a direct nod to new NYC customers who, come winter, might want to pair her heavier brushed cashmere sweaters with a buttery leather flared skirt with hand-braided details, for example. There was also a stellar navy knit set with knotted crochet inserts.
“We tried to interpret the feeling of being by the water and ocean and being colorful, while doing a different version of my Western, with nautical,” she said.