Johanna Ortiz On Texas Style, Dallas Favorites, and Her New MARKET Residency

In July, beloved Highland Park Village fashion incubator MARKET announced Colombian designer Johanna Ortiz as its latest residency. For the year-long pop-up, MARKET installed Schumacher palm tree grasscloth in the space. That permanence for something temporary made sense because the world of Johanna Ortiz is just that — an immersive, full-throttle world.

To celebrate the residency, Johanna Ortiz herself flew to Dallas for a few days of bopping around the metroplex. Up first, though? Dinner with Dallas’ fashion set at Scilla, the new(ish) dazzling coastal Italian concept from Duro Hospitality. In a private room just off of the buzzing patio, MARKET owner Elisa Summers and Keenan Silverman, the store’s chief creative officer, welcomed a couple dozen of MARKET’s loyalists (and Johanna Ortiz fangirls!) for dinner and cocktails with the Colombian aesthete.

“Johanna Ortiz brings such a distinct sense of beauty, ease and joy to everything she creates,” says Silverman. “We’re thrilled to welcome her to MARKET for a year-long pop-up and to share her world with the Dallas woman in such an intimate way.”

The JO team outfitted the table with stunning wares from the brand’s home collection and a woven fan that each guest took home. (The waitstaff even served Scilla’s bread in these Johanna Ortiz bread baskets. See: aforementioned immersive world!) Guests, many of whom wore the newest Johanna Ortiz arrivals at MARKET, sipped cocktails and glowed in Ortiz’s presence, relishing the opportunity to hear more about Colombia and her newest collection.

Before she left, we caught up with Johanna Ortiz to learn more about her favorite spots in Dallas and how Texans’ style inspires her.

What are some of your favorite spots in DFW?

I love visiting Dallas-Fort Worth. I feel like I breathe differently there. Maybe it’s the open land and how much it reminds me of home. Or maybe it’s the way people welcome you. I’ve met wonderful women in Texas, and I admire the way they celebrate each other and show up for one another. And they have so much fun together. Being around them makes me feel like family.

Bowie House is my favorite place to stay in Fort Worth. I love how Jo Ellard’s art collection is displayed throughout the hotel. You can be on your way to breakfast and stop because something in the hallway catches your eye.

For dinner, I love The Chumley House. I can never pick a favorite dish because I want to order everything. And there’s Cattlemen’s, which has been in the Stockyards since 1947. It’s beautiful in that classic Fort Worth way, with so much of the city’s history still in the room. It’s fun to spot it in Landman, too. For the best skinny margaritas, I go to Ralph’s, the rooftop lounge at The Crescent overlooking the Cultural District.

The National Cowgirl Museum and Hall of Fame has a special place in my heart, especially since I received the Mary Jane Colter Award last year. I loved seeing the new space. I could spend hours learning about the women who shaped the American West.

One of my favorite things to do in Dallas is grab a good matcha and wander through Highland Park Village. We recently opened our residency at MARKET. I’ve always admired MARKET’s point of view, so it’s especially meaningful to see JO there. The residency gives us a chance to get to know Dallas better, and I can already imagine a more permanent home for JO in Highland Park Village.

We celebrated the opening at Scilla, a wonderful coastal Italian restaurant. I couldn’t get enough of the interiors, especially the hand-painted murals. It’s the kind of place where you want to linger after dinner.

What do you love about Texans’ style?

What excites me about Texas style is how freely women interpret their own traditions. A pair of Western boots can tell you something about where a woman comes from, and the way she wears them tells you something about who she is. As a designer, I’m drawn to that balance between a shared heritage and a very personal point of view.

How does Texas style align with the JO brand?

I spend a lot of time outdoors around horses, watching my boys play polo. There’s a freedom I feel on horseback, out in the open, that I also see in the way the women I’ve met in Texas dress. I admire how confidently they make Western traditions their own. As a designer, I’m drawn to the craftsmanship behind those traditions, from the grain of the leather to the double stitching and the way the edges of a saddle are finished. At JO, I love working with that balance of rawness and refinement and leaving room for each woman to wear a piece her own way.

PC Seen: Elisa Summers, Catalina Gonzalez Jorba, Sabrina Harrison, Riley Addy, Rachel Scoggins, Kristie Ramirez, Megan Flanagan, Catalina Londoño, Alex Cohen, Aparna Sharma, Stephanie Cook, Brianna Wright-Guay, Wren Homsey, Jenny Rutt, Evelyn Truax, Kelly Nolan, and Megan Winder.

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