ESCUELA JOHANNA ORTIZ
LOCATION: CALI
FOUNDER: JOHANNA ORTIZ
INCEPTION: 2016
ABOUT ESCUELA JOHANNA ORTIZ
Escuela Johanna Ortiz is an onsite training program which was founded in 2016 to offer free professional-level seamstress and high end embroidery courses to vulnerable women from the designer’s hometown, as a vehicle for professional and personal empowerment.
The first months of the training program are dedicated to building strong personal skills such as emotional intelligence and self-confidence as well as basic financial basics to apply to their own households. Over several months participants learn different techniques and processes required in the fashion industry which give them the necessary tools to either be part of the JO family in the future or to become entrepreneurs and pursue their own professional careers in the industry. All of this is accompanied by phsyco-social professional support, in order to ensure an improvement in each participant’s well-being and quality of life.
The Escuela Johanna Ortiz program is expected to continue growing and to soon be able to train hundreds of women, teaching them the necessary skills to dignify and professionalize their careers. Johanna Ortiz’s aim is to positively impact the local community and to create a more sustainable business.
ABOUT THE FOUNDER
Johanna Ortiz founded her design studio in 2003 in Cali, Colombia, and her breakthrough moment came in 2014 when Lauren Santo Domingo, the founder of Moda Operandi, discovered the JO Resort 2014 collection and launched a successful trunkshow. In the years since, the JO brand has developed a presence in over 21 countries worldwide and Ortiz seasonally presents her collections in Paris and New York, where she has earned critical acclaim.
Johanna Ortiz has laid the foundation for longevity through a commitment to community and purpose. She has met growth with strategy, developing a state-of-the-art atelier in her hometown assuring the conservation of artisanal knowledge, cultivating innovative craftsmanship, and inspiring playful creativity. The studio now employs over 360 women and has established an onsite training program that offers professional-level seamstress and embroidery courses free of charge.
It is these initiatives that have garnered Johanna Ortiz invitations to the White House and the United Nations and earned her a coveted spot as one of the Business of Fashion’s 500: an index of people shaping the global fashion industry.
