The runway show as a cultural platform, where fashion moves beyond the collection and becomes a language for speaking about territory, identity, and transformation. It is born from the Path of the Arriero: a figure who moves from the mountains toward the city, carrying memory, craft, and territory with him.
The collection does not look at the past with nostalgia. It transforms it. It reinterprets Colombian codes —the carriel, woven textiles, cross-stitch, the texture of the landscape— through an urban, contemporary, and global lens.
A runway where origin is in motion, tradition evolves, and Latin craft finds a new way to inhabit the city.
THE PLACE
EPM-MEDELLIN-COLOMBIA
The runway show took place at EPM’s Intelligent Building, an icon of Medellín and of the city’s ability to transform itself through energy, architecture, and public vision.
More than a setting, EPM became an essential part of the narrative: a cultural symbol of progress, movement, and urban memory. From there, VÉLEZ and J BALVIN presented a statement connecting fashion, music, territory, and city. An encounter created in Colombia, with a vision open to the world.
STAGING
The setting was conceived as a landscape in motion.
Materials, volumes, and sculptural pieces accompanied the journey without overpowering the collection. The runway became a living geography: a path between mountain and city, between memory and the present.
The Artwork
The experience moved beyond the runway to become a journey where art, music, and territory expanded the narrative of the collection. The staging incorporated Trasiegos (2026), a sculptural installation by Colombian artist Fredy Alzate, conceived as a reflection on movement, memory, and the transformation of Antioquia’s cultural landscape.
Three monumental spheres, covered with earth sediments and brick remnants —materials that share clay as their origin— evoked routes, exchanges, and the processes that have shaped both the mountains and the identity of the territory.
The Runway
A journey where the arriero leaves the mountain behind without forgetting it, moving toward a living city shaped by movement and transformation.
THE RITUAL
The gastronomic experience became an extension of the creative journey.
Together with Selecta, Vélez brought the concept of Craft in Motion to a series of flavors inspired by origin, path, memory, city, and transformation. Each station translated the territory into a contemporary experience, where traditional ingredients were reinterpreted with technique and sensitivity.
A story served through bites, drinks, and gestures: the finca, the trapiche, coffee, panela, corn, yuca, cacao, and citrus as part of one living memory.
THE ECOUNTER
Artists, creators, opinion leaders, partners, and special guests were invited to experience the first defining moment of Colombiamoda 2026. They did not simply attend a runway show; they became part of a cultural conversation.
A night where fashion, music, the city, and community came together around one shared idea: bringing origin into the future.
The First Gesture
The invitation opened the first chapter of the journey.
Conceived as a gesture of anticipation, it became the entry point to an experience where every detail had a place within the narrative.
More than an invitation, it was a signal: something was about to be revealed from Medellín to the world.
People
Every conversation, arrival, and encounter became part of the universe of Artisan Gang In The City. The city became the stage, and the guests an active part of the narrative.
A community gathered around craft, music, and contemporary culture.
BEHIND THE SCENES
The backstage revealed the precision behind every gesture: fittings, adjustments, hands, textures, movement, and preparation. A process where the collection took shape before stepping into the scene.
Behind Artisan Gang In The City there was craft, tension, and detail. The invisible side of a night created to remain.
