At Milan Fashion Week on March 1, 2026, Peruvian fashion designer Jorge Luis Salinas unveiled Virreinato, his Fall Winter 2026/27 collection — and the Galleria Meravigli provided the kind of intimate, architecturally charged backdrop that felt entirely appropriate for what was, at its core, a meditation on civilization, memory, and cloth. The runway was spare and luminous, stripped of distraction, so that every exit allowed the extraordinary quality of the handwork to speak for itself.
Virreinato — a reference to Peru’s viceregal era — drew its visual and conceptual vocabulary from that charged period of history, when Spanish colonial power and indigenous Andean culture collided and, in some instances, fused into something altogether singular.
Flowers, collars, and the characteristic volumes of the era reappeared reinterpreted across surfaces woven in alpaca fiber, cotton, and silk. The result was neither historical costume nor mere quotation — it was a full creative reckoning with the past, rendered in the language of contemporary luxury.
The silhouettes were architectural in the truest sense: structured sleeves that expanded into bold geometric forms, layered surfaces that rewarded close inspection, three-dimensional crochet textures that seemed almost to grow organically from the body.
Approximately 90 percent of the garments were crafted entirely by hand, while the remaining pieces incorporated silk and organic organza. Each piece was the product not of a factory floor but of Peruvian artisans whose mastery of ancestral technique has been passed down across generations.
Salinas, a graduate of the Philadelphia College of Textiles and Science, was shaped from an early age by his parents’ work in Gamarra, Peru’s most vital textile district — an environment that gave him both his creative foundation and his understanding of craft as discipline. That sensibility permeates every element of Virreinato.
The collection’s primary materials — Peruvian Pima cotton and alpaca fiber — were sourced domestically, a decision that reflects both an aesthetic commitment to the finest local resources and a deeply held belief in the cultural and economic value of Peruvian production.
Crochet has long been a signature of the J. Salinas house, and in Virreinato that technique was pushed into new formal territory. The interlocking of stitch and structure gave the garments a tactile richness that photographs only partially convey — these were clothes that demanded to be seen in person, touched, considered as objects in their own right. Salinas himself was clear about his vision: he wanted his designs to be appreciated as wearable works of art, pieces that collectors would prize as such.
Among the standout elements of the collection were woven floral motifs, knitted collars, and textures evoking the viceregal period, each reinterpreted in a modern and wearable register designed to connect with a contemporary, younger clientele.
One particularly noted piece featured a skirt constructed from a cardigan tied at the waist — a gesture that reinterprets a traditional typology through a thoroughly current lens.
Salinas’ creative process begins with visits to museums, the study of film, and an immersive engagement with Peruvian folklore, with references spanning the marinera and the huaylas dance traditions. That research-driven approach gave Virreinato its unusual density — this was a collection that wore its scholarship lightly, translating rigorous historical inquiry into garments that felt alive and immediate rather than archaic.
In 2025, Salinas received the Artisan Project of the Year honor at the Latin American Fashion Awards, with the jury presided over by Donatella Versace — a recognition that cemented his standing as a leading voice in artisanal contemporary fashion. Virreinato confirmed that position with unmistakable authority.
“Peru holds a rich heritage of stories, traditions, and cultures that deserve to be told,” Salinas said. “Through fashion, I aim to give voice to these narratives, bringing them to the world with respect and creativity, to share the authentic soul of my country.”
Virreinato was precisely that — a declaration of belonging, a love letter to a country whose creative resources, Salinas has spent his career insisting, are inexhaustible.
