Maria Cornejo is celebrating the 25th anniversary of her label this year. As designers often do when faced with such a milestone, she looked at previous collections and brought back some of her favorites. Devotees of the brand know that Cornejo already works with a series of silhouettes that she often refers to in her collections—and they might even know them by name: the Foil dress, the Opposite dress, the Koya coat, the One Seam Legging, the Bibi coat (named after her daughter). (Full disclosure, I worked at the Cornejo store on Bleecker Street a number of years ago, so I am one of those who know many of the style names by heart.)
But Cornejo had a different approach in mind this season. “I thought it was really important to focus on shapes again, and things that are closer to the body and bring a more youthful spirit to it. I think it’s nice to show some skin,” she said during an appointment at her studio. For fall Cornejo went back through the archive to figure out “what looked relevant again.” Her clothes were featured in now-iconic photo shoots of the late ’90s and early aughts, and she brought many of them back, with slight tweaks. There was the One-Piece, an asymmetrical neckline dress with a wrap panel that slips over one arm like a vest. It was photographed on Chlöe Sevigny by Mark Borthwick in 1999 (and she’s been photographed in the new version for a series of images commemorating the anniversary as well). Cornejo also brought back the Triangle Top, originally worn by Stella Tennant in another photograph by Borthwick. “The original triangle was about this big,” Cornejo said, making a very narrow empty space between her two hands. Now it’s a dress. “It holds everything in,” she said. The Bibi coat, a perennial favorite, returned in shearling, with a more sculpted waist.
The designer has long been a proponent of working with sustainable fabrics and processes, and this season some of the highlights included a series of chenille-like pieces in a fabric called Eco Pet, made from recycled plastic. A tank with an asymmetrical neckline tucked into a pencil skirt with an off center zipper had a youthful edge. Ditto the bubble shrug and tuck skirt brought back from the year 2000 in a tweedy red fabric. An ultra suede caftan was basically two triangles (or was that a diamond folded in half?) and the result was slightly futuristic, like something David Bowie would have worn—“Very Kansai Yamamoto from the’70s or ’80s, but it wasn’t intentional,” said the designer. Cornejo has always been interested in shapes and the way they wrap around the body, but this season, with the body itself becoming the center of attention, the collection had an undeniable sex appeal. Blame it on the cutouts, or the exposed waistband of a pair of fishnet stockings, one of Cornejo’s current obsessions, (she also styled the lookbook).
There are always a few prints in every collection, and for fall, Cornejo brought back the “eyelash” print from spring 2004, on jacquard coats and dresses. They were a little abstracted and had a disco feeling, especially on a pink and black jacquard. The illustrated anniversary print first rolled out for spring 2009 felt as fresh today as it did then. Rounding out the collection was a pair of chunky ankle boots with a square toe and a sort of ribbon detail around the perimeter. They were a good grounding force for Cornejo’s thoughtful execution of geometric shapes for the 21st century. Here’s to 25 more years.
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