For ApparelMagic client Zero + Maria Cornejo’s show at New York Fashion Week, the conversation is squarely on the body. How do we cover ourselves? Should our clothes encase us tightly, following every muscle and curve, or should they sit around us, forming silhouettes entirely separate?
Cornejo played with both of these ideas, finding a happy medium as she is seemingly able to do with all things. With opening numbers mixing pink, red, and tangerine satins, she made loose volumes that generously encircled the body like the folds of an Indian sari. A jacket in an off-white neoprene seemed to rigidly float on top of the body when at rest, but in motion it creased gently at every limb’s movement.
Using black and white natural fibers in other looks, Cornejo and her team moved between these two ideas seamlessly. Some dresses stayed taut against the front of the body but in the back hung in deflated ovoid shapes.
Beyond contours, the designer used surface decoration to her advantage too. Words were scrawled in indigo across dresses and draped diagonally across the body. Candy stripes in red or blue covered some of the looks, like a long column dress with a band of ruching from shoulder to ankle.
Commanding in her implementation of all of these ideas, Cornejo knows what women want from her. Luckily her brand, now in its twentieth year, knows exactly how to do it with aplomb.
