Urban camouflage. Deconstructing her new collection for pre-fall, that's the term Maria Cornejo used. It was an ironic choice, given that this designer has as strong a signature as any in the business (there's no missing the girl in the Maria dress when she walks into a room), but it was also rather apt. There were abstract patterns everywhere you looked—from the striped jacquard of a snug, lapel-less blazer and the pixelated jacquard of the blouson shorts it was paired with to the oversize butterfly and feather prints adapted from iPhone pics that she used on easy silk dresses.
Texture is becoming a buzzword this season, and Cornejo had one of the most riveting so far: a feathery silk/poly fringe that looked like Mongolian lamb from a distance but happens in actuality to be almost weightless. "It's a bit mad," she said, and indeed it was on an asymmetrical shift dress. But it wasn't the collection's only trick-of-the-eye. Cornejo's denim tunic and cropped pants were in fact cut from a Japanese indigo viscose—not denim at all—which means they'll have a good chance of flying off the racks when they arrive in stores just in time for high summer in the city.
