More often than not, Maria Cornejo uses her own iPhone photographs as the basis for her prints. This season, she looked to a friend in the New York art community, Elliott Puckette, to provide the graphics for her new collection. Though their mediums are different—clothes for Cornejo, paintings for Puckette—their sensibilities are aligned. Neither has ever met a curved line she didn’t like. The most obvious connection between the two women here is found in a group of silk pieces in Cornejo’s signature away-from-the-body shapes featuring a print of Puckette’s own graceful calligraphic lines. Bubble dresses, elastic-waist pants, and rounded tees come in a lively dot pattern that’s also Puckette’s.
As engaging as those prints are, though, the real draw of Cornejo’s Pre-Fall lineup is its textures. “I’m a fabric geek, as you know,” she said, navigating her way among an array of interesting jacquards, crinkled cottons, soft hessians, and cotton voiles, the unifying characteristic of which is a breezy lightness. Wear the voile dress with sandals and it’s headed to the beach; add a belt to the graphic jacquard and it’s summer-gala ready. The most sensational fabric might be the shaggy, silky fil coupe she showed in ivory or black. Cornejo’s trick is imbuing even a super-luxe, couture-ish material like that with an inviting sense of ease.
