Maria Cornejo said something interesting at her Resort presentation: “You can’t trademark shapes, but you can trademark textiles.” Cornejo is a designer who favors curving lines and geometric silhouettes; as frustrating as that trademark situation may be, she’s going to keep on exploring new forms (and influencing many other designers while she’s at it). For Resort, she’s come up with something she’s calling with the “quadro” sleeve; cut full and three-quarter length, with a slanted wrist opening, it’s quite sculptural, especially in a new organic faux fur that she sourced in Japan.
That fake fur was just one of many interesting materials she played with this season. Considering the November timing of the collection’s arrival in stores, she designed with an eye to holiday dressing. Pleated gold foil—“bohemian bling,” she called it—was cut into a tunic, an evening dress, and a tentlike shift, for her three types of clients: the “cool girl,” the “Bergdorf’s shopper,” and the “art lady.” There’s also a striking woven jacquard shot through with glints of metallic thread; a vest and jacket made from looped rayon tape made by a Bolivian women’s cooperative; and a lacquered raffia suggestive of leather from a distance. All of these require development; Cornejo is not picking them out at a mill. You can see why she might want a patent.
On the more casual side, she’s also going deeper into denim than she has before. At the moment, there’s a trend for loose-fitting jeans with an ’80s mien. Cornejo’s have that appealing relaxed attitude, only without the retro-tinged vibes. Her design vocabulary is utterly her own.
