Toronto Star

Chilean’s drapey viscose inspires

Maria Cornejo captures imaginatio­n of first lady and Holt Renfrew

- DAVID LIVINGSTON­E SPECIAL TO THE STAR

Maria Cornejo designs clothes that have found fans among a variety of interestin­g women, including Michelle Obama, artist Cindy Sherman and actor Tilda Swinton — which argues well on behalf of Cornejo’s optimistic belief in options.

It’s a belief that Cornejo explores by cutting cloth in original ways that don’t presuppose physical perfection. Instead, they suggest possibilit­ies.

And it was her optimism and originalit­y which helped her self-financed company, Zero + Maria Cornejo, when the recession hit in 2008. She captured the public’s imaginatio­n after becoming a favourite of the first lady which helped push her company through, and is proud that 70 per cent of her company’s manufactur­ing is still in America.

On a promotiona­l visit to Toronto on Tuesday as guest of Holt Renfrew, which carries her collection at its Bloor St. and Vancouver stores, Cornejo remembered emerging in London at a time “of thinking everything was possible.”

That was 1984. Cornejo was graduating from the Ravensbour­ne College of Design and Communicat­ion, and sold her graduating collection to Joseph and Whistles, important retailers of the day.

Vivienne Westwood, Katharine Hamnett and Body Map were labels making London a hive of all that was hot and happening. “The energy was amazing. That doesn’t happen anymore,” says Cornejo, who thinks today’s young designers are missing the naiveté that feeds that energy. “Now they all come out of college with a business plan and h wanting to be celebritie­s.”

But even that is said with the loving forbearanc­e of a mother. Cornejo, who has a 20-year-old daughter and 14-year-old son, holds to freedom of choice.

“I can’t keep my children from anything. They will be who they want to be.”

Born in Chile in 1962, Cornejo was a child when she moved to London with her parents, whom she describes as “socialist intellectu­als.” But she says she doesn’t like to talk about politics. “Let’s just say I’m open-minded.” Keeping an open mind ranks high with Cornejo, who considers it a key factor in realizing what her options are.

It also makes for a distinctiv­e career path.

Married in 1988 to Mark Borthwick, a photograph­er whose pictures are as understate­d as his wife’s designs, Cornejo left Europe in 1996 to settle in New York.

In 1997, she opened Zero + Maria Cornejo as a shop on the Lower East Side that helped make the Nolita neighbourh­ood a fashion destinatio­n.

Since 2005 when Cornejo partnered with longtime friend Marysia Woroniecka — once one of London fashion’s leading publicists — a second store has opened in New York and a first in Los Angeles. As well, the Zero + Maria Cornejo collection is wholesaled to 80 accounts. Despite her success, Cornejo says she quite regularly gets to a point in the design process where “you think you’re never going to break through.” But eventually, she does, never having lost her interest in possibilit­ies. Currently, Cornejo is experiment­ing with new shapes, achieved with materials that don’t fall but keep their form. She hasn’t abandoned the drapey viscose that has become a signature, but in her women’s collection for next fall, she reveals herself to be newly curious about stiffer, flatter double-faced or quilted fabrics.

“I was sick of drapeyness and bubbles and things that I’ve been exploring for a long time and a lot of people are doing now,” she explains, smiling, independen­t and openminded.

 ?? COLIN MCCONNELL/TORONTO STAR ?? Designer Maria Cornejo
COLIN MCCONNELL/TORONTO STAR Designer Maria Cornejo
 ??  ?? Zero Maria Cornejo belted dress, $995, Holt Renfrew
Zero Maria Cornejo belted dress, $995, Holt Renfrew

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