Six months into the pandemic and most designers still aren’t putting masks on their lookbook models. Given Dr. Anthony Fauci’s latest warning to hunker down this fall and winter, and that “it’s not going to be easy,” a maskless slideshow feels not just like a missed opportunity, but a failure of imagination. Masks are the most important accessory of 2020 and probably will be in 2021, too.
Maria Cornejo’s fashion has always been grounded in reality. She wears her designs everyday on her subway commute from her home in Bed-Stuy, Brooklyn, to her Bleecker Street studio and office; she knows what makes sense and what doesn’t. And so, her spring lookbook opens with a quilted jacket with a shibori-ish effect and a matching mask. “We want to focus on what we know works, we’re all in survival mode,” Cornejo said in her showroom this morning, fresh off the train.
That doesn’t mean this was a gloomy collection. On the contrary: She calls it a “love letter to New York and what keeps us here: the inspiration, the people, the energy that no other city has.” Renewing the foundational pieces that are performing well, Cornejo emphasized both denim, in a dark rinse and a fresh-looking ivory color with contrast stitching, and sweatshirting, which she elevates by cutting asymmetrically and in color-blocked motifs. Of note are several pairs of shorts with the split side seams of athletic wear and a paperbag waist tied off with a big bow. They’re exemplary of a lineup that was designed to address the way we’re living now. Easy to wear, yes, but also fun to wear. There’s a difference, and Cornejo gives us both.