Zero + Maria Cornejo Pre-Fall 2012

[Stereo_Flo]

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.

-style

 

[Stereo_Flo]

-style

 

[mackos]

when they arrive in stores just in time for high summer in the city.

I guess this could explain the presence of so much of the beachwear in a pre-fall collection, but I still don't fully get it. I mean, are pre-fall pieces meant to be worn in the high summer? Kinda confusing.

Anyway, the number seven draped dress is really gorgeous, both fabric and construction she used are beautiful.

 

[Desi]

I feel as if most smart designers design for the time that these collections hit the store, Mackos. It would not do most shoppers or houses good for autumn coats to hit the racks in May and June.

 

[Stereo_Flo]

by Emily Holt​

If there is one topic guaranteed to come up at a pre-collection appointment, it’s that dressing according to season feels about as modern as a land line. But there’s no skirting the issue when, six days into December, the weather is the same in New York as it is Los Angeles—a balmy 60 degrees.

Sitting in her showroom in Manhattan on just such a morning, dressed in a sleeveless silk shift and boots, Maria Cornejo declared, “There are no seasons,” and to prove her point, the pre-fall collection she presented included bikinis and bright, ethereal dresses. Fortunately they happened to be lovely bikinis and bright ethereal dresses, in dark graphic prints and vivid blues and greens, respectively, that won’t look out of place in stores—or on bodies—come June.

The colors were the tones of grass and cloudless skies, not quite as vibrant as the hues Cornejo showed for spring, but not her signature muted shades either. Which in a sense made them just right. Her silhouettes—voluminous triangular dresses, pleated mid-calf pants—didn’t deviate from seasons past, but as Cornejo, who has a quiet legion of followers, said, “When people find shapes that flatter them, they don’t want them to change.” In other words, they want to find them season after season.

-vogue​

 

[Scott]

personally i enjoy the idea of seasonless dressing with the exception of seasonal necessities but otherwise i see it very much the same way as maria. it's all in how you appropriate everything. to be honest a lot of designers are still utilising this new "pre-fall" trend as a way to continue presenting resort collections. preen refers to their recent one as 'resort' too. some take it literally but others don't.

as for the collection,it's not what i consider one of her best but i do love the use of colour here as well as the fabric manipulation.....really subtle but innovative technique she used to give that furry affect.