Zero + Maria Cornejo Tries To Break Through

Maria Cornejo is a designer from Chile that always seems just on the cusp of being the next "IT" designer.  She's a fantastic designer and she really has what it takes.  Or at least she does in my opinion.  I always like to watch her collections, hoping that she finally got over the last hump and is making dresses that will become cult items.  I think the world needs more designers that aren't American, Japanese or Western European and I think that she would help fill that void.  (maybe if I keep blogging about her someone will listen...)

Her Spring/Summer 2010 runway show really demonstrated why she's a fresh voice in fashion.  With this black dress, it appears that she's taking her draping sensibilities to a new level.  She reimagines the architectural/origami trends into something that is also soft and draped.  The side pockets are a less severe version of the ones that almost every designer is putting on their dresses, the kind that are meant to square off the hip and create a kind of art deco robot shape.  But, these pockets move and fall with the woman, still giving a new shape to the hips but in a way that is distinctly feminine.  I'm really curious about how the top of the dress looks when the model's arms are spread out and if the draped bust fabric moves with them.  While I'm generally not a fan of excessive fabric at the bust, this fabric is draped in so many directions that it doesn't seem to have saggy-boob syndrome.  That's hard to do.  The problem with this dress is that although it is nice, wearable and cute it isn't enough for Maria Cornejo to really step up and capture the fashion world's imagination and get to the next level.

In recent collections Maria Cornejo has also started including looks that aren't based on the draped sack dress concept.  She's starting to incorporated more seams and shapes and prints.  Let's face it--not everyone looks great in a sack dress.  That's why I really like this black and white dress from the SS 2010 runway show.  Its not a draped sack.  In fact...its kinda body-con.  It has seam detailing/structure, it is more shape-conscious and fitted and not a gather in sight.  I'm not sure how I feel about the black sash across the bust, but it doesn't take away from the fact that Maria is trying something else than her usual and she's taking risks.

I really hope that Maria Cornejo is able to finally take her work to the next level and really become an IT indie designer.  She's good, now she needs to create looks that achieve that cult status that makes women fight for her pieces.  I'm really looking forward to her next few collections!

Pictures from Style.