{"id":88909,"date":"2024-03-20T15:55:57","date_gmt":"2024-03-20T15:55:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/graziamagazine.com\/us\/?post_type=articles&p=88909"},"modified":"2024-03-20T16:13:04","modified_gmt":"2024-03-20T16:13:04","slug":"zero-maria-cornejo-goes-back-to-zero","status":"publish","type":"articles","link":"https:\/\/graziamagazine.com\/us\/articles\/zero-maria-cornejo-goes-back-to-zero\/","title":{"rendered":"Zero + Maria Cornejo Goes Back to Zero"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Chlo\u00eb Sevigny in the Chloe One wrap dress re-edition, 2023 and Chloe One wrap dress, 1998. Photo Credit: Mark Borthwick<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In Back to Zero<\/a>,<\/em> a collection of portraits of creatives wearing Zero + Maria Cornejo re-editions published by Dashwood Books on the occasion of the cult New York label\u2019s 25th anniversary, Chlo\u00eb Sevigny appears twice in the same Chloe One dress, an asymmetrical midi wrap silhouette featuring a one-shoulder neckline and draped panel with a single armhole. The actress, director, and fashion maven\u2019s blonde waves are different lengths in the two photos and the new dress, worn on the book cover, is cut from sustainable silk charmeuse while the 1998 original was made from an upcycled Kmart poly-foam blanket. But otherwise the two photos taken a quarter century apart are practically indistinguishable. That\u2019s the thing about Maria Cornejo\u2019s architectural designs and the women who wear them: They always look strikingly original.<\/p>\n

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Maria Cornejo at the 2023 CFDA Awards. Photo Credit: Taylor Hill\/FilmMagic via Getty Images<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The afternoon we meet at Cornejo\u2019s design studio behind her Bleecker Street store, it\u2019s just a few days before the 2023 edition of the Council of Fashion Designers of America Awards<\/a> where she will receive the Geoffrey Beene Lifetime Achievement Award, and her phone is constantly buzzing. Cornejo\u2019s 25-year-old son, Jo-kel Cornejo Borthwick, who models a Circle top from the year of his birth in Back to Zero,<\/em> has just landed from Paris where he\u2019s now working as a creative director. The 15 subjects in Back to Zero<\/em>\u2014who also include visual artists Silvina Arismendi and Ariel Steinbach and architect Bella Guinness\u2014were all photographed by Cornejo\u2019s ex-husband and longtime creative collaborator Mark Borthwick.<\/p>\n

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Silvina Arismendi in a Fall\/Winter 2000 Bubble shrug and Back Tuck skirt re-editions, 2023; Ariel Steinbach in a Spring\/Summer 2004 Macaron shrug with Jo-kel Cornejo Borthwick and Bella Guinness in Spring\/Summer 1998 Circle top re-editions, 2023. Photo Credit: Mark Borthwick<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Cornejo is dressed all in black in a pair of her effortlessly cool boy-cut pants and a loose-fitting Merino wool sweater. \u201cThis is from years ago, I\u2019m wearing vintage,\u201d she tells me with a laugh. The subtext being that she\u2019s been championing sustainability and timeless design since long before Gen Z thought it was cool to do so. Cornejo is a founding member of the CFDA\u2019s Sustainability Committee, and Zero + Maria Cornejo has been eco-oriented since day one. \u201cI always say I hope my clothes make good heirlooms,\u201d Cornejo says. \u201cPass them on, share them.\u201d She launched the brand in 1998 from a bijoux shop on Mott Street, where she\u2019d hang a few pieces at a time on a rack and see what customers responded to. Many of her fabrics were upcycled, including the aforementioned blankets as well as reclaimed fleece, and garments were cut by hand to reduce waste.<\/p>\n

I always say I hope my clothes make good heirlooms. Pass them on, share them.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

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Spring\/Summer 1998 Circle top and Triangle top. Photo Credit: Mark Borthwick<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Then as now, Cornejo kept her focus on simple geometric shapes like circles, squares, triangles, and rectangles. \u201cI always liked the idea of poking holes in pieces of fabric and seeing how they\u2019re going to drape,\u201d she says, explaining the origin of iconic styles like the open back Triangle top (Spring\/Summer 1998) and Cut Out Triangle dress with an isosceles slice above the waist (Spring\/Summer 2002). Cornejo first tried her hand at design by knitting doll clothes with her grandmother in her native Chile, where she lived until age 12 when her parents sought political asylum in the United Kingdom following Pinochet\u2019s coup d\u2019\u00e9tat. Her mother died two years after their arrival in Manchester, England, and at age 15 Cornejo decided to concentrate in arts rather than sciences because it seemed more comfortable. \u201cIt\u2019s weird because I\u2019m quite mathematical and I always thought that I was actually not good at math,\u201d she reflects.<\/p>\n

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Patterns for Spring\/Summer 1998 Circle top and Triangle top and Spring\/Summer 2002 Cut-out Triangle dress. Photo Credit: Mark Borthwick<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

At her first store, Cornejo had a team of three patternmakers in the back who could make clothes on demand and thus avoid overproduction. She had been on the other side: After selling her 1983 Ravensbourne University graduate collection to a London boutique where Chrissie Hynde and Iggy Pop shopped, she launched a wildly successful line with her then-boyfriend John Richmond and had more than 100 international stockists plus 20 Richmond\/Cornejo stores in Japan by the time she was 23. Cornejo and Richmond parted ways in 1987, with Cornejo going on to work in the Paris fashion trenches for several big brands. A decade later when she decided to go solo in New York she resolved to do things differently. \u201cI wanted to just do a direct to consumer line, because you could control what you made and when you made it,\u201d Cornejo says.<\/p>\n

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Spring\/Summer 2024 Edi bomber and Wrap pant. Photo Credit: Matthew Kristall<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Cornejo couldn\u2019t keep all retailers at bay forever. Barneys and Colette came calling; the latter famously promised her all of its windows during Paris Fashion Week one season if she would agree to sell the label there. Zero + Maria Cornejo is now carried in 38 small independent boutiques in 22 states plus 18 international points of sales\u2014still relatively tight distribution for a label of its maturity. As she has scaled, Cornejo has insisted on manufacturing at least 85 percent of the collection locally in New York\u2019s Garment District. \u201cI saw that you would have to ship a piece of clothing all over the place to get it made,\u201d she says. \u201cThat just doesn\u2019t make sense because being sustainable is also about minimizing processes.\u201d Cornejo is also resolute about upcycling leftover fabrics from past collections wherever possible and sourcing responsible textiles like organic cotton, forest-friendly viscose, and recycled cashmere when new materials are required.<\/p>\n

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Stella Tennant in the Spring\/Summer 1998 Triangle top. Photo Credit: Mark Borthwick<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Paging through Back to Zero,<\/em> Cornejo reminds me that she was one of the first designers to cast her friends in shows and lookbooks instead of professional models. \u201cI don\u2019t surround myself with supermodels, I surround myself with all sorts of creative people,\u201d she says. Stella Tennant, she acknowledges, is a notable exception, but the two had bonded over their English upbringing and Tennant\u2019s having learned to speak Chilean Spanish from her godmother. As for what has enabled her to develop a loyal fan base of other like-minded creatives? \u201cI think what they gravitate towards is the fact that as a woman, I know how I want to feel so they can trust us to give them something that feels useful and relevant to their lives,\u201d says Cornejo. \u201cA lot of designers today think of their customer more as a muse than a woman.\u201d<\/p>\n

Read GRAZIA USA<\/em>\u2019s Winter Issue<\/a>, out now, featuring cover star Emma Roberts<\/a><\/strong><\/h4>\n","protected":false},"author":42719,"featured_media":88969,"template":"","format":"standard","categories":[4054,17,16,6540],"yoast_head":"\nZero + Maria Cornejo Goes Back to Zero - Grazia USA<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Celebrating 25 years in business, responsible fashion and timeless design champion Maria Cornejo has always been ahead of her time.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/graziamagazine.com\/us\/articles\/zero-maria-cornejo-goes-back-to-zero\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Zero + Maria Cornejo Goes Back to Zero\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Celebrating 25 years in business, responsible fashion and timeless design champion Maria Cornejo has always been ahead of her time.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/graziamagazine.com\/us\/articles\/zero-maria-cornejo-goes-back-to-zero\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Grazia USA\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2024-03-20T16:13:04+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/graziamagazine.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2024\/03\/M1001833-3.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1280\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"720\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"7 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/graziamagazine.com\/us\/articles\/zero-maria-cornejo-goes-back-to-zero\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/graziamagazine.com\/us\/articles\/zero-maria-cornejo-goes-back-to-zero\/\",\"name\":\"Zero + Maria Cornejo Goes Back to Zero - 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