Not long after Style.com s Resort preview with Maria Cornejo this morning, we overheard an editor from another fashion pub saying that she d be wearing a Maria dress to the CFDA Awards. "It s simple and easy," she reported—the holy grail for fashion insiders, who ve made a religion of dressing down for dressy occasions, saving the gowns for clueless Hollywood types.
Cornejo s latest collection continues in the same casually luxe vein. Or maybe we should call it dorky chic; the designer herself did. "I like that it s kind of dorky," she said, describing a black dévoré popover top tucked into a pair of black shorts made from a feathery synthetic fringe. If all this sounds like you have to be part of the in crowd to understand and wear Cornejo s clothes, that isn t the case. The brand is growing and she s expanding her range, adding jacquard suiting and leather separates to her familiar photo-print dresses (the best of which was an oversize polka dot that was actually a metal mesh fence at San Francisco s de Young Museum). Cornejo also tossed in an elegant ivory jersey gown tucked and draped from a central spot at the midriff. In it, no one, not even a Hollywood celebrity, could look clueless.
