The call came in June to Maria Cornejo, the American designer of Chilean descent. She claimed to be at home in her somewhat disorganized little white Brooklyn home, where she lived with her 18-year-old cat Ziggy and a few enormous ficus trees.
She was on the phone with Steven Kolb, the CEO of the Council of Fashion Designers of America, who informed her that she was going to receive the CFDA’s lifetime achievement award. She was a little surprised because, in the twenty-five years since she had opened her first store, she had never once been nominated for, let alone won, a CFDA award. She had never even won emerging designer of the year, women’s wear designer of the year, or accessories designer of the year. She stated that she hadn’t holding her breathe.
After all, as longtime client and artist Cindy Sherman noted: “She’s never even kissed up to Anna Wintour.”
Ms. Cornejo has avoided fashion and compensated endorsements from well-known figures. Never promoted herself or offered to sell her name in exchange for money. Never designed a dress for a striking photo instead of a real person. Never fulfilled all the responsibilities that contemporary designers, now referred to as “creative directors,” are expected to perform, and fashion brands have evolved into content producers for the global entertainment industry.
Ms. Cornejo questioned what she was receiving the award for specifically. demonstrating that you could live without participating in the game?
Ms. Cornejo serves as a reminder that there is another type of role model in the fashion industry, amidst the current debate within and outside of it about why there aren’t more female designers at the top of major houses. When Kering, the second-largest fashion conglomerate in the world, replaced Alexander McQueen designer Sarah Burton with Seán McGirr, all of its creative directors were white men, which sparked a backlash.
Despite all the times she “wanted to give up,” she stated in her CFDA acceptance speech that she wanted even less to be a cog in a machine, made to dance to the TikTok demands of a marketing juggernaut, as she stood in front of her peers, Kim Kardashian, and Gwyneth Paltrow beneath the great blue whale in the American Museum of Natural History.
A few days prior to the award ceremony, Ms. Cornejo had stated in an interview, “I never meant to be a rebel.” “It was more just doing what I thought was best in a quiet way. I have a lot of stubbornness. I didn’t want to make boring mom clothes; instead, I wanted to make clothes that would feel good and be wearable.
