Zero + Maria Cornejo.
I never thought I would be going to a runway show as hard core as this one, not on a Monday evening during the first week of my sophomore year of high school. Octavia, if you are reading this, I owe you so much.
The runway show was held at Pier 57, on Monday, September 10th, at 6 pm. The off-site shows are usually the more prestigious ones, though this isn't true across the board. Sometimes off-site shows are the ones that are being held off-site because they can't afford/aren't big enough/don't want to be held on-site (on-site = Lincoln Center). But for the purposes of now, let's classify Zero + Maria Cornejo as a member of the former category. I think that's pretty fair, seeing as while standing in line to enter the show, Octavia and I were right behind Mark Ruffalo and his wife Sunrise Coigney. That's about as famous as you can get without being Anna Dello Russo or Jbiebs himself.
Pre-show, I did my usual scour-the-front-row-for-amazing-people-that-are-not-actually-humans, which was especially difficult this time because there were four front rows. That's how many people were invited. I'm sorry, this all sounds so much like bragging, but please just try to see it as teenage girl freakout-ing instead. I tend to get very dramatic with formatting when recounting exciting stories. Despite how many front rows existed, I was able to pick out a few special people to turn my attention to, including Linda Fargo from Bergdorf Goodman and Simon Doonan from Barney's. When I went over to talk to Linda Fargo I'm pretty sure I just said, "Hi, I just wanted to say that I'm a huge fan of everything you do." I feel like the word "love" was thrown in there, but I can't remember how, and if it was, I suppose I've blocked it out of my memory. Her response was to take my right hand in her left hand in what would have potentially been an extremely awkward handshake if she wasn't Linda Fargo and said, "Oh, you're so sweet!" She then proceeded to ask me my name and such things (she even asked the origin of my name! Why is she so perfect!), and it was a beautiful encounter with a nonhuman personification of perfection. As for Simon Doonan, I recognized his face and basically stared him down for five minutes (I think he began to get uncomfortable, or even annoyed, at how intently I was glaring at him), but I just couldn't remember his name. I sure as hell wasn't going to go over to someone whose name I didn't know and start talking to them, because what if he wasn't actually Simon Doonan? But he was, and I realized it two hours after I left Pier 57. Classique.
Why don't I shut up about my fangirling experiences and talk about the actual show? Good idea, mental rationalizer.
"It's about looking towards the future, but with a nod to the past." That's a quote from Maria Cornejo on the subject of her Spring 2013 collection. Not to lessen the impact of her words or anything, but I feel like that is the motto of every contemporary designer's collection every season. "It's like a mix between the past and the future, but with a twist." The number of times those words have been used to describe a collection...makes me growl. But it's okay, because this time it actually makes sense. Maria likes to use photos she takes on her iPhone and rework them into prints: this is what I call a Future Element. IPhones are the epitome of right-now-ness and futurism (not to be confused with the early 20th century Italian artistic movement, Futurism). Crop circles--which are the subject of some of the designer's snapshots--are just kind of kooky. Some of the other photos she took, such as a Giacomo Balla steel sculpture from the 1920s will henceforth be known as a Past Element. If you really think about it, melding what has been and what is yet to be is quite a difficult task. But the juxtaposition of the minimalistic, monochromatic, hard architectural shapes with the fluid printed capes, jumpsuits, and other such garments represents the tension between the past and the future, and the struggle to get them to work together in harmony. Gold and silver jewelry are Past Elements, while plastic and rubber tubing practically shout Future Element. Maria designed with "the traveling woman in mind;" the idea of movement mirrors the notion of transition from before to after, maybe with a quick stop at now.
[Photos by me.]
Mark Scruffalo (we're on a nickname basis now, because on the internet, everyone is on a nickname basis) and his spouse Sunrise. Interestingly enough, the sun was actually setting around the time this photo was taken.
Simon Doonan, clearly very aware that I was stalking him. 
Sharp corners but loose silhouettes. Awesome but awesome. <--what?
Was this a photo of a crop circle, or a steel sculpture? The world may never know if that leather jacket is the only cropped thing about this outfit.
Those hairstyles were pretty futuristic if I do say so myself.
The prints were absolutely amazing.
Whoa. Whoa. Cocoon jackets and cropped pants? Count me mothatruckin' in.
Bah!!! The awesomeness continues!!!
Quick anecdote, although I'm sure you're so done with my storytelling: right before the show started, Octavia was getting her camera all ready and couldn't find her roll of colored film. After she located it and painstakingly set it in her camera, I was like, "How funny would it be if the entire collection was in black and white?" Turns out it basically was, and we were both dying.
Not just a knit. NEVER JUST A KNIT.
I haven't figured out where all this enthusiasm is coming from.
You know how I feel about open backs.
I don't even know how to describe what I'm seeing here.
Poncho? Blanket? High fashion? Oh yes.
Mind blowing stuff here. Time machines will do that.
The kind of sweater dress that doesn't make you want to curl up on your couch and not go to school.
I just got such a strong feeling of nostalgia from writing those words because I used to reference the Red Robin jingle all the time on here. Gotta bring it back.
Words. Must not put more in this blogpost.
Except apology for no words last week--too many words needed for AP World History-->brain was mush. When is it not.
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