“I love the feeling of an urban summer; fabrics that feel like the beach but toughened up somehow – just a bit edgier”. This was Maria Cornejo’s remit for Spring Summer. Accordingly, she presented chic variations on the idea of suiting; slouchy enough to feel relaxed but with enough polish to look the business! Of course, Cornejo’s dresses are her trademark and this season they were expertly draped close to the body and sometimes belted with bright colours to add hardness and control to the fluidity. Those intriguing prints? Taken from photographs shot during a visit to Musée du Quai Branly in Paris, Bolivian devils were turned into kaleidoscopic prints and African head-dresses became a blur of red and white abstraction. With colours that had all the intensity of scorching July heat, I left the show humming Joe Cocker’s ’Hot town, Summer in the city’!
Text: Caroline Newell
Photography: Mitchell Sams
