founder and creative director said she received news of the honor via a phone call from Steven Kolb the morning of June 28 — the exact date, 25 years ago, that she opened her first Mott Street store and atelier in NoLIta“It’s very emotional. It’s a big year in a lot of ways. Personally, my son is 25, and my company is 25,” she told WWD during an interview at her Bleecker Street store.
“Running a small, independently owned fashion brand has never been easy, but right now it truly is not for the faint of heart. It’s a challenge,” Zero + Maria Cornejo president, Marysia Woroniecka, told WWD. The two, who are friends and have known each other since the ’80s, began working together in the 2000s. Woroniecka officially came on board after the 9/11 attacks. “She’d lost her backing and it was really a challenge after that particular moment for an independent designer to continue.
Today, in the post-Barneys era, the business is in about 50 or 60 doors and primarily sold in the U.S. market. Retail partners include Bergdorf Goodman, Mitchells, Richards and ByGeorge in Austin. “They exemplify the kind of store that we do incredibly well with,” Woroniecka said. Her pieces are meant to counter the speed of the fashion cycle. “It has to be beautiful and needs to add value to the clients life,” she said.
“It’s always about being authentic and not trying to be somebody else. Find your own identity and find your client — dress your tribe,” she said. “They trust me and my team to make them look good. Ageless, not dated, and not ridiculous.”“I feel like the clothes have been with people of substance while they’re doing things of substance,” she said. “I’m cool by association because the clothes get to be in these amazing places and be worn by incredible women.
“Originally, I made it in a K-Mart blanket, and now it’s one of our bestselling dresses,” Cornejo said. Other favorites from her archive, including the Foil dress, jumpsuits or triangle tops and caftans, can be seen on the likes of Francesca Sorrenti, Sunrise Coigney, Ilya Chaiken, Zora Sicher, Hanna Frolova, Madjeen Isaac, Brooke Williams, Alice Waese, Mia Enell, Silvina Arismendi, Ariel Steinbach and Belle Guinness, and more.