June 9, 2022 • 40 mins
Bobbi and Anjali are joined by famed fashion designer and force for sustainability Maria Cornejo. We'll hear all about how Maria has learned to adapt and overcome through her years of design, and how she's constantly finding ways to reinvent herself both personally and professionally.
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
How many things are different since we met, since before
the pandemic, how my life has changed, and how a
lot of people's lives, and how things that you didn't
realize were so important are really the important things. Right.
It's not just your career, and it's not just you know,
(00:22):
how you show up at work. It's just it's really
the words that come out of your mouth and how
you live your life. So today, Bobby, we are going
to be speaking with a dear friend of mine, Maria Cornejo.
(00:43):
She is an amazing, amazing designer and someone that I
wear all the time. And we're on the TED stage
in fact, and that's how she and I know each
other because I were an outfit I bought up the
sample sale on TED stage and she and I became
friends after that. Well, I'm really looking for ward to
meeting her because I really don't know anything about her.
I know her clothes, I know you know, we've been
(01:05):
in the same circles, but we have never actually met.
I know. I find that so crazy because I feel
like you're going to be fast friends and have a
ton in common. So let's get started. Excited to talk
to Maria. Hi, Maria, nice to meet you. Hi, Bobby.
Nice to finally meet you. I know, all these years
we have never ever ever been in any of these places,
(01:27):
and we've had so many parallel you know, career things. Yeah,
and a lot of friends. We have friends in comments,
which is nice, you know, but it's sort of like
we're all I feel like I'm always just busy doing
stuff and keeping quite a monastic life most of the time.
Not glamorous at all. Oh, come on, it's all glamorous
when you look back and you see all the things
(01:48):
you've done and what you've produced, and who you are
and and and who you were. Come on, it's very glamorous.
You're doing what you want to be doing, isn't that correct? Yes,
you know, I'm surprised it's not. You know, I don't
do what I want to do every single day. Really,
what would you rather do? Um? Garden? Okay, okay, hang
(02:13):
out with my friends? You know? You know the fashion
the fashion schedule is quite you know, you know, it's
very forlorn, and you know, it's just like constantly like
you're own three different seasons at the same time. I mean,
I had to be reminded, you know what the spring,
summer collection was about, because I've already gone through another
three different ones since then, So it's just like I
(02:35):
feel like I'm going Maria lives in the future. I live.
You know, this is one of the things that I
don't like about what I do is that I am
never in the present, and so that's one of my
biggest things that you know, it's I get to enjoy
the clothes when I'm not designing. So I like to
travel because when I get to be that woman. I
(02:56):
like to go out once in a while because I
get to be that woman. I'm also time a bit
like a mechanic. But but I think possibly if you
would stop and realize that if anyone would look at
what you do and your day to day existence, people
would kill to have this fulfilled life of creativity and business.
(03:17):
So I think, you know, of course, I'm very lucky
and blessed. I've been able to create my own environment
at working environment. I know that for sure. I was
never a corporate person, so yes, and I've wanted to
have a working environment that was good and that I
wanted to come to work every day. So there's so
(03:38):
many questions I have to ask. But you've been you've
been designing clothes for how many years? Well, I'm fifty
nine now, so I'm so much older than you are. Really. Yeah,
but your hair dog, so you either die. Yeah, I
do dye my hair. Absolutely. I am sixty four and
maybe by the time this podcast comes out, I might
(03:58):
be sixty. So I'll be designing since I was twenty one.
So that is let's do the math. That is a
long time, right. But but you are also so known
for so many things, but one of them is sustainability. Yeah,
and you did that before it was a word. Yes,
You're like the o G of I love that I
(04:18):
should have that well be called boy. I always called
Bobby the o G of inclusive beauty, and I think
of you as the o G of sustainability and fashion
and that you're doing it. Like Bobby said before, it
was cool before everybody was talking about it. Um, it
was just always something that you did. I feel like, yeah,
I think since I started in New York and ninety
I moved to in n six and I started the
(04:42):
store Slash Creative Space in and I had had a
six year old, my daughter being was not thirty and
my son's twenty four. He was eight months old and
after working for big commercial companies, I saw the amount
waste and it just really shot me and I just thought,
(05:04):
this is what we are doing to the planet, and
this is what my kids are inheriting. And I felt
really responsible, you know. And I've always thought, you know,
my parents are real socialists and stuff, and I sort
of fucked them off by going to do fashion. My
dad thought I should have been a doctor or something
more worthwhile, but I always thought that, you know, as
(05:26):
a fashion designer we sort of sort of political. You
can influence the people around you in a small way.
You can't make big shifts, but even little shifts as
something amount to something eventually. So what are the some
of the things that that you do that's probably not
accessible to people that buy your clothes, Like, what are
(05:46):
some of the things, Well, we only produced on the man,
We never overproduced, we produced locally on the collection. We
I think pretty much most seasons, most of the fabrics
at eco or sustainable or up cycled. We do a
small network project with Bolivian Corp with of women, indigenous women,
(06:11):
and you know, we we try, and I always say,
try and make a good decision wherever possible. Let's you know,
make the right decision because everything is cast and effect
and you know, and we are responsible ultimately. Yeah. And
I feel like one of the things that you've done
really well is um like sort of moderate your growth,
Like where most lines are such pressure to get bigger, bigger, bigger,
(06:35):
and you seem like you've been really intentional about how
you've grown over the past twenty some years and how
you grow on the line, when you've expanded, when you
know what stories you've gone into, that sort of thing,
and so that you're not overproducing. Yeah. And it's also
you know, trying to produce things that are well designed
that will have longer than a season. And it's not
about trends, you know. I think I always like the
(06:57):
idea of loans of things being kept and passed on,
and I think if something is well designed, it should
last longer than a season. And what I has been
the biggest change in your business since the pandemic, the
biggest change, Oh my god. I mean we've you know, survival,
I mean, everybody, you know, the teams stretched. Then I
(07:19):
mean we're all like figuring out how Um. I think
the first year was easier than this year because this
year is there's no PvP loans. We're still in omicron land.
You know, people are also exhausted. You know, everybody's been
working really hard and we've all been on survival mode,
and there's a point that everybody is sort of a
(07:41):
breaking point. And and you know, for me as the
head of whatever it is, keeping that energy up and
trying to you know, go hey, here we go again, guys,
you know, and it's like, you know, and everybody's like yeah,
And you find that across the industry. I suspected around
(08:02):
the board of the c FDA, right, yeah, I think, yeah,
the board of the CFDA and women n y C.
And are you seeing that across the board of all
New York. I'm seeing it with everybody. I'm everywhere. I
think everybody's just worn out, and I think everybody is exhausted,
and everybody's gone through a lot of personal things as well,
(08:22):
not only COVID, but I think, you know, everybody's going
through a lot of stuff. And yeah, there's the one
person that's got tons of money in the stock marketing.
They've done really well, but most people already struggling, and
they're struggling to make sense of why they're doing what
they're doing, and you know, it's it's tough. And you've
also had some personal changed, haven't you during this time? Yes,
(08:47):
I mean I split up with my husband of thirty
one years four years ago. I got divorced last September.
I bought a house, gotline et cetera. X actually moved.
I mean, within the space of two months, I had
got divorced, I bought a new house, I had line disease,
and I was just like spinning. You know, there was
(09:08):
a lot going on. But you know, I always try
how I grew up from background my parents were political refugees,
and I always sort of try and look on the
bright side and sort of take myself up. And I
have my capacity for self petty is very short because
(09:29):
I don't have that luxury. I don't have a mother.
My mother died when I was fourteen. My dad died
when he was fifty five, so and I was pregnant
with my son. So I just my thing has always
been like, Okay, breathe, reconfigure, remain fluid, and let's figure
out what the next steps are. But it's it's it's tough.
(09:51):
It's tough, you know, I mean, I'm going to see
my daughter this weekend. And because I'm sort of at
the point of she was like, ah, and she said,
and she's important, said I'm just come here and I
said yeah, because I was going to go to max Sar.
She's in Portugal and she's going to have a baby,
and so it's going to be a grandmother in June.
(10:12):
Is that your first? Yes? Yes, how exciting. Yes, it's
really exciting, so, you know, And I was gonna go
on a little holiday on my own, but then I
chickened that because I thought, I really don't want to
be on my own line now. Mhm. I need I
need a hug, I need a cuddle. I'm single, you know,
it's not like I haven't exacting. I haven't been dating.
I mean I literally I was telling my son. I
(10:33):
was joking about it. I said, I'm practically a virgin.
I said, I've already ever been with your dad since
I was twenty five. And he said, he said mom,
And I said yes. I said, it's not very sexy
for you to live with your mom, but it's not
very sexy for me either. COVID, where where is your son?
He's in New York and you know, and things. You know,
(10:55):
even though we're divorced, we're still friends. You know, I'm
married my best friend, so we'll always be friends and
will always be family. And it's just it's a new fact.
You know. We had dinner last night, which it's sort
of reconfiguring what our family looks like again. But we
don't we're not together. I think the pandemic for a
(11:16):
lot of people is about reinvention, and you know, what
you do with the information and how you proceed. And
it sounds like you're kind of going through just figuring
it out. But you know this this podcast, the reason
we're doing it is because we find that everyone's in
this situation right now. And and you know, it's called
the important things, and so of course the important things
(11:37):
are your family. You've said that you know you love
your work. Yes, I love I love being creative. I
love my team. I love the conversation. You know, it
kept me going through my divorce in the last four years.
If I hadn't had my team around me, I would
have fallen into a pile and died, you know. And
to be honest, to sort of have, you know, especially
(11:59):
when or an empty nest as you probably love, Bobby, Um,
your whole sense of reason for doing things is either
your children or your marriage. And you know, and then
all of a sudden, like your children are not there,
your marriage is not there. So what what keeps you going?
What motivates you? And for me, it was sustainability on
my team. Can you talk about that more, because that's
(12:21):
I think that's really interesting because I think, you know,
like what Bobby was saying, the the idea of reconfiguration,
of reinvention um, there's a theme that she and I
talked about a lot just in our conversations over the
past few years. But then the pandemic sort of brought
it all to ahead of Now everybody's going through it
and thinking about what really matters to them in a
deeper way. And I think one of the reasons we
(12:42):
wanted to have you on is because of your background
and being refugee and sort of all the things that
you've been through in your life and then hitting this
this time that's sort of testing your resilience again, and
I feel like you've navigated that very elegantly, you know,
very admirably. I don't know, I think people don't people
all see me when I have built downs, you know,
and I do have them in private usually, but like everybody,
(13:05):
you know, I have days I feel sorry for myself
when I pressed into tears, when somebody says something to me.
I think it's just normal, it's human. And what do
you do? What do you do or who do you
call when you have those moments? Um? I have a
few really really close friends. I can cry tony their
a way. I just learned to self soothe and meditate
and you know, and look at my plant and just think, Okay,
(13:28):
this shall pass. And you know it's a moment that
you're going through and you sort of, Um, you have
to know how to hold yourself because you have Like
I said, I don't have. I called my sister. She
gets annoyed with me. She's in English. I always calling her.
I don't have a mother, so she's like the next
his thing. I love that we all have sisters. Wait
(13:49):
are we all baby sisters? I'm the older. Yeah, you're
the older, Maria? Are you the younger? The older? Um?
The second one, the second I am the youngest. If
you can't tell, you probably already figured that out. My
sister calls me Forrest Gump because The way I get
rid of my stress and stuff is like walking. I walk,
even like stupid things like this morning, I had a
ton of stuff to bring into work, like an outfit lunch.
(14:13):
You know, I prepared my very healthy lunch and everything
my smoothie and you know it's always and I was
going to take an uber but then I thought, I
just need those three blocks from my house to the
subway station just to breathe the air, look at the
park and just feel like human being before the day
starts and you feel like you're going crazy. And what
(14:34):
was in your smoothie? In my smoothie, Oh my god,
I'm Charlie gave me her nutrition is who is amazing
and she's you know, so my smoothie had blueberries, strawberries,
but nanas, spinache, berlina collagen, um, golji berries, almonds and
(14:57):
what else something like it. I hope a little bit
of water, a bit of apple juice as well. Who's
the nutritionist you've been holding up? His name is Chris. No,
I'm not holding out. He's amazing. He's called Chris Gabriel
and I met him about a year ago. Um, my doctor,
(15:19):
I was having surgery and my doctor introduced me to
him to prepare for surgery, and my surgeon introduced me
to him, and he was so lovely, and I did
I would say like eight percent of what he told me,
because it's it's it's a lot. It's a lot, like
he really. But I have to tell you, I went
into the surgery feeling physically as well as I could,
(15:40):
and I came out and I think I recovered a
lot quicker because I was following his advice immediately after.
But then I got COVID and I stopped. And then
I gifted Maria the rest of my sessions because I
was I was being very noncompliant. But he's really into
activated pumpkin seeds and that was like his big thing.
Um So he was always having met activated pumpkin c
which is the habit I still have. And he was
(16:02):
really into blueberries, what else goji berries, as you mentioned, Maria,
But what is he not into? I judge a nutritions
by what they're not into. If someone tells me don't
drink coffee, I leave, And if someone says don't drink vodka,
I leave, I also leave. You know, what he was
good about is that he and Maria I'm sure you
found this too. It's he was really good about almost
like just adding in more things as opposed to telling
(16:24):
you a bunch of things you can't do. It was
just like adding these good habits and then the idea
of sort of crowding out some of the other things
because you'll be more stated with whatever you're doing. But
we were both doing it because I mean I was
doing it because of a surgery like pre surgery thing.
But I was surprised my like n y U surgeon
help me to do it. So Maria going to jump
(17:00):
into day to day habits? Can you take us through
sort of a mundane day? How do you balance what
you have to do with what you love to do? Uh?
While I get up, I do make myself a cup
of green tea since I'm not allowed to have so
much black tea. I used to have like three cups
of black team if I even had any food, because
(17:21):
I'm not a morning person for food. I usually like
to eat around eleven, uh, because of you know, I
feel myself out with tea and coffee and I'm never
really hungry that earlier. I sort of get hungry eleven.
But with Christopher, he got me onto, like you know,
in order to take supplements and things and you know,
healing from the lime. Um. He got me into like
(17:46):
eating early and having these movies and yeah, so it
was so I do my smoothie, I take my green tea,
I clean cat poop, I feed the cats. It like
you know, usual mom stuff, you know, pick up stuff,
but tidy up. I try and figure out what I'm
(18:06):
doing for the day. I look at my calendar three
times because two different calendars, because they're not thinking on
things keep moving around, and so I always feel a
little bit like you know, and sometimes I do, like
if I wake up early enough, I do like a
half an hour yoga class on online, you know, like
just done. What's your favorite class? What kind of yoga?
(18:28):
I just like, I mean, it sounds terrible. It's Adrian.
She's on YouTube and she's great because she does these
little classes that could be anything. You can just press
play and it could be anything from eleven minutes for
stress or twenty minutes for stretching, and it's it's not
I don't have to feel guilty, you know what I mean.
(18:48):
I just it is on YouTube and I do Peelatics
once a week with somebody that I know sky and
that is one on one most of the time. And
then about the rest of your day. Do you eat lunch? Yes,
I always eat lunch because they I call it hungry.
They know with me not to schedule a meeting at
(19:10):
lunch time because I turned into the Tasmanian devil if
I haven't eaten, because I don't have to eat. But
when I have to eat, my I have a really
fast metabolism, and I literally I get really hungry, like angry. Yeah,
I think you need breakfast. Yeah, I eat breakfast. And
when I eat breakfast a real like I am better
(19:33):
during the day. No, but that's why I'm doing these
movies now, and I've sort of got better at it,
so I'm sort of less. For me. It used to
be my big meal was the evening because I could
relax and not be eating in a rush. Like today,
I made my lunch, but I'm sort of eating it
between appointments and things, so to me, I don't find
that very nutritious to eat in a rush. You know, what,
(19:55):
what is your lunch? Well, today I had I made
myself a beat salad with a rugula and time nuts
and goji berries, and pomegranate. And then last night I
went to a book of a dinner and I had
leftover fish, so I put it on top and with
lemon juice and olive on makes me hungry. It sounds excellent.
(20:16):
Do you do sweets at all? Do you have a
sweet tooth? Well, I'm off a horror replacement now, so yes,
I'm I'm getting a sweet tooth. And I never used
to have it, but I've been having like mandarins and
stuff like that as soon as I love really bad
English chocolate that is my It's bad, that's your, yes,
(20:38):
And so luckily I can't get it everywhere, but I
don't need it all the time, and i'd like, um,
I love marines. M you know really, I don't like
meringues and I love marines. I love them. I love marangs.
Do you do both of you? Two? Yeah? But you
know what, you know why I don't eat them. So
I went back to school after I left the corporate job,
(20:59):
and I to degree as a health coach, and I
learned that if you're meringues are sugar and eggs and white,
there's no fat and no fiber. So what does that
do with spikes? Your blood sugar like the second you
eat it. It doesn't work for me, like you need
like it would be better to take like one spoon
of like a vanilla ice cream and walk away. But
(21:21):
but you know not, none of those are good and
and and what about a cocktails? Are you a wine drinker? Well,
last night I had a gin and tonic, which I love.
The night before I had a glass of red wine.
It depends on the mood, to be honest. But you're like,
you like a drink, you drink with me. I don't
like both of you. I like to drink, yes, but
(21:43):
I don't. I don't. I don't drink every night. Yeah,
I try and sort of do drinking on my social nights,
which you know now during COVID ended up being like
social with myself. So I was drinking every night like
everybody else. But that's not good. So so now I've
sort of cut down. But it's just that was my
(22:05):
My treat was a glass of wine or two glass
of wine and night, you know, And that was I
think we got a lot of us through COVID, but
everybody started over drinking. I know, I know I had
to cut back on wine because I was I mean,
I would just like accidentally end up drinking like half
a bottle and not even realizing. That's why I moved
to cocktails, so that I would only have one and
then I would just keep adding like ice and water
(22:26):
to it. But I was like I didn't even realize
such like drinking and hanging out and suddenly I was like,
oh my god, I have like it's really a problem.
It's a lot of sugar. Yeah, it's terrible. I mean
I keep adding sparks. That's the thing about con says
is good because you go ice and then you keep
adding sparkling water in that exactly, so you make it
last a lot longer, exactly. So I have I have
(22:47):
a few more questions about your career and your business.
You've spent a lot of time working with a bunch
of celebrities and well known Like, what is the difference
that you find dressing a celebrity dress regular women. Well,
I think you know, it's it's not It's not like
I was dressing celebrities for the red carpet. I mean
(23:07):
most of the time when we work with people that
are well known, it is because they've come into the store.
It's a very organic it's not working really, um, apart
from a couple of people working with the stylists, most
of the time they come in the store and they're
like the collections. So it's it's sort of I think
the celebrity or no celebrities, that regular women with the
(23:31):
same body shape problems that we all have, you know.
I think it's um, the regular people, and that's sort
of it's sort of interesting how insecure we all are,
you know, no matter how famous, how we've all got
the same issues. It is true. I mean we're all,
you know, I think the whole point is we're all
the same. Like we're all the same very much, yes
(23:52):
and no, we're all very different shapes societies, but we
all have similar securities. I mean literally, the most utiful women,
they'll have insecurities that even like the ones that have
the amazing bodies, they all have like issues everybody. I mean,
I think we're also critical on ourselves. You know. It's
(24:13):
like I'm sitting here looking at my wrinkles as I'm
talking to you. I thought we were going to do
this audio, and I'm like, oh my god, we want worry.
But I think one of the things that I love
about your collection is a big fan of the brand.
You know, obviously I were a ton of your stuff.
Is um, I've always said this to you that you
design like a designer who loves women like you're it's
(24:34):
not like you're punishing women's bodies into a shape that
you think it should be. You're very democratic, accepting a Democrats. Yeah,
but you know it is. It's like it's really everything
flows without being from me. It's not like everything is
a giant bag or anything like that. It's got a
lot of shape. But I can wear the same dress
that my sister wears and potentially in the same size,
(24:56):
and it looks very different on both of us, but
it looks great on both of us. And that's I
think really unusual from from a high end designer perspective,
where it's not trying to squeeze you into a shape
that your body may not want to go into at
this point. So there's something interesting about that. And I
think also, you know what Bobby was sort of saying
is the types of women that you dress I think
(25:17):
are really interesting because it's quite a range of really smart,
kind of badass women. That is my way of flattering myself.
It's a good I know, yes, I've got a very
very smart the clothes of only dress intelligent women, only smart, beautiful,
(25:38):
really cool women. Well, you know the thing is that
asked for the size and tusivity for me when I
started the store, in the collection one I had just her.
I had an eight month old and a six and
a half year old, and my body, like most women,
changes sizes all the time to change. You know, you
(25:59):
have your here is when you've had a child, when
you've eaten too much, when you drank too much, when
you've had a holiday, when you're happy. When you said,
you know, we're in constant plucks of sizes and if anything,
now that I'm older, and you know, of course I
don't have perios anymore, and I don't you know, I
don't have My children are grown up, not my I was.
(26:20):
I was actually talking to Nutritions and he said, well,
now your body is actually the size that it needs
to be because you sort of your body is sort
of adjust as you get older, and this is the
shape that you're meant to be because I've gone through
like I've gone look like I've gone from being ninety
three pounds two hundred and sixteen pounds, which it doesn't
(26:42):
sound a lot when you're small. It's a big ship.
Five five ft yes, so you're tiny, and yes, I'm
I'm five foot yes, But you know it's it's like
people laugh at me. Oh, you put I said, I've
put away, and they got how much? And I got
five pounds ago five just a lot lot. Yeah, when
you're when you're in my height, it's more like, I mean,
(27:06):
that's not a good thing. I'm just saying I've gained
twenty and so it's like you did not definitely did.
I mean, I have I have pictures when I broke
when I broke my foot, and I was a hundred
and sixteen pounds because for nearly a year I couldn't
really walk anyway. I had a cast, and and I
didn't have a picture on my board here with my
(27:26):
son at some Cooper Hero It's thing or whatever. I
watched things. I took my son and this, you know
when they take those pictures side, you know, in the
red carpet, and I'm literally hiding my foot with my
cast behind the leg to try and hide it. I
even went to the White House and I was looking
at the picture I have a picture of me and
(27:47):
Michell Levana got God, I looked really overweight, and I
just remembered it's because I had a broken foot and
I went there with my cast. So it's like it's
like there's no glamorous pictures on me. At that time,
I was just like, oh, is trying to hide this
giant plastic thing. Well, I bet you were very glamorous.
And I think it's all how we perceive ourselves. I
think it's so interesting how hard we are in ourselves.
(28:09):
But I think now you wouldn't hide it, like like
I think the pandemic has made us all be at
least for many of us, a little more comfortable. I mean,
when would we be sitting in a closet, you know,
have doing a podcast, Like I'm sitting into a new
house in my husband's closet. Yeah, my back is killing me.
But you know, I don't know what else is happening
(28:29):
outside of this closet room, but you do it. And
you know, I made sure there was no dirty laundry anywhere, Like,
you know, that's it. I have my kids stuff like
all behind me, all of her laundries over here out
of you on the camera. But yeah, You're right, it's true,
and I mean to get back to a jelly thing
about the size and fativity. Yeah, you know, like I said,
(28:50):
I was, I just had a night month old, I
had a six year old, and and on the idea
of designing, I wanted to stop creating something that was
based on very simple geometric shapes that would drape around
the woman's body and it would be very much about
what the women's body did to that fabric. So the
concept of the collection was super simple. It was like, really,
(29:15):
I thought, I'm a mom. I want interesting clothes. I
don't want to look like a Just because I'm a
mother doesn't mean I have to look boring. I was
still wanted to wear things that were designed but in
basic fabrics like dynam or recycled flees, you know, politics
and t shirting, but just making things that were interesting
(29:35):
and it didn't matter what size I was. Things would
always have an elastic waist band, or they would have
drape in a way that would be flattering. And I
always go, well, my middle might not be looking so
great right now, but my legs look great, or my
shoulder looks great, or you know, it's like trying to
focus on the positive sides of women rather than pinpointing
(29:56):
what's wrong with us. And I think that's so much
about dial today is figuring out what works for you. Yeah,
you know, I'm not your traditional body type. I mean,
you know, we mo your teeny I'm teeny, but I
happen to have really small shoulders but really big boobs. Maybe. Yeah,
I've got no boots, I think so. Yeah, No, I'd
(30:18):
rather have that. And you know, I have a midsection.
I've had three children and you know my I've had
nutrition as that say, if I want to get rid
of that, I need to stop drinking. And I told
them I'd rather get rid of you so and find
someone that will help me. No, but it's true, I do.
I think so anyway, So, I you know that's just me.
But I mean, I'm with you. I went to the
(30:39):
same Yeah, I know, but it's only one drink, like
four nights a week. Guys, I don't think, I know. Yeah,
we're the way we talk about it, I know, we're
just we joke. Well, I I say everything in moderation.
You know, I'm like dairy free looking tree, but you
know I cheat. Yeah, Well, it's so funny. You say
that because I say, I'm much more into would have eating,
(31:01):
which means I don't have to announce I'm anything the end,
because I have done that. I've said I'm paleo, I'm keto.
You know. I tried veganism for one week. That was
short lived. That was definitely short lived. Give me it, no,
I mean, I think for me, what I always think
about is that um being pregnant. Your body sort of
(31:22):
tells you what it needs. I think I'm food. This
is medicine. I really believe in that, you know, And
I think, you know, if I like, I always used
to say to my son, for your brain to work,
you need to put good things. And I used to say,
you need to eat like colors, rainbows. You know, you
can't just eat beige food. That is not okay because
(31:45):
that is like your brain is beige. So you have
to eat colors, you know. And I grew up in
in Chile where my you know, my parents, and we
were used to be made to eat the most disgusting
things I thought at the time when I was a kid,
like you know, like urchin raw urchin. So we used
to have cod liver oil every day. But left by
(32:06):
this spoon and you know, like seaweeds too, and and
I literally I couldn't eat seafood until I was in
my twenties after leaving home because I was so brought
up eating everything, but also like what would be considered
quite weird, like it's probably all actually you could probably
(32:29):
bottle all of that and make a lot of money
at this point to super food. Well, it's funny. I
was just I was just listening to you, Maria and
thinking about your business and how you design and all
your sustainability and everything about you and listen to talk
about food and all this, and I'm like, why have
you not or maybe you have have like a world
of Maria, you know, where people can experience you know,
(32:53):
your best olive oil, you're smoothie ingredients. Or have you
ever incorporated more lifestyle into your design? Um? I would
love to eventually, you know, but I think that's like
maybe my next face. What are your future thoughts for
your business? Do you have any Well, I think we're
on the past that we we more and more of
(33:13):
like more and more sustainable and trying to you know,
like everybody trying to stay relevant because you know, in
the business where fashion constantly writes you off and you're
evlevant because especially I mean, I've been around for a
long time and fifty nine, so I'm literally competing for
press or whatever. Like everybody calls me a season design
(33:35):
now or what is the other term, mature? Somebody said
iCONECT seasoned, and I thought all this fact would be
quite good. You know. It's like you know what I mean,
It's like and you sort of put against like you know,
like kids, and you're like, it's okay, you were once
(33:55):
those kids, but look at what you've done. I'm in
the same situation. I can't people still right about the
same things about that. I say that I used to
say thirty years ago. I mean, same thing. And it's like, yeah,
you know why because we're the o G. You know
we are, and you know our job is to mentor
the younger generation. I mean, do you have I know,
(34:18):
you know you're involved in with c F d A.
Do you have younger designers that you mentor not? Right now? No,
We've just been keeping it very tight to the company.
You know, we're tiny teams, so that's COVID sort of.
I mean, I'm on the board, but to be honest,
my involvement have been very minimal right now. Although that's said,
(34:39):
I was with you for dinner the other night and
we ran into Lazarrow from Frances Schouler, and you clearly
were a mentor to him. So I think it's interesting
that if you don't see yourself as a formal mentor,
it's very clear to me from the outside that you
both are incredible mentors just by the way you live
your lives and the way you work and how you've
(35:00):
got your businesses to a whole generation coming up, you know,
the chip folks that are in the weeds and coming up. Still,
it's um, I think you're underestimating the power of that
you have. Thank you and Jelly. I mean I think
it's last time was my intern when I opened the
store on Moll Street, you know, and then he became
Frances Cooler and used to come and pick him up
(35:21):
from the store. I mean, I've had some of the
opportunity to work and you know, maybe bent to us
interns like amazing people. But I don't, you know, like
people always say that, oh my god, you really influenced me,
or you really looked up to you, But I never
think in those terms. You know, I just don't. I
just do. I never I think as a woman, we
(35:43):
just keep doing, we don't, you know. It's it's I
mean sometimes people go, you know, they come up to
me and they really complementary and it's almost like embarrassing
because I get really shy, but it's really sweet. But
it's also when not used to like blown our own
homes sort of thing. You know, you sort of you're
just getting over it and you're just doing what you
(36:03):
want to do, and you hopefully by doing something with
intention and authenticity, good things come of it and good
people follow. And who was there for you when you
were a young designer? Did you have any mentors or
people you that had an impact on you? I mean
I always you know. When I was in London, I
(36:25):
as a shop girl. I used to work for Maureen
Dougherty who has egg now, and she used to have
help and easy be yucky and the feud she stores
and I was exacted a girl that was like fifteen sixteen.
I used to wash hangers and get everybody's lunches and
where the ugly outfits that nobody wanted to wear. And
they used to put me in there and said were
(36:46):
you cute yourself, and it was like the eliest things.
So um. And then through the years, you know, I've
had you know, champions are forever telling me. You know,
you know, one of my best friends of Kamila Nicholson,
and she's forever telling me, you know, like she just
looks at the collection she said, oh my god, it
(37:08):
looks great. I just you know, for us, we're so
wrapped up in it. You never get a time to
actually look back and say, oh my god, this is great.
So it's really nice. You know. I have another friend Mikelly,
who I used to work with, who literally it's also
super supportive, you know, within the company, of course, I
have my business farmer Mauritia, but it's most of the
(37:28):
time we're just figuring out what's next. We're not you know,
patching each other's back and saying, oh, this looks amazing.
So it's not that sort of relationship, but it's just interesting.
You know. Even even my sister said to me the
other day, she said, you know, she's quite tough, but
she's very loving. She said to me, I think you
need to do more commercial things. And I was like,
(37:50):
I thought I was I thought we were trying to
do that. This is about commercial, so I can do well.
I have a question about you were aalked about staying
present and how difficult it can be when you're a
fashion designer and you're literally your job is to look
into the future, and you always designed the next to
the next of the act. What do you do to
(38:11):
stay present for yourself? I stay very present with my
relationships with my friends on a day to day and
I think that's my plans, my cats, my son, you know,
my family. I think, Um, I'm always trying to figure
out how to stay in the present because it's on
(38:33):
a personal level. I can do that, but it's really
hard when you're you know, I go in the store
and the spring summer is just arriving results in the
store as well, and in the other room is to
show room and we're showing full winter and up here
we're working on cruise in spring summer, so that visually,
I'm looking at five things at the same time. Yeah,
(38:53):
you're looking at all the seasons and one and one
walk through and literally I start, you know, I start
going to look crazy, and I sort of, you know,
like I cover things like which sheets sometimes, you know,
like rax and because it's just visually overwhelming. I mean,
our financial officer I had a lot of pictures in
(39:13):
his office space and I said, I just want a white,
clean space with my plants. And that's it. Because I
am constantly looking at things. So for me to walk
every day is important, to be able to meditate, even
if it's just ten minutes, or to to you know,
(39:33):
talk to my son and have a conversation and not
be running around like a blue ass fly. It's amazing. Well, Marie,
I ask everyone this question. I have one final question
and it's I think the most important one. If you
could tell someone that's listening one thing that could change
the course of their life for the better, one thing
(39:53):
that you do. What would it be? One thing is
don't sweat the small stuff, take bigger picture. Things will pass,
you know, good advice. M
How many things are different since we met, since before
the pandemic, how my life has changed, and how a
lot of people's lives, and how things that you didn't
realize were so important are really the important things. Right.
It's not just your career, and it's not just you know,
(00:22):
how you show up at work. It's just it's really
the words that come out of your mouth and how
you live your life. So today, Bobby, we are going
to be speaking with a dear friend of mine, Maria Cornejo.
(00:43):
She is an amazing, amazing designer and someone that I
wear all the time. And we're on the TED stage
in fact, and that's how she and I know each
other because I were an outfit I bought up the
sample sale on TED stage and she and I became
friends after that. Well, I'm really looking for ward to
meeting her because I really don't know anything about her.
I know her clothes, I know you know, we've been
(01:05):
in the same circles, but we have never actually met.
I know. I find that so crazy because I feel
like you're going to be fast friends and have a
ton in common. So let's get started. Excited to talk
to Maria. Hi, Maria, nice to meet you. Hi, Bobby.
Nice to finally meet you. I know, all these years
we have never ever ever been in any of these places,
(01:27):
and we've had so many parallel you know, career things. Yeah,
and a lot of friends. We have friends in comments,
which is nice, you know, but it's sort of like
we're all I feel like I'm always just busy doing
stuff and keeping quite a monastic life most of the time.
Not glamorous at all. Oh, come on, it's all glamorous
when you look back and you see all the things
(01:48):
you've done and what you've produced, and who you are
and and and who you were. Come on, it's very glamorous.
You're doing what you want to be doing, isn't that correct? Yes,
you know, I'm surprised it's not. You know, I don't
do what I want to do every single day. Really,
what would you rather do? Um? Garden? Okay, okay, hang
(02:13):
out with my friends? You know? You know the fashion
the fashion schedule is quite you know, you know, it's
very forlorn, and you know, it's just like constantly like
you're own three different seasons at the same time. I mean,
I had to be reminded, you know what the spring,
summer collection was about, because I've already gone through another
three different ones since then, So it's just like I
(02:35):
feel like I'm going Maria lives in the future. I live.
You know, this is one of the things that I
don't like about what I do is that I am
never in the present, and so that's one of my
biggest things that you know, it's I get to enjoy
the clothes when I'm not designing. So I like to
travel because when I get to be that woman. I
(02:56):
like to go out once in a while because I
get to be that woman. I'm also time a bit
like a mechanic. But but I think possibly if you
would stop and realize that if anyone would look at
what you do and your day to day existence, people
would kill to have this fulfilled life of creativity and business.
(03:17):
So I think, you know, of course, I'm very lucky
and blessed. I've been able to create my own environment
at working environment. I know that for sure. I was
never a corporate person, so yes, and I've wanted to
have a working environment that was good and that I
wanted to come to work every day. So there's so
(03:38):
many questions I have to ask. But you've been you've
been designing clothes for how many years? Well, I'm fifty
nine now, so I'm so much older than you are. Really. Yeah,
but your hair dog, so you either die. Yeah, I
do dye my hair. Absolutely. I am sixty four and
maybe by the time this podcast comes out, I might
(03:58):
be sixty. So I'll be designing since I was twenty one.
So that is let's do the math. That is a
long time, right. But but you are also so known
for so many things, but one of them is sustainability. Yeah,
and you did that before it was a word. Yes,
You're like the o G of I love that I
(04:18):
should have that well be called boy. I always called
Bobby the o G of inclusive beauty, and I think
of you as the o G of sustainability and fashion
and that you're doing it. Like Bobby said before, it
was cool before everybody was talking about it. Um, it
was just always something that you did. I feel like, yeah,
I think since I started in New York and ninety
I moved to in n six and I started the
(04:42):
store Slash Creative Space in and I had had a
six year old, my daughter being was not thirty and
my son's twenty four. He was eight months old and
after working for big commercial companies, I saw the amount
waste and it just really shot me and I just thought,
(05:04):
this is what we are doing to the planet, and
this is what my kids are inheriting. And I felt
really responsible, you know. And I've always thought, you know,
my parents are real socialists and stuff, and I sort
of fucked them off by going to do fashion. My
dad thought I should have been a doctor or something
more worthwhile, but I always thought that, you know, as
(05:26):
a fashion designer we sort of sort of political. You
can influence the people around you in a small way.
You can't make big shifts, but even little shifts as
something amount to something eventually. So what are the some
of the things that that you do that's probably not
accessible to people that buy your clothes, Like, what are
(05:46):
some of the things, Well, we only produced on the man,
We never overproduced, we produced locally on the collection. We
I think pretty much most seasons, most of the fabrics
at eco or sustainable or up cycled. We do a
small network project with Bolivian Corp with of women, indigenous women,
(06:11):
and you know, we we try, and I always say,
try and make a good decision wherever possible. Let's you know,
make the right decision because everything is cast and effect
and you know, and we are responsible ultimately. Yeah. And
I feel like one of the things that you've done
really well is um like sort of moderate your growth,
Like where most lines are such pressure to get bigger, bigger, bigger,
(06:35):
and you seem like you've been really intentional about how
you've grown over the past twenty some years and how
you grow on the line, when you've expanded, when you
know what stories you've gone into, that sort of thing,
and so that you're not overproducing. Yeah. And it's also
you know, trying to produce things that are well designed
that will have longer than a season. And it's not
about trends, you know. I think I always like the
(06:57):
idea of loans of things being kept and passed on,
and I think if something is well designed, it should
last longer than a season. And what I has been
the biggest change in your business since the pandemic, the
biggest change, Oh my god. I mean we've you know, survival,
I mean, everybody, you know, the teams stretched. Then I
(07:19):
mean we're all like figuring out how Um. I think
the first year was easier than this year because this
year is there's no PvP loans. We're still in omicron land.
You know, people are also exhausted. You know, everybody's been
working really hard and we've all been on survival mode,
and there's a point that everybody is sort of a
(07:41):
breaking point. And and you know, for me as the
head of whatever it is, keeping that energy up and
trying to you know, go hey, here we go again, guys,
you know, and it's like, you know, and everybody's like yeah,
And you find that across the industry. I suspected around
(08:02):
the board of the c FDA, right, yeah, I think, yeah,
the board of the CFDA and women n y C.
And are you seeing that across the board of all
New York. I'm seeing it with everybody. I'm everywhere. I
think everybody's just worn out, and I think everybody is exhausted,
and everybody's gone through a lot of personal things as well,
(08:22):
not only COVID, but I think, you know, everybody's going
through a lot of stuff. And yeah, there's the one
person that's got tons of money in the stock marketing.
They've done really well, but most people already struggling, and
they're struggling to make sense of why they're doing what
they're doing, and you know, it's it's tough. And you've
also had some personal changed, haven't you during this time? Yes,
(08:47):
I mean I split up with my husband of thirty
one years four years ago. I got divorced last September.
I bought a house, gotline et cetera. X actually moved.
I mean, within the space of two months, I had
got divorced, I bought a new house, I had line disease,
and I was just like spinning. You know, there was
(09:08):
a lot going on. But you know, I always try
how I grew up from background my parents were political refugees,
and I always sort of try and look on the
bright side and sort of take myself up. And I
have my capacity for self petty is very short because
(09:29):
I don't have that luxury. I don't have a mother.
My mother died when I was fourteen. My dad died
when he was fifty five, so and I was pregnant
with my son. So I just my thing has always
been like, Okay, breathe, reconfigure, remain fluid, and let's figure
out what the next steps are. But it's it's it's tough.
(09:51):
It's tough, you know, I mean, I'm going to see
my daughter this weekend. And because I'm sort of at
the point of she was like, ah, and she said,
and she's important, said I'm just come here and I
said yeah, because I was going to go to max Sar.
She's in Portugal and she's going to have a baby,
and so it's going to be a grandmother in June.
(10:12):
Is that your first? Yes? Yes, how exciting. Yes, it's
really exciting, so, you know, And I was gonna go
on a little holiday on my own, but then I
chickened that because I thought, I really don't want to
be on my own line now. Mhm. I need I
need a hug, I need a cuddle. I'm single, you know,
it's not like I haven't exacting. I haven't been dating.
I mean I literally I was telling my son. I
(10:33):
was joking about it. I said, I'm practically a virgin.
I said, I've already ever been with your dad since
I was twenty five. And he said, he said mom,
And I said yes. I said, it's not very sexy
for you to live with your mom, but it's not
very sexy for me either. COVID, where where is your son?
He's in New York and you know, and things. You know,
(10:55):
even though we're divorced, we're still friends. You know, I'm
married my best friend, so we'll always be friends and
will always be family. And it's just it's a new fact.
You know. We had dinner last night, which it's sort
of reconfiguring what our family looks like again. But we
don't we're not together. I think the pandemic for a
(11:16):
lot of people is about reinvention, and you know, what
you do with the information and how you proceed. And
it sounds like you're kind of going through just figuring
it out. But you know this this podcast, the reason
we're doing it is because we find that everyone's in
this situation right now. And and you know, it's called
the important things, and so of course the important things
(11:37):
are your family. You've said that you know you love
your work. Yes, I love I love being creative. I
love my team. I love the conversation. You know, it
kept me going through my divorce in the last four years.
If I hadn't had my team around me, I would
have fallen into a pile and died, you know. And
to be honest, to sort of have, you know, especially
(11:59):
when or an empty nest as you probably love, Bobby, Um,
your whole sense of reason for doing things is either
your children or your marriage. And you know, and then
all of a sudden, like your children are not there,
your marriage is not there. So what what keeps you going?
What motivates you? And for me, it was sustainability on
my team. Can you talk about that more, because that's
(12:21):
I think that's really interesting because I think, you know,
like what Bobby was saying, the the idea of reconfiguration,
of reinvention um, there's a theme that she and I
talked about a lot just in our conversations over the
past few years. But then the pandemic sort of brought
it all to ahead of Now everybody's going through it
and thinking about what really matters to them in a
deeper way. And I think one of the reasons we
(12:42):
wanted to have you on is because of your background
and being refugee and sort of all the things that
you've been through in your life and then hitting this
this time that's sort of testing your resilience again, and
I feel like you've navigated that very elegantly, you know,
very admirably. I don't know, I think people don't people
all see me when I have built downs, you know,
and I do have them in private usually, but like everybody,
(13:05):
you know, I have days I feel sorry for myself
when I pressed into tears, when somebody says something to me.
I think it's just normal, it's human. And what do
you do? What do you do or who do you
call when you have those moments? Um? I have a
few really really close friends. I can cry tony their
a way. I just learned to self soothe and meditate
and you know, and look at my plant and just think, Okay,
(13:28):
this shall pass. And you know it's a moment that
you're going through and you sort of, Um, you have
to know how to hold yourself because you have Like
I said, I don't have. I called my sister. She
gets annoyed with me. She's in English. I always calling her.
I don't have a mother, so she's like the next
his thing. I love that we all have sisters. Wait
(13:49):
are we all baby sisters? I'm the older. Yeah, you're
the older, Maria? Are you the younger? The older? Um?
The second one, the second I am the youngest. If
you can't tell, you probably already figured that out. My
sister calls me Forrest Gump because The way I get
rid of my stress and stuff is like walking. I walk,
even like stupid things like this morning, I had a
ton of stuff to bring into work, like an outfit lunch.
(14:13):
You know, I prepared my very healthy lunch and everything
my smoothie and you know it's always and I was
going to take an uber but then I thought, I
just need those three blocks from my house to the
subway station just to breathe the air, look at the
park and just feel like human being before the day
starts and you feel like you're going crazy. And what
(14:34):
was in your smoothie? In my smoothie, Oh my god,
I'm Charlie gave me her nutrition is who is amazing
and she's you know, so my smoothie had blueberries, strawberries,
but nanas, spinache, berlina collagen, um, golji berries, almonds and
(14:57):
what else something like it. I hope a little bit
of water, a bit of apple juice as well. Who's
the nutritionist you've been holding up? His name is Chris. No,
I'm not holding out. He's amazing. He's called Chris Gabriel
and I met him about a year ago. Um, my doctor,
(15:19):
I was having surgery and my doctor introduced me to
him to prepare for surgery, and my surgeon introduced me
to him, and he was so lovely, and I did
I would say like eight percent of what he told me,
because it's it's it's a lot. It's a lot, like
he really. But I have to tell you, I went
into the surgery feeling physically as well as I could,
(15:40):
and I came out and I think I recovered a
lot quicker because I was following his advice immediately after.
But then I got COVID and I stopped. And then
I gifted Maria the rest of my sessions because I
was I was being very noncompliant. But he's really into
activated pumpkin seeds and that was like his big thing.
Um So he was always having met activated pumpkin c
which is the habit I still have. And he was
(16:02):
really into blueberries, what else goji berries, as you mentioned, Maria,
But what is he not into? I judge a nutritions
by what they're not into. If someone tells me don't
drink coffee, I leave, And if someone says don't drink vodka,
I leave, I also leave. You know, what he was
good about is that he and Maria I'm sure you
found this too. It's he was really good about almost
like just adding in more things as opposed to telling
(16:24):
you a bunch of things you can't do. It was
just like adding these good habits and then the idea
of sort of crowding out some of the other things
because you'll be more stated with whatever you're doing. But
we were both doing it because I mean I was
doing it because of a surgery like pre surgery thing.
But I was surprised my like n y U surgeon
help me to do it. So Maria going to jump
(17:00):
into day to day habits? Can you take us through
sort of a mundane day? How do you balance what
you have to do with what you love to do? Uh?
While I get up, I do make myself a cup
of green tea since I'm not allowed to have so
much black tea. I used to have like three cups
of black team if I even had any food, because
(17:21):
I'm not a morning person for food. I usually like
to eat around eleven, uh, because of you know, I
feel myself out with tea and coffee and I'm never
really hungry that earlier. I sort of get hungry eleven.
But with Christopher, he got me onto, like you know,
in order to take supplements and things and you know,
healing from the lime. Um. He got me into like
(17:46):
eating early and having these movies and yeah, so it
was so I do my smoothie, I take my green tea,
I clean cat poop, I feed the cats. It like
you know, usual mom stuff, you know, pick up stuff,
but tidy up. I try and figure out what I'm
(18:06):
doing for the day. I look at my calendar three
times because two different calendars, because they're not thinking on
things keep moving around, and so I always feel a
little bit like you know, and sometimes I do, like
if I wake up early enough, I do like a
half an hour yoga class on online, you know, like
just done. What's your favorite class? What kind of yoga?
(18:28):
I just like, I mean, it sounds terrible. It's Adrian.
She's on YouTube and she's great because she does these
little classes that could be anything. You can just press
play and it could be anything from eleven minutes for
stress or twenty minutes for stretching, and it's it's not
I don't have to feel guilty, you know what I mean.
(18:48):
I just it is on YouTube and I do Peelatics
once a week with somebody that I know sky and
that is one on one most of the time. And
then about the rest of your day. Do you eat lunch? Yes,
I always eat lunch because they I call it hungry.
They know with me not to schedule a meeting at
(19:10):
lunch time because I turned into the Tasmanian devil if
I haven't eaten, because I don't have to eat. But
when I have to eat, my I have a really
fast metabolism, and I literally I get really hungry, like angry. Yeah,
I think you need breakfast. Yeah, I eat breakfast. And
when I eat breakfast a real like I am better
(19:33):
during the day. No, but that's why I'm doing these
movies now, and I've sort of got better at it,
so I'm sort of less. For me. It used to
be my big meal was the evening because I could
relax and not be eating in a rush. Like today,
I made my lunch, but I'm sort of eating it
between appointments and things, so to me, I don't find
that very nutritious to eat in a rush. You know, what,
(19:55):
what is your lunch? Well, today I had I made
myself a beat salad with a rugula and time nuts
and goji berries, and pomegranate. And then last night I
went to a book of a dinner and I had
leftover fish, so I put it on top and with
lemon juice and olive on makes me hungry. It sounds excellent.
(20:16):
Do you do sweets at all? Do you have a
sweet tooth? Well, I'm off a horror replacement now, so yes,
I'm I'm getting a sweet tooth. And I never used
to have it, but I've been having like mandarins and
stuff like that as soon as I love really bad
English chocolate that is my It's bad, that's your, yes,
(20:38):
And so luckily I can't get it everywhere, but I
don't need it all the time, and i'd like, um,
I love marines. M you know really, I don't like
meringues and I love marines. I love them. I love marangs.
Do you do both of you? Two? Yeah? But you
know what, you know why I don't eat them. So
I went back to school after I left the corporate job,
(20:59):
and I to degree as a health coach, and I
learned that if you're meringues are sugar and eggs and white,
there's no fat and no fiber. So what does that
do with spikes? Your blood sugar like the second you
eat it. It doesn't work for me, like you need
like it would be better to take like one spoon
of like a vanilla ice cream and walk away. But
(21:21):
but you know not, none of those are good and
and and what about a cocktails? Are you a wine drinker? Well,
last night I had a gin and tonic, which I love.
The night before I had a glass of red wine.
It depends on the mood, to be honest. But you're like,
you like a drink, you drink with me. I don't
like both of you. I like to drink, yes, but
(21:43):
I don't. I don't. I don't drink every night. Yeah,
I try and sort of do drinking on my social nights,
which you know now during COVID ended up being like
social with myself. So I was drinking every night like
everybody else. But that's not good. So so now I've
sort of cut down. But it's just that was my
(22:05):
My treat was a glass of wine or two glass
of wine and night, you know, And that was I
think we got a lot of us through COVID, but
everybody started over drinking. I know, I know I had
to cut back on wine because I was I mean,
I would just like accidentally end up drinking like half
a bottle and not even realizing. That's why I moved
to cocktails, so that I would only have one and
then I would just keep adding like ice and water
(22:26):
to it. But I was like I didn't even realize
such like drinking and hanging out and suddenly I was like,
oh my god, I have like it's really a problem.
It's a lot of sugar. Yeah, it's terrible. I mean
I keep adding sparks. That's the thing about con says
is good because you go ice and then you keep
adding sparkling water in that exactly, so you make it
last a lot longer, exactly. So I have I have
(22:47):
a few more questions about your career and your business.
You've spent a lot of time working with a bunch
of celebrities and well known Like, what is the difference
that you find dressing a celebrity dress regular women. Well,
I think you know, it's it's not It's not like
I was dressing celebrities for the red carpet. I mean
(23:07):
most of the time when we work with people that
are well known, it is because they've come into the store.
It's a very organic it's not working really, um, apart
from a couple of people working with the stylists, most
of the time they come in the store and they're
like the collections. So it's it's sort of I think
the celebrity or no celebrities, that regular women with the
(23:31):
same body shape problems that we all have, you know.
I think it's um, the regular people, and that's sort
of it's sort of interesting how insecure we all are,
you know, no matter how famous, how we've all got
the same issues. It is true. I mean we're all,
you know, I think the whole point is we're all
the same. Like we're all the same very much, yes
(23:52):
and no, we're all very different shapes societies, but we
all have similar securities. I mean literally, the most utiful women,
they'll have insecurities that even like the ones that have
the amazing bodies, they all have like issues everybody. I mean,
I think we're also critical on ourselves. You know. It's
(24:13):
like I'm sitting here looking at my wrinkles as I'm
talking to you. I thought we were going to do
this audio, and I'm like, oh my god, we want worry.
But I think one of the things that I love
about your collection is a big fan of the brand.
You know, obviously I were a ton of your stuff.
Is um, I've always said this to you that you
design like a designer who loves women like you're it's
(24:34):
not like you're punishing women's bodies into a shape that
you think it should be. You're very democratic, accepting a Democrats. Yeah,
but you know it is. It's like it's really everything
flows without being from me. It's not like everything is
a giant bag or anything like that. It's got a
lot of shape. But I can wear the same dress
that my sister wears and potentially in the same size,
(24:56):
and it looks very different on both of us, but
it looks great on both of us. And that's I
think really unusual from from a high end designer perspective,
where it's not trying to squeeze you into a shape
that your body may not want to go into at
this point. So there's something interesting about that. And I
think also, you know what Bobby was sort of saying
is the types of women that you dress I think
(25:17):
are really interesting because it's quite a range of really smart,
kind of badass women. That is my way of flattering myself.
It's a good I know, yes, I've got a very
very smart the clothes of only dress intelligent women, only smart, beautiful,
(25:38):
really cool women. Well, you know the thing is that
asked for the size and tusivity for me when I
started the store, in the collection one I had just her.
I had an eight month old and a six and
a half year old, and my body, like most women,
changes sizes all the time to change. You know, you
(25:59):
have your here is when you've had a child, when
you've eaten too much, when you drank too much, when
you've had a holiday, when you're happy. When you said,
you know, we're in constant plucks of sizes and if anything,
now that I'm older, and you know, of course I
don't have perios anymore, and I don't you know, I
don't have My children are grown up, not my I was.
(26:20):
I was actually talking to Nutritions and he said, well,
now your body is actually the size that it needs
to be because you sort of your body is sort
of adjust as you get older, and this is the
shape that you're meant to be because I've gone through
like I've gone look like I've gone from being ninety
three pounds two hundred and sixteen pounds, which it doesn't
(26:42):
sound a lot when you're small. It's a big ship.
Five five ft yes, so you're tiny, and yes, I'm
I'm five foot yes, But you know it's it's like
people laugh at me. Oh, you put I said, I've
put away, and they got how much? And I got
five pounds ago five just a lot lot. Yeah, when
you're when you're in my height, it's more like, I mean,
(27:06):
that's not a good thing. I'm just saying I've gained
twenty and so it's like you did not definitely did.
I mean, I have I have pictures when I broke
when I broke my foot, and I was a hundred
and sixteen pounds because for nearly a year I couldn't
really walk anyway. I had a cast, and and I
didn't have a picture on my board here with my
(27:26):
son at some Cooper Hero It's thing or whatever. I
watched things. I took my son and this, you know
when they take those pictures side, you know, in the
red carpet, and I'm literally hiding my foot with my
cast behind the leg to try and hide it. I
even went to the White House and I was looking
at the picture I have a picture of me and
(27:47):
Michell Levana got God, I looked really overweight, and I
just remembered it's because I had a broken foot and
I went there with my cast. So it's like it's
like there's no glamorous pictures on me. At that time,
I was just like, oh, is trying to hide this
giant plastic thing. Well, I bet you were very glamorous.
And I think it's all how we perceive ourselves. I
think it's so interesting how hard we are in ourselves.
(28:09):
But I think now you wouldn't hide it, like like
I think the pandemic has made us all be at
least for many of us, a little more comfortable. I mean,
when would we be sitting in a closet, you know,
have doing a podcast, Like I'm sitting into a new
house in my husband's closet. Yeah, my back is killing me.
But you know, I don't know what else is happening
(28:29):
outside of this closet room, but you do it. And
you know, I made sure there was no dirty laundry anywhere, Like,
you know, that's it. I have my kids stuff like
all behind me, all of her laundries over here out
of you on the camera. But yeah, You're right, it's true,
and I mean to get back to a jelly thing
about the size and fativity. Yeah, you know, like I said,
(28:50):
I was, I just had a night month old, I
had a six year old, and and on the idea
of designing, I wanted to stop creating something that was
based on very simple geometric shapes that would drape around
the woman's body and it would be very much about
what the women's body did to that fabric. So the
concept of the collection was super simple. It was like, really,
(29:15):
I thought, I'm a mom. I want interesting clothes. I
don't want to look like a Just because I'm a
mother doesn't mean I have to look boring. I was
still wanted to wear things that were designed but in
basic fabrics like dynam or recycled flees, you know, politics
and t shirting, but just making things that were interesting
(29:35):
and it didn't matter what size I was. Things would
always have an elastic waist band, or they would have
drape in a way that would be flattering. And I
always go, well, my middle might not be looking so
great right now, but my legs look great, or my
shoulder looks great, or you know, it's like trying to
focus on the positive sides of women rather than pinpointing
(29:56):
what's wrong with us. And I think that's so much
about dial today is figuring out what works for you. Yeah,
you know, I'm not your traditional body type. I mean,
you know, we mo your teeny I'm teeny, but I
happen to have really small shoulders but really big boobs. Maybe. Yeah,
I've got no boots, I think so. Yeah, No, I'd
(30:18):
rather have that. And you know, I have a midsection.
I've had three children and you know my I've had
nutrition as that say, if I want to get rid
of that, I need to stop drinking. And I told
them I'd rather get rid of you so and find
someone that will help me. No, but it's true, I do.
I think so anyway, So, I you know that's just me.
But I mean, I'm with you. I went to the
(30:39):
same Yeah, I know, but it's only one drink, like
four nights a week. Guys, I don't think, I know. Yeah,
we're the way we talk about it, I know, we're
just we joke. Well, I I say everything in moderation.
You know, I'm like dairy free looking tree, but you
know I cheat. Yeah, Well, it's so funny. You say
that because I say, I'm much more into would have eating,
(31:01):
which means I don't have to announce I'm anything the end,
because I have done that. I've said I'm paleo, I'm keto.
You know. I tried veganism for one week. That was
short lived. That was definitely short lived. Give me it, no,
I mean, I think for me, what I always think
about is that um being pregnant. Your body sort of
(31:22):
tells you what it needs. I think I'm food. This
is medicine. I really believe in that, you know, And
I think, you know, if I like, I always used
to say to my son, for your brain to work,
you need to put good things. And I used to say,
you need to eat like colors, rainbows. You know, you
can't just eat beige food. That is not okay because
(31:45):
that is like your brain is beige. So you have
to eat colors, you know. And I grew up in
in Chile where my you know, my parents, and we
were used to be made to eat the most disgusting
things I thought at the time when I was a kid,
like you know, like urchin raw urchin. So we used
to have cod liver oil every day. But left by
(32:06):
this spoon and you know, like seaweeds too, and and
I literally I couldn't eat seafood until I was in
my twenties after leaving home because I was so brought
up eating everything, but also like what would be considered
quite weird, like it's probably all actually you could probably
(32:29):
bottle all of that and make a lot of money
at this point to super food. Well, it's funny. I
was just I was just listening to you, Maria and
thinking about your business and how you design and all
your sustainability and everything about you and listen to talk
about food and all this, and I'm like, why have
you not or maybe you have have like a world
of Maria, you know, where people can experience you know,
(32:53):
your best olive oil, you're smoothie ingredients. Or have you
ever incorporated more lifestyle into your design? Um? I would
love to eventually, you know, but I think that's like
maybe my next face. What are your future thoughts for
your business? Do you have any Well, I think we're
on the past that we we more and more of
(33:13):
like more and more sustainable and trying to you know,
like everybody trying to stay relevant because you know, in
the business where fashion constantly writes you off and you're
evlevant because especially I mean, I've been around for a
long time and fifty nine, so I'm literally competing for
press or whatever. Like everybody calls me a season design
(33:35):
now or what is the other term, mature? Somebody said
iCONECT seasoned, and I thought all this fact would be
quite good. You know. It's like you know what I mean,
It's like and you sort of put against like you know,
like kids, and you're like, it's okay, you were once
(33:55):
those kids, but look at what you've done. I'm in
the same situation. I can't people still right about the
same things about that. I say that I used to
say thirty years ago. I mean, same thing. And it's like, yeah,
you know why because we're the o G. You know
we are, and you know our job is to mentor
the younger generation. I mean, do you have I know,
(34:18):
you know you're involved in with c F d A.
Do you have younger designers that you mentor not? Right now? No,
We've just been keeping it very tight to the company.
You know, we're tiny teams, so that's COVID sort of.
I mean, I'm on the board, but to be honest,
my involvement have been very minimal right now. Although that's said,
(34:39):
I was with you for dinner the other night and
we ran into Lazarrow from Frances Schouler, and you clearly
were a mentor to him. So I think it's interesting
that if you don't see yourself as a formal mentor,
it's very clear to me from the outside that you
both are incredible mentors just by the way you live
your lives and the way you work and how you've
(35:00):
got your businesses to a whole generation coming up, you know,
the chip folks that are in the weeds and coming up. Still,
it's um, I think you're underestimating the power of that
you have. Thank you and Jelly. I mean I think
it's last time was my intern when I opened the
store on Moll Street, you know, and then he became
Frances Cooler and used to come and pick him up
(35:21):
from the store. I mean, I've had some of the
opportunity to work and you know, maybe bent to us
interns like amazing people. But I don't, you know, like
people always say that, oh my god, you really influenced me,
or you really looked up to you, But I never
think in those terms. You know, I just don't. I
just do. I never I think as a woman, we
(35:43):
just keep doing, we don't, you know. It's it's I
mean sometimes people go, you know, they come up to
me and they really complementary and it's almost like embarrassing
because I get really shy, but it's really sweet. But
it's also when not used to like blown our own
homes sort of thing. You know, you sort of you're
just getting over it and you're just doing what you
(36:03):
want to do, and you hopefully by doing something with
intention and authenticity, good things come of it and good
people follow. And who was there for you when you
were a young designer? Did you have any mentors or
people you that had an impact on you? I mean
I always you know. When I was in London, I
(36:25):
as a shop girl. I used to work for Maureen
Dougherty who has egg now, and she used to have
help and easy be yucky and the feud she stores
and I was exacted a girl that was like fifteen sixteen.
I used to wash hangers and get everybody's lunches and
where the ugly outfits that nobody wanted to wear. And
they used to put me in there and said were
(36:46):
you cute yourself, and it was like the eliest things.
So um. And then through the years, you know, I've
had you know, champions are forever telling me. You know,
you know, one of my best friends of Kamila Nicholson,
and she's forever telling me, you know, like she just
looks at the collection she said, oh my god, it
(37:08):
looks great. I just you know, for us, we're so
wrapped up in it. You never get a time to
actually look back and say, oh my god, this is great.
So it's really nice. You know. I have another friend Mikelly,
who I used to work with, who literally it's also
super supportive, you know, within the company, of course, I
have my business farmer Mauritia, but it's most of the
(37:28):
time we're just figuring out what's next. We're not you know,
patching each other's back and saying, oh, this looks amazing.
So it's not that sort of relationship, but it's just interesting.
You know. Even even my sister said to me the
other day, she said, you know, she's quite tough, but
she's very loving. She said to me, I think you
need to do more commercial things. And I was like,
(37:50):
I thought I was I thought we were trying to
do that. This is about commercial, so I can do well.
I have a question about you were aalked about staying
present and how difficult it can be when you're a
fashion designer and you're literally your job is to look
into the future, and you always designed the next to
the next of the act. What do you do to
(38:11):
stay present for yourself? I stay very present with my
relationships with my friends on a day to day and
I think that's my plans, my cats, my son, you know,
my family. I think, Um, I'm always trying to figure
out how to stay in the present because it's on
(38:33):
a personal level. I can do that, but it's really
hard when you're you know, I go in the store
and the spring summer is just arriving results in the
store as well, and in the other room is to
show room and we're showing full winter and up here
we're working on cruise in spring summer, so that visually,
I'm looking at five things at the same time. Yeah,
(38:53):
you're looking at all the seasons and one and one
walk through and literally I start, you know, I start
going to look crazy, and I sort of, you know,
like I cover things like which sheets sometimes, you know,
like rax and because it's just visually overwhelming. I mean,
our financial officer I had a lot of pictures in
(39:13):
his office space and I said, I just want a white,
clean space with my plants. And that's it. Because I
am constantly looking at things. So for me to walk
every day is important, to be able to meditate, even
if it's just ten minutes, or to to you know,
(39:33):
talk to my son and have a conversation and not
be running around like a blue ass fly. It's amazing. Well, Marie,
I ask everyone this question. I have one final question
and it's I think the most important one. If you
could tell someone that's listening one thing that could change
the course of their life for the better, one thing
(39:53):
that you do. What would it be? One thing is
don't sweat the small stuff, take bigger picture. Things will pass,
you know, good advice. M
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