Maria Cornejo is a fashion designer based in New York and known for her Zero + Maria Cornejo collection.
It would be great if everybody got a conscience. If we started to take more responsibility for the pollution in the world caused by the fashion industry, and to produce less, but better-thought-out goods. Then it becomes worth saving up to buy something beautifully-designed because you can and will keep it, rather than buying a bunch of disposable fashion items you'll probably wear once before throwing away and adding to the waste stockpile. I do think people used to buy clothing with a more thoughtful approach.
People aren't buying blindly anymore, they want transparency. They want to know informed about where their clothes were made. I think that's why we have a loyal clientele.
I wanted to start something in New York that focused on making products locally, and because I'd just had my second child didn't want to be traveling halfway across the world anymore. The idea was to have something wearable that fit with my reality, which was being a mom with two young kids and not always wanting to wear jeans. I still wanted to wear interesting clothes, and the options out there I found were either very expensive or very cheap. There was a big gap in the middle.
If you feel good about your clothes, you get excited. And I want women to feel good when they're wearing my clothes - not just because they're beautiful, but because the process and every step involved in making them is incredibly thoughtful. You can be proud wearing them.
I've always been very aware of environment. When I was a kid I wanted to be a marine biologist until I realized I hated being underwater. I think a lot of that came from traveling and seeing the levels of waste produced by so many factories around the world.
Knowledge creates the demand. The more people know about it, the more people will be interested and demand for things to be produced in a careful, conscious way.
It became very important for me to stand up and design with a conscience for environment, you know? Just because you like clothes doesn't mean that you have to throw your principles out the window.
For us, every day is Earth Day. It's like with Women's Day recently, I said, "Every day is women's day - we're women!" It's something that we sort of take for granted.
There's strength in numbers. One designer isn't going to change everything. Everyone has to demand that their materials are being sustainably sourced. Just like how cosmetic companies won't test on animals, there have to be benchmarks that we can all adopt.
I always use a really simple analogy: if you're putting organic food on your table because you care about eating well, shouldn't you be trying to do the same with what you're putting on your body? Our skin is our biggest organ. Everyday you are absorbing things through it. The way that a cream without the right ingredients can affect you, everything you put on your skin matters.
We can't start with big thinking, we have to approach it little by little. Sustainability isn't going to become big right away. Each day you give yourself a little bit more responsibility. It's not ideal, but that's the only way things change, we can't just keep ignoring it.
When people wear our Bolivian knits and see who knitted them, they are excited because they know they are supporting this women's cause in Bolivia. And it shows you that we are all connected. It's not a machine making your clothes in a black hole somewhere. There is a human being behind it, and a community there.
I think information is key and at the end of the day it doesn't matter if it's sustainable or not to a consumer, most of the time, they just want to know that it's beautiful. So we have to serve those people with desirability and conscientiousness at the same time, it's a challenge.
I don't follow trends - it's more of an instinct thing. Honestly, I'm kind of my own worst client. I wake up and go, "I have nothing to wear!" But that's what makes it interesting. I ask, what would make me feel good? I think it's a constant challenge because clothes are so personal. For me, my clothes are related to my mood. If I feel like I'm not wearing the right thing, I don't feel confident. I think it's in everybody's psyche.
There are social and environmental impacts. You might be working with a factory that underpays its staff or mistreats its workers, or mishandles the dyes. I think that conscious fashion, fashion for our soul, needs to keep pushing that needle towards being better and more mindful.