Mark Borthwick’s Vibrant Portrait of a Cult New York Label

Maria Cornejo, founder of the label Zero + Maria Cornejo, has spent the past 25 years outfitting the creative scene of New York and beyond in her cutting-edge, innovative designs that mesh fashion and art. Now, she’s ready to just relax into that space: “Someone asked me, ‘What’s next?’,” the designer recalls. “There’s nothing next. I just want to enjoy being in the present right now. To have time to stop and smell the coffee for a bit.” To celebrate this clarity, this assurance that comes with 25 years as one of New York’s most beloved and revered independent designers, Cornejo, in collaboration with her ex-husband, the photographer Mark Borthwick, has released a new book, Back to Zero.

In contrast to the weighty tome published by Rizzoli on the occasion of Zero +’s 20th anniversary, Back to Zero was conceived of as more of a ‘scrapbook,’ a soft-covered space of raw reflection. Over two days, Cornejo invited 15 creatives from her wider circle to her studio, for one hour each. They were asked five, almost Proustian, questions centred around joy and dreaming, both of past memories and future hopes. “I think as creative people we need to reflect on those things to sort of feed us,” she explains, “especially over the last four years with Covid. It’s just been survival mode for everybody, and we’ve forgotten about the beauty in things.”

Alongside the interviews are photographs taken by Borthwick of each creative in pieces from Zero +’s Re-edition capsule – a contemporary update of cult classics pulled from the label’s archives. Of note is Chloë Sevigny, captured in a silk reiteration of the ‘One Dress’ which Borthwick shot her in for a 1998 cover of Purple magazine. Artists from younger generations are also featured, like architect Bella Guinness and the designer’s son Jo-kel Cornejo Borthwick, a creative director based in Paris. “It was nice to get the kids in because there was a time when I was pulling pieces to reissue and my design assistant, who is 23, would love certain pieces that I didn’t necessarily notice,” says Cornejo. “It’s nice to see the younger generations interpret the pieces.”

There’s a special synchronicity between the book and Cornejo’s own life as a designer. She laid out the unique, principled design philosophy (let the fabric dictate drape, let the fabric dictate the shape, for example) behind Zero + during her “magical year off.” “I was heavily pregnant with Joey [Jo-kel] and then I ended up being in England for three months as my dad was dying of cancer,” she remembers, “I couldn’t do anything, so I just said this is a magical year to be present, to actually think for myself.” Perhaps it was this strange confluence of opposing ends of life during the inception of the brand that inflected Cornejo’s designs with a timelessness, an elegance that has stayed relevant across generations. And perhaps this is why it’s so beautiful to see a life cycle of creatives come together to celebrate her work.

Back to Zero by Mark Borthwick and Maria Cornejo is published by Dashwood Books and is available for pre-order now.