I got fired from my first job in a store when I was a student because I kept wearing my own things, and people kept asking me where they were from, and the owner of the store got annoyed with me. So I got fired because I couldn't afford to buy the clothes from the store.

Maria Cornejo

Sexiness today is not about having a perfect body and wearing a tight mini skirt; it's about what you don't show that's truly sexy.

Maria Cornejo

I always say you can only change things from within. It's all about energy. If it's positive, then - even, like, somebody you don't like, saying hello to them one day just switches the conversation, and instead of being angry, I think it's good.

Maria Cornejo

I got fired from my first job in a store when I was a student because I kept wearing my own things, and people kept asking me where they were from, and the owner of the store got annoyed with me. So I got fired because I couldn't afford to buy the clothes from the store.

Maria Cornejo

The fashion business has to change. There's too much waste.

Maria Cornejo

I did go to fashion college, where I was a little punky, a little Bow Wow Wow. I wore red eyeliner. At the time, Vivienne Westwood was really big, so it was a lot of that. London was having a really big moment. I was mixing vintage with things I had made.

Maria Cornejo

My mother had her dresses made. In those days in Chile, the early '70s, people had dressmakers make their things. With the leftovers, my sister and I always had a matching outfit. She had an outfit, we had the mini version. That was the very late '60s, early '70s way to dress your kids.

Maria Cornejo

Before I started my company in 1998, I worked for big companies traveling a lot and saw firsthand how much waste there was. I was flying across the world in first class to places like Italy or Hong Kong, where I was staying in 5-star hotels, only to nickel and dime someone over a sweater price.

Maria Cornejo

I'm not one for conventional wisdom. I founded my label in 1998, but after the 9/11 terrorist attacks, my Japanese backers pulled out, and I couldn't afford to produce the line myself. I needed fresh ideas from someone who understood technology, since that was the direction the business was going.

Maria Cornejo

Maggie Gyllenhaal, Chelsea Handler, Tilda Swinton, and Sofia Coppola are other clients. They're all risk takers but never look like they're in costume.

Maria Cornejo

Guys are not good under pressure. They're just not good at multitasking, but on that note, we should be a bit less good at enabling them to, you know? That's a problem.

Maria Cornejo

My art teacher was really encouraging me, because he really liked that I could draw. I felt very torn. At that time, I had to pick one, and I felt much more confident in the arts than I did in chemistry. My big thing was that I actually wanted to be like Jacques Cousteau.

Maria Cornejo

Because America doesn't have a strong textile industry anymore, we have to bring things like fabrics, zippers, and color tape into the U.S., and having so many elements involved in production adds to the amount of waste. You might have some things coming from Italy, a button coming from China, or lining coming from Korea; it's just endless.

Maria Cornejo

Being your own woman, not cookie cutter - that is the greatest luxury!

Maria Cornejo

I'm not an intimate person, really.

Maria Cornejo

My own personal tweets are very limited. I think I have, like, 68 followers on my personal Twitter.

Maria Cornejo

As a kid, I always used to make clothes. My grandmother made everything with me - she taught me how to knit.

Maria Cornejo

My chemistry teacher wanted me to do chemistry, and my art teacher wanted me to do art. Fashion seemed like a good in-between - using your brain but being creative.

Maria Cornejo

The fashion business got boring. I was working with big companies, but the minute it became too formulaic, I got bored with it. I wanted to do a creative space where I could just make stuff - kind of like an atelier, where I could collaborate with other artists, drape geometric shapes on the body, make cushion covers, or whatever.

Maria Cornejo

Normally I sleep in until 7, and most days, I go right into the office. On Tuesdays, though, I stay home and do work. I need a day when I'm not in meeting after meeting. You need time to try to get into your head again and see what's next.

Maria Cornejo

If you feel good about yourself, even putting a little bit of makeup - I don't usually wear makeup, but you know, someone said to me, 'Why don't you spend that extra five minutes to make yourself feel good?' And it's just a bit of self-care so you can go out and face the world, and I think we need that right now.

Maria Cornejo