BODIES: A Profile on Lauren Corcoran

Written by Julia Kulik (@juleskulik)

Featuring Photography by Nyah Khan (@projectsbyny).

Styled & Creative Directed by Julia Kulik | Modeled by Lauren Corcoran (@doublecheeseburgergirl/@clltestworld)

One sunny afternoon in April, I am sitting outside of a coffee shop with Lauren Corcoran. She is sipping her apple mango iced tea, one leg crossed over the other, as she wipes her wispy bangs away from her eyes. She’s wearing a turquoise peasant tunic with a deep purple maxi skirt, topped with a forest green pea coat, an outfit worthy of Stevie Nicks. Lauren, a former contributor to this very publication, has just graduated from Drexel University’s prestigious Design & Merchandising program. To celebrate this new chapter of her life, she has focused her senior thesis on connecting her friends to “make art and make something happen”. A truly kind spirit, she prioritizes collaboration and giving her friends a platform to share their art.  

“BODIES”, Lauren’s senior thesis, is more than just a fashion show. In addition to directing a fashion show starring designs by her colleagues and featuring music from her DJ friends, Lauren has curated a unique digital experiment examining the line between fascination and horror through the inclusion of performance art. 

The following is a brief transcript of our conversation, sharing the driving forces behind her creative endeavors as well as an accompanying photo series showcasing Lauren’s unique personality:

J: What are you happiest doing when you’re not working? 

I’m an extrovert beyond belief, I gain my energy from other people. I always want to be around other people. I try to get to know people very deeply, I love to ask questions about people. In a way, I love learning about others more than I love thinking about myself. It’s actually a bit of a character flaw since I find I have trouble being on my own sometimes. But yeah, I’m happiest when I’m with my friends, making art, and bouncing cool ideas off each other, trying to figure out how to make the world a better place. I think being around people is just a huge part of my character. 

J: What are you listening to right now? Any favorite musicians? 

L: I love bossa nova, Brazilian bossa nova. [Luis] Bonfá is an incredible guitarist and composer, he absolutely destroys every piece that he’s in, it’s layered, it’s complicated, yet they are also simple and impactful chord progressions… On an opposite note, I love stuff like “Blame it” by T-Pain, early 2000s ‘crazy pop’ and hyper pop. Like this group, The Veronicas, Ayesha Erotica, and 6arely Human. My music taste is super ‘whiplash-y’ because I go from moody Brazilian Latin music to shaking a** to T-Pain.  

J: Would you say your Brazilian roots inspire you creatively? 

L: Yes, yes. Brazil is all about being loose- it’s a place about admiring natural beauty, being chill, knowing that at the end of the day, the party is what we’re looking towards at the end of the week. I’m really inspired by Brazilian brands, especially Brazilian Beachwear. A brand I love is Melissa, a Brazilian brand that invented the jelly sandal…

More importantly, I’m most inspired by my mother. When I was very young, my parents started a bed & breakfast in upstate New York and eventually a restaurant and country goods store. At the store, my mom sold shawls, candles, home goods… my mom really put together an incredible assortment. My parents recently retired after a long, successful 20-year run. You could say I was born into customer service, growing up appreciating Brazilian food and methodologies. 

J: Tell me about some things on your bucket list. 

L: I was very lucky to take a writer’s room class at Drexel. A huge part of that class was just getting deep down into your emotions, which I never expected. I thought I was going to be pitching my sitcom, but instead, it was like a de-facto therapy college class. One of the first things we were asked was what is something we want to do before we die. The first thing that came to my head was before I die, I want to make the stories in my mind become a reality.

I picture myself in a room watching the final product of a movie, music video, the fashion show [her senior thesis]. That’s probably the most important thing to me.  

But if I were to say the more fun things on my list? Number one, go to Bergheim, in Berlin, A.K.A. one of the hardest clubs to get into. Number two, I also really want to perform in a band. I went to a high school for performing arts, and I did vocal there, so I’m operatically trained, but I never got the chance to perform with a band. Number three,

I want to be a part of something way bigger than what I am, something where I can really look at the full picture and say not only did I contribute to this, but I was insurmountably needed to it, and it’s bigger than what I am, it’s impactful, it’s socially relevant.  

J: What and who are you inspired by? Which designers, authors, artists, etc.? 

L: One of my biggest inspirations is Mana Sama, Mana is a Japanese artist, designer, and musician who grew up in the punk scene and essentially created the EGL (Elegant Gothic Lolita) aesthetic. Mana created this band Malice Mizer, and later their solo project, Moi dix Mois, and this fashion brand, Moi-même-Moitié. Though they are completely mute, they are the creative director of these insane projects for the band, they compose every song, design every set, design all these outfits, and literally invented a genre of Lolita fashion. The first person to mention Rococo styles.

I’m really inspired by Mana Sama because this person has so much humility and doesn't want to be in the spotlight, yet uses their body, their art, as a canvas for themselves. They break so many norms; they cross-dress, and they are always in feminine dress, showing that feminity is powerful, which is a huge part of their ethos. 

I want to be someone who can make an outfit, perform, and facilitate a set as a producer. I think that a true triple threat is someone smart enough to make the clothes, wear the clothes, and facilitate the clothes. 

J: Name something you think everyone should care about.  

L: I think that people should value being more compassionate about others. Holy sh*t, people are so terribly worried about themselves.

Less what people should care more about, what to stop caring about; you. So many people are worried about, ‘Where is my piece of the pie?’ But at the end of the day, it’s our pie. Especially in fashion, people are so willing to push other people down to claw their way out of a bad situation.  

Once you have compassion, you have awareness, and the ability to be a fifth-person thinker.  First, in the 1st person, you think about yourself, then in the 2nd person, you think about the people around you, 3rd, your group, 4th, think about your community, but in the 5th person, you’re looking down at your whole situation, everything that took you there. What were all the moving parts to get you here? 

J: What inspired this project? How did you think of this concept? 

L:  I was sitting with my friend coming up with ideas for my thesis, trying to use tools like marketing mixes, and white space opportunities, and my friend said to me; ‘Do you really want to do something that’s not blowing your classmates out of the water and get people talking?’ So, I thought to myself, ‘What is the most outlandish thing I can do? Get the most people involved in?’

Something that came to mind was a recent Victor and Rolf show, 2022 I believe, and I just thought to myself, this absolutely seems like there was some Design & Merchandising people involved in this thing, how can we make this pop? How can we make this a selling point?

At the end of the day, the runway is just a conceptual field, something to make a statement of what the brand is about. I wanted to completely fake a viral moment and try to convince people that it could be a real thing. I’m just very lucky to be around people that I knew I wanted to be involved in the project because if I didn’t know all these people ready to get on this, I probably wouldn’t have even pitched this project in the first place. 

J: What do you hope people will take away from this project? 

I really want two things: The online experience is going to be very different from the in-person experience.

The show will have many different designers and great DJ music. The guests are going to be watching cool clothes walk by, equating it to a museum experience or an art gallery. It’s fun to look at what people can make with their hands.

So many people don’t get the opportunity to go to a fashion show. It’s so unreasonably exclusive, it’s got so much of a pish-posh connotation, I almost equate it to operas because operas are non-accessible, but very high art. They are so much fun to go to, you just have to be tapped in to understand an opera.

“ I just want the in-person crowd to see some really cool clothes and be able to say, ‘I went to a fashion show’, which is something a lot of people, unfortunately, can’t say. ”

Now, online is going to be a completely different story because it’s going to be the moment itself. The moment itself is going to be someone in white approaching a kiddy pool at the end of the runway, stepping in, and freaking out. Originally, I was thinking of a performance art piece rather than a fashion show. I was feeling very emotionally dysregulated, wishing I could freak out in a pool. I kept thinking to myself, I wish I could start freaking out, screaming and splashing around, get my energy out, and get upset. That's where I got the idea of a tainted dress. So, I want three different reactions, since there are going to be three different videos.  

The first reaction I want is, I want people to think, ‘WTF? This is emo, this is stupid. I want them to think, why is this going on? Why would someone want to sit in a dingy warehouse and look at a bunch of art kids’ stuff?’

Second, I want someone to think, ‘Okay, this is art, this is the experience of seeing art’. It’s an interesting situation to be in when you’re sitting at a gallery, thinking to yourself, ‘Okay, this is art, I'm processing that it’s art, what does it mean?’

And finally, what I really hope people get is feeling like you’re going through something, something that taints you, something that f*cks you up for months, stains you, something that makes you want to go crazy. I want people to see that iconography and think, ‘Okay, I feel crazy like that too sometimes, b*tch’. 

Follow @clltestworld on Instagram to follow Lauren throughout her future creative endeavors.

Watch a recap of Lauren’s fashion show here.