Senior Collection: Lauren Wilson
Written by Reagan Roper, photo by Jaylen Early of Nia Harrison wearing Lauren Wilson’s designs.
Have you ever felt like your experiences and what you’ve gone through in the past are what shape who you are today? That’s what senior Lauren Wilson’s collection is all about this semester. Lauren is a senior at Missouri State double majoring in Fashion Design/Merchandising. She is from Springfield, Missouri and has been involved in AFAD since her junior year. She started fashion classes at Kickapoo High School at age 15 and her mother is a graphic designer, which both play a part in where she is now.
Fashion hasn't always been her ultimate goal, though. Through her life, Lauren has been interested in everything from owning her own restaurant to becoming a singer. At one point in her life, she planned to move to Nashville and pursue a singing career but decided to come to Missouri State instead. She believes that if you have a message, it doesn’t matter if it comes from you directly or not, as long as it's being said; and Lauren has a message to share.
Lauren’s collection was about all things mental health and past experiences. She said she wanted to be able to produce from different points of views. When asked what inspired her senior collection, Lauren said she felt that this collection wasn't necessarily something that she designed as much as it has just been a part of her life.
“Fashion is a tool best used when drawn from experiences,” Lauren said.
Through her collection, Lauren portrays the idea of transformation, so for her photo and video shoot of the collection she decided to have one model for audiences to see the model go through different transitions of mental health. Quarantine played a big part in this collection because it was a time of isolation.
Being a double major, Lauren is a part of design and merchandising and having both aspects of fashion is a strong advantage to have. She said having merchandising knowledge helps her evaluate her designs better to determine if something is going to be profitable on the market. As a designer, she is researched-based and likes to look at things from a non-biased point of view.
On a personal level, Lauren describes herself as high energy and strong-willed. Her style is mainly feminine and she loves to layer and wear quick and easy outfits like jumpsuits. She loves animal print and the color pink.
After graduation, Lauren said that eventually she wants to have her own design business. Lauren said she is happy designing anything so long as she is designing.
Throughout the process of designing her collection, Lauren had to overcome the need for perfection. She said that with this collection it was more of an opportunity cost.
Lauren said she had to evaluate whether she should try to make the collection perfect, against whether perfection would really bring her happiness.
Lauren spent a total of over 480 hours on her collection. She said that throughout the process she had to have a lot of perseverance and sometimes re-do work that was already done but she said that’s just part of the process.You don’t necessarily know where the finish line is with work like this and that’s where the perseverance comes into play, Lauren said. Celebrating the small accomplishments is key.
As a student, she feels that the best innovations come from a place of lacking resources and pushing the boundaries of innovations constantly is how you will succeed.
When asked if she had any advice for young designers, Lauren strongly emphasized that drawing is important because not all designers end up sewing but they will always draw and design. Similarly, she said staying on top of trends is crucial, but she also encourages designers to draw before they look at upcoming trends to see how good their instincts are. Her advice to others is not to be afraid to design something just because it’s hard. Some advice that has stuck with Lauren throughout the years comes from her mom and she said, “If you do what you love then the money will follow.”