WOLFE, Cora E.

[cora wolfe]

24 | NEW YORK | DESIGNER @ PRISM NAME: Corinne Eleanor Wolfe NICKNAME: Cora CURRENT LOCATION: New York, NY HOMETOWN: Chicago, IL KNOWN FOR: Her Wallpaper Prints COLLEGE: Stanford, Communications & Art Studies ALARM CLOCK SET TO: 8:30AM, then snooze COFFEE ORDER: iced matcha latte FAVORITE YOGA POSE: crow pose 3AM TUNE: chicago freestyle (ft. giveon) - drake MOST USED EMOJI: 😘 TO-GO ORDER: rubirosa tie dye pizza ROUND FOR THE TABLE: green tea shots PET PEEVE: sloppy eater LAST PURCHASE: for restless sleepers pajamas COLLECTS: fridge magnets TELEVISION BINGE: the politician LIPSTICK SHADE: Nu Incongru, YSL ONE WORD TO DESCRIBE HER: vibrant HER WORD TO DESCRIBE HER: drifty C H I L D H O O D I was born a McCarthy, what do you expect? My mother claims Elias Wolfe was her second husband, but I like to count her annulment (which she hates), so to me he was her third and latest. She met him at a gallery in Chelsea during open studio season, aka she was definitely running around with a big glass of red wine in her hand. Meanwhile, he was looking for a Peter Mars for Sotheby's, and he found her instead. It sounds very cliche, but you have to understand that my mother is an honest to god wonder. She, along with my uncles, have this uncanny ability to be completely oblivious to, yet captivate, an entire room. It's always just been that easy for her. Definitely hasn't been perfect, but always easy. It helps that she's always been doted on. To this day that's still a thing, which is a blessing and a curse. Blessing, because I love how close it ends up keeping the family even if there's drama half the time (Caesar or Athena, always a toss up with who starts what). Curse, because it's made my mother...my mother. Not that I don't love her - I do, immensely. I just like to blame her for my unstable life ethic. She's never been super grounded, and loves to keep this rosy glow about the world that's insanely unrealistic. It's easy to get caught up in, but when you really listen to her or watch what she does, it's like...what the fuck. Anyways! Obviously I was a mistake. She likes to explain it as a gift, but my dad basically told me she found out too late to do anything and never acknowledged she was really pregnant until her water broke and they handed her a child in the hospital. Then it was a flurry of hiring nannies, moving in together, and Athena at one point putting my dad on a 'trial period' before he could convince her to talk about marriage. He passed, obviously - I was the cute 2 year old flower girl at their wedding. All things considered, I had a pretty perfect childhood. Everything I wanted, fun vacations, huge family gatherings, even a younger sister eventually when my mom thought having two blonde daughters would be "cute" and my sister arrived via surrogate when I was 4. Sometimes Athena would just kind of dip out for a while on an 'adventure' or 'excursion' or 'retreat', but she'd always show back up eventually and take us on mind melting shopping sprees because she missed us so much. My dad never showed it, but looking back I could see how fed up he'd get when she'd do that. Buying our affection, no wonder she was our favorite for so long! Didn't last, though. I became a bratty teen around the same time they started openly arguing in front of us, embarrassed to bring my friends around because they'd either hit on my mom, watch her start drinking at noon, or get a download on how annoying my dad was being that day. So I just...bounced? Spent a ton of time at my friend's houses, or going out, the mall, visiting my cousins. I had a high credit limit and my mom's bad habits - the world was my oyster for a while! The only nice-ish moments I remember during those times were listening to my dad talk about his art collection in his study, pieces or people he wanted to look into. Or when he gave me a tablet, then told me I wasn't half bad when I was doodling patterns on it one day. When they divorced, Athena mentioned that the length of their union was a 'record' for her. Split custody. I took his last name out of spite. A D U L T H O O D Things are better now, obviously. College helped - to be honest, my parents definitely pulled big strings to get me into Stanford,(they went the obvious route, rather than the Varsity Blues idiots) and being across the country made me miss both of them more than I planned. My mom and I ended up talking weekly, and even if she was suddenly in a very distant time zone she always picked up. Besides making me want for nothing, that was kind of when I realized she was always going to care. In her own way, of course - some of those conversations could be so obscene and she'd jet off to go board a hot air balloon with a new boyfriend, but she was still there. My dad took on more of the parent/scholarly role, so when I actually got decent feedback on my portfolios and tests he was who I went to. We suffered a minor setback when I went back to his for Thanksgiving one year and found out he'd had a girlfriend move in, but Grace ended up being pretty cool in the end. We do a lot of yoga together, and she's the only person that took the time to figure out how to use my dad's blender. They ended up getting married in a NY courthouse earlier this year - they were planning a nice wedding but y'know. Corona. Had a great time in college, graduated, freelanced for a while on different projects with my friend Charlie and then we ended up as a packaged deal at Prism, a creative agency. I take the client meetings, draft designs, renderings, prints, etc. She hauls ass on production, bringing it to life. One-of-a-kind goodness. Been taking on more housing projects in the interim with events going dark and housewives deciding this is the perfect time for a reno, but simultaneously been a nice time to just...chill? The work's fascinating and fun, don't get me wrong...but sometimes I just get unmotivated and want to do something more fun instead. Guess I really am my mother's daughter. S A D I E "Cora's my total rock. When I was younger she definitely ended up straddling a strange line between mom and sister, even if she's not that much older than me. It was kind of like the mom from Mean Girls, but it worked! I think it was because she started to care less about what she did, and care more about what I did for a while - not that she didn't end up fine, of course she did...but she really pushed me to do well in school, to stick with triathlon training (she'd wake my ass up for them if she had to), to apply to great colleges. It was like any faith she had in herself she gave to me instead, and she was probably the most outwardly proud person when I got into Johns Hopkins. She cried more than me! I think to her, as long as one of us turned out alright, then it's just a sum of the masses. The fact that she's got a steady job, and is on good terms with most of the family, puts us in the above average category and she seeems nice and settled there. I always kind of wonder what would have happened if she'd stuck with Nate, but I don't know if that would have helped or hindered her at this point." N A T E You want a unique way to turn the tables on a rich girl? Do as follows: 1. Meet her in college your junior year. Preferably when you're in off season training, so you have a ton of time to convince her you're not another 'soccer bro' while you're sweating your ass off. 2. Score when she *reluctantly* decides to come to a game. She'll probably bring 2 friends and straight rum in a Stanford mug, but it makes her more warm and funny when you find her afterward. 3. Ask her out at Homecoming. Cliche, but it'll work. She loves the kitschy history - buy her a vintage Stanford magnet while you're at it. It'll be the only thing she hangs on the fridge. 4. Don't fuck it up when you meet her parents - she sees her mom as a flight risk, and her dad as a bit stoic, but you're smart enough to not have a drink when they offer because you're still underage and hyperaware everything is a test. You seem to pass, based on the look on her face. 5. Forget to mention you've been called up to the national team before. Shrug it off when she brings it up. Make note that she's googled you - don't admit that you've googled her. 5. Ride high on the fact that you're team Captain going into your senior year, and she's at all your home games with your dad. You probably shouldn't start thinking about life outside of Stanford with her, but you'll do it anyway. Inevitable - it's been good, y'know? 6. Mention as much to her one night when you're kind of drunk at your anniversary dinner. Notice that she gets cold - panic, tell her you love her, double panic. She'll say it back, but you'll both wonder that night who exactly meant what. 7. Get absolutely crushed by her after the season (and your relationship) ends. She mentions that she didn't know what direction you were headed and soccer 'wasn't an end all be all' amidst other dumb reasons. You have a feeling she cheated, and you won't know if you're sad or angry about it. Both. You'll want to spit back that she has enough money for the two of them, their kids and their kids and so on, that she barely seems to be doing anything but doodling (I am getting an art degree you know), drinking and now, apparently, leaving you. But you won't, and you'll be better off for it. 8. Sign with Bayern Munich two weeks before you graduate. Move. Don't call her. 9. Have a fucking lights out season. Make the first-team squad. Become their #1 striker. Score more than you've ever done. Start calling it football out loud because no one's there to "correct" you. Don't call her. Don't answer her texts that have suddenly started to appear again. 10. Answer the call from your agent 2 years later. Make sure you really listen to the number they tell you is attached to the loan agreement with Chelsea. It's not a joke, and you really think you've earned it honestly. Don't answer her text with an article about the trade. Don't answer her calls. Do send her a Chelsea magnet. Ta-da. A I S H A Cora is more than my cousin, we're real, true friends. Even in the circles we moved in as teens, being part of our family was an othering experience. Our parents cast long shadows. New money kids thought we were haughty, whist those with money as old as McCarthy money were all too familiar with our parents' hijinks. Our junior year Caesar dated a barely legal cocktail waitress, whilst Athena made headlines in Italy for crashing a yacht. My uncle Cassius is really the most normal of their generation and if I'm really honest that will always put distance between my cousin Athena and I, whilst Cora and I totally understand what it is to have a batshit, embarrassing parent. I wouldn't change my dad for the world, but it meant a lot to me to have someone to vent to growing up. Someone who wouldn't call poor little rich girl.  Admittedly we live an unsympathetic life. We spent our childhood years hiding out in my dad's panic room, eating the macarons she'd been given by her mom after yet another impromptu trip to Paris. We used to spend summers lounging by the pool at my dad's LA apartment listening to tropical house and smoking weed with Tate, whilst my dad thought I was at my mom's and my mom had no idea my dad was still in New York. I could enjoy my life unthinkingly with Cora, could complain about things that others would hate to hear about, never feeling like I had anything to hide. This extended beyond just my wealth, which obviously she shared... when I got pregnant in my teens, it was her hand I held in the clinic. She has been there for me in a way that no one else ever has been. I love her. We're similar in ways that make life easier, and different in ways that make life interesting. She's calmer than I am, less prone to drama. Probably because there's enough of it from my aunt. She has better taste in men, though we seem to have similar luck. Tate is my opposite in many ways and he does a lot to keep me on an even keel, but Cora is my co-conspirator, like Tate but less judgmental and a lot more fun. If I ever get married it's Cora who'll be my maid of honor. I wouldn't even put her in an unflattering dress, that's how much she means to me. MEET THE TEAM BEHIND THE SCREEN: PRODUCTION & DESIGN CORA WOLFE Specializing in original fabrics, prints, and “wallpaper with a life of its own”, Cora Wolfe infuses color and character into spaces large and small. From living rooms to restaurants, to gallery spaces to a women’s clubhouse in the sky, Cora creates patterned and branded products from a variety of elements as playful and captivating as they are distinct. Cora bases primarily in the New York, Chicago and Los Angeles offices. CHARLIE FIGAROA Charlie Figaroa's made-to-order production elements are engineered to impress at first—and second, and third—glance. "Precise makes perfect" is the motto when it comes to the matter of decoration, and Charlie never skimps on the details. From vendors to studio to final product, each project will look seamless, yet exceed every expectation once delivered. Charlie bases primarily in the New York, Kansas City and Los Angeles offices. OFFICE LOCATIONS: | NY | LA | KC | MIA | CHI |

jill      katelyn byrd       resident