How Lauren Jauregui's 'More Than That' Video Is A Celebration For Women, By Women

Half each year immediately after "god is a woman" became segment of the cultural vernacular, Lauren Jauregui has taken that concept one step further by embodying a real goddess. The singer-songwriter has been steadily introducing herself to the world as a solo artist, and so far, she's given us a pair of singles, "Expectations" and "More Than That," which hint at her promising star power.


The normal thread between those two videos is creative and director Lauren Dunn, whom Jauregui trusted to bring her precise artsy vision to life. For "More Than That," released last week, that meant chronicling the goddess Aphrodite's visit to Earth, following her through a strip club to convey a message of female empowerment.


"Aphrodite is the ultimate celebration of femininity and aesthetics and sexuality in an empowering way," Dunn told MTV News. Whenever we think of a strip club, it's often darkly lit and seedy secretive and you also don't tell people you're going. It's not a place you envision girls getting with each other and going to to celebrate other women."


In the video, though, Jauregui's Aphrodite — plus an audience of entranced ladies — admire the dancers in front of these and eventually join in on the celebration. Dunn mentioned the video was partially inspired by the Renaissance painting La Primavera, in which the goddess Venus stands among a trio of females dancing around her. Those are the three females flanking Jauregui as she comes into the club (aptly titled "Olympus"), and their ethereal wardrobe takes cues from the women's gowns in the painting.


The dancers, also, had their own feminine approach to what you would wear to pole dance, and the video's stylist worked with each one of those to pick the outfit that made them feel the most empowered. The result, Dunn mentioned, is seeing exotic dancers in a way we're not used to.


"The dancers we hired — it's just astonishing to watch them move. It seemed like magic; you can't believe the things they can do," she explained. "We don't visualize them in that light as often as we should."


She added, "Ultimately, it's just a celebration of women's power and aesthetics, in each form. Every body type, every color. Because that's where real aesthetics lies, is diversity. Lauren's life mantra is celebrating females, and we just wanted to literally visualize these females in a new light."


Even more impressive, the give attention to femininity onscreen was heavily mirrored offscreen. The video's entire post-production team — including the editor, colorist, and art director, and also because the lead production designer — were all ladies. Dunn explained, "I would like to mention it's probably intentional that we just be working with ladies as the energy is there. We categorize kind of brought this thing to life together."


Besides wardrobe plus a diverse cast, the key to the video, Dunn mentioned, was visual design; in other words, creating the world of Aphrodite. The director and her team spared no specifics, packing the video with symbolism galore. Those stage lights illuminating the dancers? They're classic theatre lights shaped like shells, one of the most commonly associated symbols of Aphrodite. The pomegranates, wine, and golden apple covering the table in front of Jauregui? They're all symbols of Aphrodite, also. And the video's color palette, comprised mostly of seafoam green, rose, and light blue? You guessed it — they're all colors connected with the goddess.


Some of these symbols can also be seen on the single's cover art, which recreates the classic painting The Birth of Venus, and which was gorgeously brought to life in the video — though it proved to be a herculean task.


"That was the scariest photo I've ever taken," Dunn mentioned of the cover art, explaining that she used a "really old-school Pentax camera" and soft, low light to pull off the admittedly "risky" shot. She also paid for upwards of 500 plants, which were meticulously arranged around Jauregui in a way that mirrored classic art.


"I had to get up on a scissor lift, and I was strapped in and dangling over Lauren," Dunn recalled. "I had determined I wanted to shoot through some vintage filters, which is why you get that sort of soft glow. I'm leaning over, and you're hoping your hand doesn't shake as you fire the shot. Each person on set was quiet — we had a crew of probably 30 or 40 people and no one was speaking; everybody knew how scary of a moment it was for me. Although right after we got the shot, I was like, 'That's it, I know that's the one.'"


Drawing inspiration from those famed pieces of artwork was "a very bold thing to do," Dunn admitted, although she was relieved that fans could immediately identify the references and understand her intentions. Plus, her collaborator — in all her glowing glory — requires nothing much less than the best.


"It's legendary art so you don't aspire to not do it justice," Dunn explained. Nevertheless any time you've got a subject like Lauren, she literally looks like a Renaissance painting brought to life."


Jauregui is credited as a creative director and co-editor on the video, and Dunn chalked that up to the way the 22-year-old approaches her art and "builds her own world" in her music and her videos.


"She is inspiring because from even writing the song to editing the video with us, she's so hands-on and has such a vision for who she is," Dunn mentioned. "She makes such a mood with her music. A lot of good music feels cinematic, as well as a lot of what she writes has that energy to it."


What Jauregui's next video will look like is still anyone's guess, nevertheless fans may have the ability to look at her last two for clues. Though Dunn mentioned there's not a uncensored relationship between "Expectations" and "More Than That," she did explain, "We used some of the imagery from ["Expectations"] and re-referenced it in a new way [in "More Than That"]. Some of the symbols that are regarding Aphrodite, like doves and roses, we had so much of that in the initial video and we wanted to sprinkle some of that in the new one, to group kind of keep a through line of the goddess that is Lauren."


She added, "The narrative has evolved and so they each are standalone videos, although we really wanted to have some order kind of visual connection that made sense."


That awesome attention to detail is a testament to how stunningly Jauregui is navigating her debut solo era. And much like those clubgoers stood entranced by her moves in the "More Than That" video, we'll watching closely to be able to see what she does next.