How Fran Summers Became The Brit Girl Of The Season
Introducing British Vogue's November 2018 cover star: the Yorkshire teenager turned model-of-the-moment, Fran Summers.

July 4, 2018, was a somewhat surreal day for Francesca Summers. The 19-year-old model had recently ticked off a number of to-dos on her increasingly dreamlike professional bucket list – a Prada campaign, a British Vogue cover – but her latest assignment, opening the Valentino couture autumn/winter 2018 show, was up there with the loftiest of fashion gigs. “Up” being the operative word: Summers’ challenge was to slink round the opulent drawing rooms of Paris’s Hôtel Salomon de Rothschild wearing a five-wig-strong, Marie Antoinette by way of Maria Callas, bouffant – “and make it look weightless”.

“It felt like someone had attached a huge bean bag to my head,” recalls Summers, on a sweltering August day in London. She’s wearing a Prada bucket hat, bug-eyed spectacles, a Louis Vuitton T-shirt, faded denim shorts and chunky Naked Wolfe platform trainers that further elevate her twiglet frame – a goofy look that couldn’t be more at odds with the extravagant, floor-sweeping azure cape and gown she had worn in Paris. “When you walk out onto a Valentino catwalk you hear audible gasps,” she says, wide-eyed. “I spent the whole thing trying not to cry.”

Fran is in demand. Catwalk appearances for Chanel and Givenchy have been followed by campaigns for Chloé and Versace, and an appearance on Vogue’s May cover as part of a portfolio of fresh model faces ushering in a new era of diversity. Vogue’s Kate Phelan, who styled her for a shoot at home in Yorkshire for the magazine’s September issue, says: “She has the natural walk-in-the-room beauty that stops people dead, but also an ability to interpret fashion that’s highly unique. She’s one of those girls who will be defined alongside other famous British models.” Clare Waight Keller, who cast her in the final, Audrey Hepburn-inspired look in her autumn 2018 Givenchy couture show, agrees. “There is something about Fran that feels very refined and elegant, while remaining fresh and relatable. I felt that casting a confident woman with timeless allure and natural attitude would bring that iconic dress into 2018.”

That said, as we idle in the queue at the Coffee Jar, her local hipster-ish coffee shop in Camden, near where she lives, no one recognises her except the waitress. “Americano with oat milk?” she nods. “And a salted caramel granola bar, please,” says Fran, half-apologetically, in her sing-song Yorkshire accent. “If you ask for oat milk back home, they cut you dead,” she snorts. “I have to go back to regular milk – regular life.”

Summers, like all good supermodels, has a creation myth to dazzle the agnostic. Born in Richmond, north Yorkshire, the daughter of Keith and Sandra, who own a carpet and flooring business – “‘Carpets direct, floors for living,’” she trills. “Got to give them a plug!” – it’s hard to believe she was a shy child. She got her break at 15, when she came to London to visit her sister, Danielle, a special needs nanny who is nine years her senior. She was wandering around the Mac Cosmetics store in Westfield when the in-store make-up artist, Naima, asked if she had ever thought about modelling. The next day, flanked by her sister, led by Naima (it was her day off), they went to Storm – the only modelling agency the three of them had heard of. “I thought it would be laughs and giggles to be turned down,” says Fran. “Then we walked in and they handed me a contract.”

Her talent for making people laugh may be her most precious asset. In an increasingly clamorous industry of models with causes and catchphrases, Fran approaches fashion with a healthy dose of humour. Her second Instagram account, @fransfeasts, is a visual diary of the meals – as well as the dodgy backstage catering – she consumes in remarkably large quantities, all rated out of 10 and with esoteric captions. (“Truffle pizza, this is the boujiest I’ve ever felt in my whole life 10000/10,” reads one.) If she tires of modelling, she plans to open a café serving falafel wraps (her favourite food), and frozen yoghurt. “I’ll call it Fran-afels. Trademark.”

Her work ethic comes courtesy of her parents – “They built their company from the ground up” – her brother, Lucas, who works in the family business, and her sister. Danielle helps her to process success. “We talk about how when I walk out my house, no one knows who I am. Ninety per cent of my day, I’m just a human enjoying life,” she says. She goes home to Yorkshire when she can, to play with her dogs, Bridie and Oscar; scour the local charity shops, where she still buys most of her clothes; and enjoy her mum’s roast dinners (a “gravy addict”, Fran carries Bisto gravy granules round in her handbag). There are lots of things she still wants to achieve. “I’d love to do a shoot skydiving. Just putting it out into the universe.”

In the meantime, she’s gearing up for a month of catwalk shows. The reward will be her annual trip to Disneyland Florida, with Danielle, where she’ll be when the November issue lands on newsstands. “I grew up on Disney,” she enthuses. “When I see Pooh Bear, I freak out. We’ll be surrounded by 10-year-olds but it’s going to be fan-dabby-dozy.” She squeals at the thought. “I am going to be having the time of my life!”

ana_l21 escribió: 03 Dic 2018, 01:52 Versace Pre-fall 19 NY