By Luis Miranda
Fran Soublette: “I realized that what I love most is empowering other women.”
Francisca Soublette's earliest memories of fashion are in her hometown of Osorno, where she put together looks on a shoestring that caught the attention of her friends and colleagues. "I remember going to the street to buy used clothes with five or ten thousand pesos at that time... imagine, I was in high school... and I worked wonders." After high school, she went to Santiago where she studied public relations, always keeping in mind what she repeated to herself every time she flipped through the issues of her mother's and grandmother's Paula magazine. "I always looked at the social media pages and said, 'I'm going to be in that.'" Once she graduated, and with no experience, she emailed the magazine where she wanted to be featured on the social media pages. Paula responded that they were looking for someone in the marketing department. "I sent a super motivational email, telling them that fashion was my passion. I went through the selection process until I got to the final interviews, and I got the job." She stayed there for a year before embarking on a meteoric career in fashion, which saw her hold commercial positions for such prominent editorial titles as GQ, Glamour, and Vogue Latin America. She now lives in Europe, where she designs pieces for her own brand, Fran Soublette , which sells out collections. She specializes in fashion business and communications and also fills her schedule with style consulting for her clients and followers. From Belgium, she granted us this interview, where we discussed her career, her assessment of local fashion, and her projects.
Since your time at Paula, around 2013, to date, how do you see local fashion changing?
When Ropero Paula magazines were published in the regions, I was in charge of traveling on behalf of the magazine. There were many Chilean brands that were just starting out. At that time, people weren't yet daring; they had the idea of launching their own brands but followed a very classic line. I see how today's designers are taking more risks. They've improved quality and materials, and have incorporated the aspect of sustainability, which wasn't an issue at the time. The versatility of designers today is also palpable. Today, there is freedom of expression through designs, and customers are also taking more risks.
You see that niche, Chilean fashion, better positioned, so…
Absolutely. People are becoming increasingly aware of what it means to support local design. I feel like it used to be less accessible in terms of price; today, it's more competitive. Yesterday, I was reading about the work of Maria La Biyux, who has an entire business model linked to social media and has managed to reach Europe with her offerings; that was very difficult before.
As a fashion and communications business specialist, what advice would you give to local brands on how to continue developing their business models successfully?
Never lose your roots. There are many brands that do this to sell. Currently, I'm working on a very nice social project to bring Chilean women's products to Europe. I can't say much yet, but the idea is to find top-quality clothing, jewelry, accessories, scarves, and local handicrafts. That has a very important connotation these days. Now that I'm living in Europe, I notice how people are looking for that. Don't lose your roots, create from the beginning.
Despite the fact that there are even state agencies trying to promote local fashion abroad, why do you think Chile still fails to establish an international image in the fashion world?
I think it's because it hasn't been given the space. I feel like in Chile there's little pride in our roots. There's a very important barrier there. For example, in Mexico, that's incredibly powerful; they showcase projects that emerge from the villages, from people who weave, who create beautiful jewelry and accessories that are promoted as a national image. I think ProChile has done a very good job in that regard, but we also have a shortage of raw materials, compared to Peru, for example. We're geographically very far away, and that's also an obstacle.
Turning now to your career, what was it like working for Vogue Latin America and managing such important titles as GQ and Glamour? What lessons did you learn from that experience?
I was still at Paula as a Product Manager when Condé Nast called me. I said, "No, I'm doing really well at Paula." They said, "Come meet us, and then we'll talk." They called me in for an interview, and I liked the vibe; they were all top-notch, all gorgeous. High heels, pure fashion, all eating nothing but salads. I liked it and agreed, but I told my former boss that one day I wanted to be in charge of Vogue. She told me it was really difficult. I was quite young, 24. I spent a year in charge of advertising sales at GQ, then they gave me Glamour as well. It started going really well, I always met my goals. Then they transferred me to Vogue for sales and then asked me to write. Then Vogue called me to help with a fashion production. I continued there little by little, until the person in charge of brand franchises at the time was removed from Mexico. Eva Hughes, the CEO of Mexico, told me, at 26, to take over the publishing house. She put me in charge of the marketing and sales teams. I was a huge success in sales and productions, we did many large events, brand collaborations, and I began to negotiate internationally. I did extremely well until the digital age arrived. In 2018, the influencer scene began to take off; that was the year the role began to shake.
We fell behind on social media, and advertising sales were hard to come by; clients were starting to ask for digital activations. I decided to leave because I'd reached my limit there and couldn't grow further in Chile. The only way to grow at Condé Nast was to move to Mexico, which was never an option for me. They were wonderful years, where I learned a lot.
Why do you think it took them so long to get on track with digitalization, considering all the resources and human capital that a company like Condé Nast has?
It's something I'll never understand. To this day, I think about it and I swear I can't come to a conclusion. I feel like Latin America wasn't a priority. Condé Nast's headquarters are in London, and everything was managed from there. The budgets we had, the contracts we closed, were nothing compared to Vogue Paris or Italy. I don't think they paid enough attention to us; they didn't see us as an important market.
Was that the moment you decided to launch your own personal clothing and consulting brand?
Yes, I had to make a decision because I was getting bored. I'd already done what I had to do and learned what I needed to learn. I'm very creative, I love developing ideas, and I couldn't do many things anymore because of the digitalization issue. On the other hand, the women from the brands I worked with started asking me for advice on dressing for events, in a good way. That's when I realized I was good at it. Before leaving Vogue, in early 2019, I went to London to study a business course. From there, I started traveling and little by little began to shape my brand. The first collection sold out in three weeks. People started asking me for image advice, and that's when I realized that what I love most is empowering other women, seeing others happy. I travel a lot looking for unique pieces and send them to Chile. I'm taking a sustainability course because I want to go there; changes have to be made. Sustainability is incredibly important in the fashion world today; all brands should aspire to that.
Within Fran Soublette's business line, what would you say are the most sustainable aspects?
I'm finalizing a very beautiful sustainable collection with Italy for the Spring-Summer 2023 season, which I can't say much about yet. It's not easy, especially now with the dollar, it's hard. My goal is to sell 100% sustainable clothing within two years. If I don't sell sustainable clothing, I'll retire from the business.
What other obstacles have you encountered along the way? Do you still consider it a startup, or do you already see it as a well-established business?
I'll always dream and want more. I can't complain about how things are going for me; I sell out collections, thank God. I also can't say I have the Fran Soublette empire. I'd love to, I want to go there, but there's still a long way to go. One of the things I struggle with is changing the way Chilean women see things, daring with color and shapes. Today, I have an established clientele, but at first, it was hard to get them to dare; that was my biggest problem. They would ask me, for example, how am I going to wear a fuchsia two-piece suit or how am I going to wear sequined pants if I'm not going to a wedding. It makes me very happy to see how we've evolved in clothing; our image communicates a lot.
Finally, you have a well-developed spiritual side that you don't show much. How did you come to have that? Did you develop it? Do you consider it a gift? How do you combine that with fashion? Are they compatible?
Since I was a child, I've been reading tarot, seeing and hearing things, very sensitive. I played dumb for a long time. In college, I continued reading tarot, even for people on TV who called me to do it. It's something I struggled with for a long time because I felt very different from everyone else, especially in this field. What I understood is that you don't need to step outside the system to feel. This helps me a lot because I can understand my clients. It's a lot of fun because I do image consulting with my clients, and we end up doing spiritual healings, regressions, and channelings. It's a service I don't promote because, in the end, the people who come to me are the ones who have to come. It's not like selling a pair of pants, because it's a super-important soul work, and not all souls are ready, because it's a tough process. Suddenly, 50-year-old men come to me, bank managers, and we end up getting to the heart of their problem, which is something that had happened to them five years ago. I've been working a lot with women who have been mistreated and abused. I get a lot of these kinds of issues. I've had to treat women with their eyes in ink, who love fashion, but the change always comes from within. I'd feel like a hypocrite if I only changed their image, but it doesn't help heal their hearts. I can say that, after so much emotional work I've done over the years, I'm truly doing what my soul came to this plane to accomplish. Every time I receive a message from a client who feels good, with her heart at peace, for me that's the best reward I can receive. Spirituality is listening to your intuition, being true to yourself.