Feature Interview
Francesca Burns Fashion Aficionado
by Gemma Latham
Two years ago, at the age of 31, Francesca Burns landed the dream job of fashion editor at British Vogue. It may seem a young age for such an influential position, but Burns was destined for a career in fashion, even if she herself didn’t realise it at first.
Growing up in the southern suburb of Guildford where “literally nothing ever happened,” leafing through her mum’s copies of Vogue was “a transportation to another world” for the teenager. “I became obsessed with supermodels. I was just fascinated by these beautiful, exceptional creatures,” she recollects. As she got older, Burns began to read magazines such as The Face and i-D – where she would later make a name for herself in her first fashion editor role – and she continued to be enthralled by “this exciting world of vibrant culture, energy and beauty.” But enrolled at a small convent school, a career in fashion wasn’t on her radar. “That information just wasn’t available to me. I didn’t understand that you could be in fashion if you weren’t a designer or a writer.”
A month into a Business and Law degree, Burns was miserable and dissatisfied. It was a perceptive university lecturer who put her on course. “He called me into his office – I was wearing a Vivienne Westwood mini-kilt and these buffalo platform boots whilst everyone else looked like future lawyers. He just asked me what I was doing there. I was crying and said ‘I don’t know!’” He suggested she transfer to London College of Fashion. “I owe him a lot,” she acknowledges.
“ I became obsessed with supermodels. I was just fascinated by these beautiful, exceptional creatures ”
Less than a year after transferring to LCF, things started to fall into place. “We had to do a work placement and I literally stalked Kylie Minogue’s creative director, William Baker, for months and months.” Eventually, Baker invited the persistent Burns on a two-week placement. Her first day was on the set of the Can’t Get You Out Of My Head music video. “I couldn’t believe I was there, I was totally in at the deep end! Kylie was wearing a Tom Ford Gucci dress, my mind was blown!! I literally did anything they asked me to – ran around, put shoes on, made cups of tea, ironed things!”
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The experience was a career fast track. Burns ended up leaving college and accompanied Baker for two years during Kylie’s Fever world tour. During this time she assisted on fashion editorial shoots for magazines such as POP, Numero and Italian Vogue, and met “so many amazing designers.” After freelancing for a couple of years, Burns brought her experience to style and culture mag i-D, becoming fashion editor. She joined publishing powerhouse Condé Nast in 2009, as senior fashion editor-at-large of the new-launch LOVE magazine, before moving into her current position at Vogue.
I meet Burns at the London Vogue offices, on a rainy Friday afternoon. Her hair a Debbie Harry-esque platinum bob, she is dressed in a double denim ensemble that pairs a camouflage print skirt by the “amazingly talented” up and coming design duo Marques’ Almeida, with a denim jumper and metallic
silver platform shoes by one of her
favourite designers: Prada. Burns looks cool, quirky, laidback. Knowing she’s off to New York in a few days to begin the month-long whirlwind of fashion shows, I promise not to take up too much time, but she came in early that day “to get everything done so we won’t have to rush.” Friendly and softly spoken, Burns’ down-to-earth demeanour is not what anyone who has seen The Devil Wears Prada would associate with Vogue, and I immediately warm to her.
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