Fran Roseberry’s Very Big Day as a Schiaparelli Muse
Beauty, Humility, and Family with Her Son Behind the Lens
Fashion typically caters to young women with smooth, undamaged skin and bodies honed by hours in the gym. However, a few months ago in Paris, at the studios of the famous and resurgent House of Schiaparelli, this trend took a turn. This time, Fran Roseberry, a 72-year-old woman, and her son Daniel, the Creative Director for the House, challenged the conventional norms of fashion. As mother and muse, she stood humbly and confidently under the lights of the Salon in Paris. Daniel directed the photoshoot as a son and designer, framing and snapping all the images. Together, they created a moment in the fashion world that showcased family love, stunning beauty, and extraordinary talent and skill.
The response has been overwhelming. The warmth, love, and support between son and mother resonate deeply with audiences. Social media platforms buzzed with comments and accolades for the daring concept and powerful message behind the photographs. Fans seem to love Fran’s elegance as much as they admire Daniel’s astonishing creativity and tender way with his mom and muse, turned model for a day.
Fran is my wife. Daniel is our son. And I spent the entire day in the shadows, behind the scenes — the lights and cameras — watching world-class professionals work with my wife of 41 years. This is the account of that extraordinary day in Paris.
The Photoshoot Begins
Fran and I arrived at 8:30 AM at the House of Schiaparelli at the luxury address at Place Vendôme in Paris. Inside, we were warmly greeted and quickly escorted to a small makeup room. She sat before a bank of mirrors illuminated by glowing bulbs, and immediately, an expert team of stylists began their work. Daniel had a few mood boards featuring photos of Audrey Hepburn to guide their work. Hair, makeup, and nails were all part of the process. They didn’t have to do much.
I went exploring and found six to eight haute couture items hand-picked by my son for his mother to wear. I had seen these stunning looks only weeks before at the runway show for 2024 Fashion Week. Haute Couture creations are tailored for an exclusive clientele of Schiaparelli, with a unique policy that restricts the sale of each dress to just one per continent. These garments, displayed on upright mannequins, were made ready for their time with Fran.
Daniel was behind the camera framing each shot, but the House had hired a photo team of six to set the backdrops, run the cabling, and adjust the lights. They did a few test shots to fine-tune everything. At 9:30, Fran entered the first room wearing a signature look from the show a few weeks earlier. It was a hand-crafted outfit inspired by Elsa Schiaparelli, the company's founder in the mid-1920s.
Daniel’s design magic has become a worldwide surprise sensation since he took the helm a few years ago. He has the ability to choose archival and iconic codes and themes from the once-famous house and reinterpret them for a new day. Then, he pushes one or more of these elements into the surreal.
Daniel’s rise to global fame is not a surprise to his parents. Since his earliest years, he had an insatiable need to draw and create with a pencil, pen, crayons, markers, and paper. We noticed his incredible talent and intensity before he was one year old. Fran never worked in art education, the field in which she was trained in college. However, she is an excellent artist and took on the task of being Daniel’s teacher. As he grew older and his God-given gift developed, she became his mentor, and in his teenage years, she was his muse. Her role in his life has been one of the treasures he carries, and this photo shoot was something he had imagined since he was a small boy.
The Muse becomes the Model
Seeing Fran in the first outfit, a shiny black patent leather blouse with a white frock collar, was surreal. The bright lights flooded her face and torso as I had never seen before. She never prefers the limelight. She is not so much shy as she is humble. She has an amazingly attractive smile and offered it freely in the first few takes. Then Daniel asked her to relax her face, take a quarter turn to the left, and look at an imaginary spot on the wall. She turned, and with the click of the camera and the pop of the flash, Daniel caught her glance perfectly. Throughout the day, Fran told me later, she listened to Daniel and followed his cues. Daniel’s teacher trusted the first and only art student she had.
In the back, where I stood capturing pics with my iPhone, the staff looked at Fran and, at the snap of the shutter click, looked at a large monitor that instantly captured each image. What I saw on the stage in front of the camera was beautiful. But shrouded by a dark covering, the screen display of the photo made the image pop. It looked like something I would see in a magazine. It was professional, polished, and untouched!
Fran gracefully moved from one outfit to another, sometimes sitting on a salon settee or casually resting on a footstool. In the adjacent room, a lovely team of Parisian women helped her change outfits. The photo team used a grayish backdrop for one series of photos, and then the crew moved to a white room where Fran was filmed next to a massive bouquet of colorful tulips. A few close-ups caught Fran wearing the most stylish (and expensive) sunglasses she would ever wear. Her short, salt and pepper, grayish hair had been whisked back. She looked like she was driving fast in an MG Roadster. It was dreamy.
The morning turned to the afternoon, and we took a break for a quick meal, some water, and to clear our heads. Daniel’s team was close-mouthed about the shoot, but I could hear words in the next room. “Parfait!” “Magnifique!” “Incroyable!” I do not speak French, but I knew the day had overwhelmed everyone’s expectations.
A Timeless Setting
The last segment of the day was the most beautiful. Fran stood in the old, original drawing room from the early days of the Maison. The Parisian historical society has ruled the room cannot be retouched or remodeled. It is the way it was in the 20s. The setting sun of the western sky shone through the second-floor window into the historic headquarters at Place Vendôme, one of the most prestigious addresses in Europe. In a single shot, Daniel captured the wonder of the day. He caught the original parquet hardwood floor, the elegant, hand-painted ceiling featuring trompe-l’œil scenes from nature, and framed with hand-painted, gold-leaf molding — and in the center of the frame, my amazing wife of. She stood in the silhouette of the sun, wearing a formal, billowing dress that made her look like a natural. People age, but beauty does not.
From the early morning preparations to the final shot of the day, it seemed to me that it had been a stellar experience. The team seemed pleased. I heard later that many of the staff in the dark wings of the studio cried when they saw Fran and Daniel work together, as naturally and easily as they do. I was told that everyone had called their own mother to tell her what was going on.
The Schiaparelli team took the photos — hundreds of them — and pared them down to a few dozen. They developed a plan for an interview and photo essay in the online magazine Document Journal, which serendipitously published the interview with Fran and Daniel and the photos the day after Mother’s Day in the US. The photos were released on the Schiaparelli Instagram channel. Over four days, the photos have garnered tens of thousands of ‘likes’ and thousands of comments.
Beauty, Style, and the Eternity
True to form, Fran has not read any of the comments. But I have. I’ve read them all! They are lovely, kind, complimentary, and even laudatory about the looks, the clothes, the model herself, and the talented son we have. But so many of those who took the time to write talked about an overarching message in the photoshoot moment. It was about family. Supportive parents. A son honoring his mother. More than a few told how they shed a tear as they remembered their mother, long since passed.
Since the day of the photoshoot, I have thought a lot about style and beauty. The online images of Fran as a modern Schiaparelli woman are magnifique! The photos prove that true style knows no age.
Bravo to Fran and Daniel and to Team Schiaparelli.
I have thought a lot about beauty, too. People love beauty. They seek it. Beauty is imprinted on us by our Creator, the Lord God of Heaven. I think this is why Daniel’s rocketing rise in worldwide popularity: he creates truly beautiful things.
Many of the looks I have seen on the runway are breathtaking; they take our breath away. I’ve heard the sounds of people sitting in attendance at a runway show audibly gasping, losing their breath at the sight of beauty. Some are crying, and some nod their heads as if to say, “Yes, that’s it!”
Beauty reminds us of our origin in the eternal mind of God. As the world becomes more grim and harsh, beauty can remind us that we are more than dust and ashes in the wind — or we can be. God sent His Son into the world to save us from such a miserable fate. We know through Christ that our loving God awaits us in the coming age.
I’ll wait for my time to come, but while I am here, I will remind myself of heaven and our Creator God by looking at beautiful things done beautifully.
In the end, Fran’s day as a Schiaparelli muse is a story about the unbreakable bond between a mother and son; it is a story of God-given talent and creativity and God’s eternal love.
Go here to read The gospel of Schiaparelli according to Creative Director Daniel Roseberry and his mom Fran, in The Document Journal
Follow Schiaparelli on Instagram
The Rev. David Roseberry, an ordained Anglican priest with over 40 years of pastoral experience, offers leadership services to pastors, churches, and Christian writers. He is an accomplished author whose books are available on Amazon. Rev. Roseberry is the Executive Director of LeaderWorks, where his work and resources can be found.
