Influencer and entrepreneur, mother of two girls, who already breathe the air of fashion as children. When it comes to footwear, too.
An influencer with over 260,000 followers on IG with a spell on Big Brother in 2014, Francesca Rocco, a law graduate, is now also an entrepreneur who has launched a beauty project for children and mothers, which will be present at Pitti Bimbo in January. Nenalife is, in fact, a ‘kid care’ brand designed for the cleansing and cosmetic care of children’s skin with natural, reliable, and effective products, also perfect for mothers. Because as Francesca says, “the love that is created between a mother and her baby is something innate and indissoluble”. A bond that she knows well, being the mother of two girls, Ginevra aged 5 and a half and Beatrice aged a year and a half, with whom she also shares her love for fashion, occasionally indulging in the Mini-Me formula, fun for mothers and daughters alike.
Nenalife
What is your relationship with fashion like?
Passionate, no doubt. Fashion and aesthetics are part of my work and my life. I like to choose, match, transform my look. Not always is it true that “the habit doesn’t make the monk” (literally, meaning “don’t judge a book by its cover”), on certain occasions the habit does make the monk, because it becomes an expression of one’s personality and the means to communicate it.
How important are shoes in communicating your image?
Footwear is cherry on the cake of a look. Even a passe-partout little black dress acquires character and personality if enhanced by a shoe, for example, with a jewelled heel, or a decoration that becomes a focal point and makes the difference. From head to toe, every detail is important, and it is the accessory that often characterises and defines the entire outfit.
How do you choose your shoes?
It depends on many elements: the mood of the moment, what I want to convey, if I want to be comfortable or sacrifice comfort. Fortunately, there are no longer diktats to comply with, but fashion is fluid and transversal and it’s nice to be able to mix an elegant dress with more everyday footwear such as, for example, the moccasin, which I love very much.
You mentioned sacrificing comfort sometimes…
I’m also willing to suffer a little if the occasion and the dress require a dizzying heel. Naturally, in everyday life I prefer comfortable shoes because I move with the girls and, thus, I prefer low, wide heels.
Do your daughters already show preferences for their shoes?
Ginevra wants to choose them by herself. She had seen some glittery ankle boots in a shop and she did everything to get them. At school she uses “quieter” shoes, but on other occasions more flashy and fun models, such as light-up ones. Then she sees me change several times a day with different accessories and, thus, in a certain sense she emulates me. The little one, Beatrice, already copies her sister and if I tell her to take my shiny shoes from the closet, she immediately understands which ones they are. Both live in my world, also made up of collaborations with children’s fashion brands such as Petit Bateau and Liu Jo kids.
Which brands are in the girls’ wardrobe?
From Bobux for mini sizes to Naturino, Chicco, Monnalisa and Crocs for the beach.
What are the must-have models for you?
The sneaker that works with anything from jeans to sports trousers, but also to the more formal ones; the ankle boot and the thick-soled moccasin.
Which shoes would you like to throw away?
I am conservative and, as such, I keep all my shoes. But I’d rather give them away than throw them away. Maybe I don’t want ones with a heavily elongated tip anymore in my wardrobe any more.
Is ‘Made in Italy’ in footwear important to you?
Not always. I prefer quality and the brand, even if foreign, becomes the guarantor of that. Of course, as an Italian, I use and appreciate brands such as Giuseppe Zanotti, Casadei, Luciano Padovan, Dior, Jimmy Choo, just to name a few.
