BORN LEGACY
luxury hotels in Vietnam and myriad social shots of Francesca and her glamorous friends at the polo, the Melbourne Cup or Paris fashion week, where she was a guest of Louis Vuitton.
Yet her accompanying comments, like the woman herself, are a mix of sophistication and endearing candour. On Mother’s Day, a pic of a gap-toothed Francesca in school uniform, her arms flung around Gretel’s waist, reads: “Nothing in the world beats a hug from mum!!! (And I happen to think mine gives the best!!!) love you to the moon and back Mumma bear!”
It would be lazy to dismiss her as simply another socialmedia-obsessed Gen Y. Quite the opposite: Francesca is keenly aware of what she is doing, of the power of social media and of the control it affords you, if you choose to take it. “If someone wants to find something out about you, chances are they can,” she states simply. “My take on Instagram is that in a funny kind of way it’s your side of the story. You pick and choose the parts of yourself that you want to put out there [and often] that keeps people happy. When you accept you can’t have complete privacy, you decide which window in your house to keep the shades on and which window you’re going to let people see through, [so they won’t] bother looking in the other ones. So in a weird way it’s our [ generation’s] version of privacy.”
Social media also allows Francesca to give back, in the way she chooses. In the week we meet, Francesca is hosting tables at two charity dinners: Taronga Zoo Vanishing Species and Pink Hope. She is aware of the reach and power of her Instagram posts – in this instance 10,600 and 11,300 likes apiece.
“Media is a funny thing. It can be used in so many different ways, but at its base form it’s communication and if someone has the ability to communicate with more than two people at once, and can get a message across that’s hopefully positive, why not? What I can do in that environment is to fill a table with 20 to 30-year-olds, where there might not otherwise be any. We’re all Instagramming, so you can start the conversation in a more organic and fun way. It’s about it all not being so serious.”
Despite the reservations Gretel might hold personally about social media, there are now numerous rather touching Instagram images depicting three generations of Packer women, stylishly adorned and clearly enjoying each other’s company at the Melbourne Cup or the Australian Ballet or the annual Crown Autumn Ladies Lunch. “Francesca is an adult, so it’s her decision how she wants to do things,” Gretel says. “I do trust her judgement by and large. She’s a pretty wise 21-yearold. And I think you have to let people grow up. That’s how I approach things.”
At day’s end, what matters is family, and family is something these women keep close. “We all lead busy lives, but we do as much as we can together, which is great fun, and it’s important that we support each other,” Roslyn says. “Gretel, Francesca and I have a very close relationship. I believe my family is the most important part of my life.”