Our Story

 
Francesca is the on-trend designer jewellery label by sisters Hannah & Rachel Vasicek. Established at Tasmania’s famous Salamanca Markets, Francesca has grown to be a much-loved Australian brand with an international online store presence and stores in both Hobart and Melbourne. Francesca is everyone’s go-to jewellery brand. Founded on the belief that success means nothing unless you’re giving back, Francesca combines beautiful design with an empowering purpose.

Hannah began making jewellery at the age of 12 and started selling her jewellery at Salamanca Market at the age of 16. Her collection gained popularity at the market and the business was rebranded to Francesca (the name her mother wanted to give her!) whilst she was studying Science & Law at University. During her studies the business grew, and in 2013 after winning the young entrepreneur award for Australia she decided to take the leap and pursue her passion, Francesca, leaving the possibility of a career as a lawyer. It was the same year that Rachel finished school, so the two grabbed this amazing opportunity to turn their dreams into reality and ran with it, having never looked back!

Since our days down at Salamanca Markets, we're proud to say we've been able to achieve a lot of goals and grow to our national and international audience! We now have a flagship store in our Hobart CBD as well as a flagship store in Melbourne Central! We regularly have pop up stores in shopping centres too! Find out more about our journey below!

In 2014, we won the Telstra Business of the Year award for Tasmania and were able to take the business from a start-up to a legitimate brand that people have grown to know and love. This led to the opening of a new Hobart store for our local customer base! We were honored to be a Tasmania State Finalist in the 2023 Telstra Best of Business Awards in two categories, Accelerating Women and Building Communities.

2016 was a revolutionary year for Francesca with the introduction of Francesca Create, where personalised jewellery launched, allowing you become the designer and create pieces with meaning. We also accomplished our dream of opening their first store in Melbourne CBD, thanks to an incredible crowdfunding campaign from people who believed in their vision in exchange for Francesca handmade bracelets. 
 
In 2017 we opened our brand new dream flagship store in the CBD of Hobart. With double the floor space and a more central location, this put us in the game with the big multinational players you find in CBD shopping centres. We also opened our first pop-up store in a Melbourne shopping centre.
 
In 2019 our Melbourne Central store had a bit of a facelift to make it our dream concept store! We’re located on level 2 of Melbourne Central, pop in to check it out for yourself next time you’re in Melbourne Central! 
  
What started as just two sisters and has now become a team of over 60 women! We have a retail team in both Melbourne and Hobart who can help with everything from treating yourself to gift buying! 

From beading at home, to now having over 10 beaders, it is something we will always endeavour to keep in the business. We are so proud to still be hand making our beaded bracelets in our Hobart studio today.
Our Franc HQ team consists of our amazing online customer care and dispatch team, inventory management, and the creative marketing team!
We love our Franc Fam!
Giving back is at the core of everything we do! We live by the belief that "success means nothing unless you're giving back." Over the past 4 years we have donated close to $1 Million to charities across Australia! You can shop our Charity Collection here!
 Thank you for your continued support, it really means the world to us! We can't wait to show you what other exciting designs and plans we have in store for the future! xx