Natural Instincts
If there’s one person who knows luxury, it’s a veteran supermodel who has worked with the best brands in the industry. Mariacarla Boscono chats with Charmaine Ho about her relationship with the House of Cartier and shares her hopes for the year ahead
“It took me a while to realise that the beauty of fashion is more than just looking pretty—it’s about inspiration, transformation and art,” Mariacarla Boscono once intuited. Funnily enough, the exact same words could be used to describe the Italian supermodel. Famed for her distinctive walk that sees her strutting down runways like a gazelle on tippy-toes, Boscono is equally acclaimed for her chameleon-like ability to effortlessly transform from a leather-clad Hitchcockian heroine to an avant-garde vision enveloped in black tulle. The long-time muse of Riccardo Tisci, who was also the late Karl Lagerfeld’s favourite model, sees her work as a performance. And like any actress worth her weight in awards (coincidentally, she’s a three-time theatre thespian), she has an innate talent for embodying any character she takes on with every atom of her being. This perhaps explains how, for the past two-and-a-half decades, she has managed to stay at the top of a game known for going through its roster of It girls. And it’s not just fashion that has her in its sights. Having fronted campaigns for the world’s biggest labels, not to mention the covers of magazines around the globe, the 40-year-old model found herself a friend of Cartier in 2018 with a series of Yvan Fabing-lensed images that showcased her charismatic personality and otherworldly beauty in designs from the Maison’s Cactus de Cartier collection. She reprised her role last year, joining other friends of the Maison—Chang Chen, Annabelle Wallis and Ella Balinska—for a cinematic Panthère de Cartier short by German photographer and videographer Jonas Lindstroem. More recently, she’s seen draped in a firework of lights from Cartier’s [SUR]naturel haute joaillerie collection. Beyond the high-gloss glamour and stylised images, though, lies a woman of feisty convictions (her Instagram account, @mariacarlaboscono, presents a snapshot of the people and issues she holds dear) and a warm sense of humour that’s punctuated with an ever-ready smile and laughter. Here, we speak with her about the importance of surrounding oneself with love and positive vibes.
It’s been over two years since you first begun working with Cartier. How has it been so far?
It has been an honour because I’ve been a huge fan of the Maison since I was a teenager. It has become a close relationship marked by mutual inspiration and so now, it’s more like a family thing.
Do you have any particular piece or collection from Cartier that is your favourite?
I deeply love every single piece of the Panthère de Cartier line; they are so iconic and timeless. I love the way Cartier designs combine extreme chicness with sensuality—they offer a good combination of fierceness and uniqueness, which I think is a Cartier signature.
You have worked with the world’s biggest brands. Is there a brand or designer out there that you would love to work with, but haven’t yet?
I’m not sure, but I don’t think there’s a brand that I haven’t worked with!
The face of fashion is changing like never before because of the global Covid-19 pandemic. What are some of your thoughts on this?
I think we were living in a supersonic age before Covid-19. Now, it ’s time to reflect on how to be inspired once again; to create art and new synergies around us. And to also cultivate quality time and slow down a little bit. I can’t wait for when we’ll be together again. I think that ’s the most important thing.
What do you hope for in 2021? What excites you about the year ahead?
I hope to see the light at the end of the tunnel and for us to come out of the pandemic, which has hit the world so hard. I hope we’ll all be lightened by a new sensitivity and humanity [at the end of it].
You once said that no matter where life takes you, you want to be happy. So, what makes you happy?
I love my job endlessly. Otherwise, I wouldn’t be here anymore; I would stay home. The simplicity of things also makes me really happy and I hope to still be living an inspiring life in 15 or 20 years. I look forward to enjoying positive vibes and to really have the chance to get together with my loved ones soon. I can’t wait for that moment.
And what’s next for Mariacarla Boscono?
There are different upcoming projects, so stay tuned! ■