Mariacarla Boscono was born on 20 September 1980 and is an Italian fashion model and actress.
Boscono was born in Rome, Italy. She spent most of her early life traveling because of her father’s work. Her parents lived in Thailand before she was born, but after her mother became pregnant they moved back to Italy. She spent a couple of years there until moving to Providence, Rhode Island and then Key West, Florida. She spent her early school years in the United States, though her parents thought it would be better for Boscono to study in Italy. However, by the age of 9 Boscono and her family moved to Kenya, living in a village between Malindi and Mombasa. Boscono described her years in Kenya as “the most fantastic in her life”.
Boscono was discovered at the age of 15 by model agent Piero Piazzi, who signed her to the Ricardo Gay agency in Milan. Aged 17, she flew to New York City and signed with DNA Model Management. Her first runways were in 1997 for Laura Biagiotti and Alberta Ferretti, continuing in the late 1990s for Italian and international designers like Gai Mattiolo, Rocco Barocco, Fausto Sarli, Paul Smith, Issey Miyake, Vivienne Westwood and Guy Laroche.
Boscono was noted by Karl Lagerfeld, becoming one of the favorite models of the late designer. It did not take long for Boscono to rise as an internationally known model, being featured on the cover of Vogue several times and walking in many high fashion runway shows of the first years of 00s for Armani, Dolce & Gabbana, Escada, Gianfranco Ferré, Alessandro Dell’Acqua, Michael Kors and Alberta Ferretti.
During the 2005 fashion season, Boscono walked in over seventy fashion shows between New York City, Milan and Paris. She was named spokesperson for H&M in 2005, replacing Kate Moss, and during 2006’s Fall Fashion Week she traded in her long dark locks for a short platinum blonde hairstyle reminiscent of Jean Seberg. Boscono was absent from the runways for both the Fall/Winter 2007 and Spring/Summer 2007 seasons.
As of 2008, Boscono made her return to the runways in Paris at the Fall/Winter 2008 Couture collection for Dior and she was the sole face of Emilio Pucci, Hermès, John Galliano, and Moschino ad campaigns and walked for brands like Gucci, Dolce & Gabbana, Fendi, Versace, Yves Saint Laurent, and Jean Paul Gaultier.
In November 2008, she signed a contract for the new Moschino’s fragrance “Glamour”, photographed by Patrick Demarchelier and she became the new face of the Dolce & Gabbana Spring/Summer 2009 advertising campaign with Brazilian model Caroline Trentini and American model Karlie Kloss. She posed in Africa for the 2009 Pirelli Calendar by Peter Beard. In 2009, she became the face of Dolce & Gabbana and Givenchy Spring/Summer 2009 ad campaigns. She was the face of the Fall/Winter 2009 Salvatore Ferragamo, Gianfranco Ferré and Dolce & Gabbana ad campaigns.
In 2011, she was photographed by Steven Meisel for Prada’s spring collection and returned to fashion shows for Roberto Cavalli. In the same year she became the testimonial of Givenchy’s “Dahlia Noir” perfume. In 2011 Boscono was also invited by Riccardo Tisci to the Met Gala. In 2012 she was called for Missoni’s spring campaign, while in 2013 she walked for Armani, Alberta Ferretti and Dior’s runways. From 2014 to 2015 she became the new model for Salvatore Ferragamo and came back to Alberta Ferretti’s runway.
In 2016 Boscono was hired for the Fall/Winter collection for Chanel, Mugler and the Spring campaign of Stella McCartney, La Perla and Redken. In 2017 she became the face of Bottega Veneta, Vera Wang and Oscar de la Renta’s Fall/Winter campaigns. In 2018 she appeared in Equipment’s collection, Ermanno Scervino’s winter collection photographed by Peter Lindbergh, and the new luxury collection by Marc Jacobs. In 2019, during Paris Fashion Week, she walked for Valentino and she was the guest model for Karl Lagerfeld x LuisaViaRoma’s for the 90° anniversary of the boutique.
Boscono starred in a campaign for Burberry in Korea and participated to the Met Gala. In 2020 she became the new face for Zara’s summer collection, the model for Daniel Lee’s collection for Bottega Veneta, she walked the runway of Tod’s, Versace, Burberry, Salvatore Ferragamo, Tom Ford Fall/Winter collections. Boscono walked also Valentino’s runway and posed for his spring campaign by Juergen Teller.
On 18 May 2006, Boscono made her theater debut as Solange in Jean Genet’s The Maids at the Lee Strasberg Theatre Institute in New York. Margherita Missoni played the role of her sister. In 2010 she played the role of Florizer in Imogen Kusch’s Shakespeare’s Women at Colosseum in Rome, while in 2011 she acted in The Winter’s Tale and Cymbeline, both by Imogen Kusch.
