Mariacarla Boscono

Mariacarla Boscono is an Italian fashion model and actress born on September 20, 1980. She rose to fame in the early 2000s and established herself as an international supermodel, walking the runways of major fashion events worldwide, including Milan Fashion Week, New York Fashion Week, Paris Fashion Week, the Met Gala, and the Venice Film Festival. She is widely recognized for her extensive modeling career, world-record runway appearances, and collaborations with prominent fashion houses and designers.

Her career began in 1995 at age 15 when she entered the Look of the Year pageant during Festivalbar in Lignano Sabbiadoro. Model agent Piero Piazzi discovered her and signed her to the Ricardo Gay agency in Milan. At age 17, she moved to New York City and signed with DNA Model Management. Boscono walked her first runways in 1997 for Laura Biagiotti and Alberta Ferretti, later modeling for stylists such as Gai Mattiolo, Rocco Barocco, Fausto Sarli, Paul Smith, Issey Miyake, Vivienne Westwood, and Guy Laroche. Designer Karl Lagerfeld took notice of her, and she became one of his favorite models.

During the early 2000s, Boscono appeared on the cover of Vogue multiple times and walked high fashion shows for brands including Armani, Dolce & Gabbana, Escada, Gianfranco Ferré, Alessandro Dell'Acqua, Michael Kors, and Alberta Ferretti. In 2005, she set a world record by walking in over seventy fashion shows across Milan, New York City, and Paris within a two-week period. That same year, she became the spokesperson for H&M, replacing Kate Moss. In 2006, she debuted a short platinum blonde hairstyle for Fall Fashion Week.

After taking a hiatus from the runways during the 2007 seasons, Boscono returned in 2008 for Dior's Fall/Winter Couture collection in Paris. She became the face of advertising campaigns for Emilio Pucci, Hermès, John Galliano, Moschino, Givenchy, Salvatore Ferragamo, and Dolce & Gabbana. In addition, she posed in Africa for the 2009 Pirelli Calendar photographed by Peter Beard. Over the following decade, she continued appearing in major campaigns and runway shows for brands such as Prada, Roberto Cavalli, Chanel, Stella McCartney, Bottega Veneta, Burberry, Valentino, Tod's, Versace, and Zara.

Boscono has been photographed by acclaimed fashion photographers, including Juergen Teller, Steven Meisel, Tim Walker, Peter Lindbergh, Peter Beard, and Mert and Marcus. She has appeared on the covers of various international editions of Vogue, Harper's Bazaar, Elle, and Glamour, among other publications. Vogue Paris named her one of the top 30 models of the 2000s, and Models.com placed her on its Icons List. In 2005, Forbes included her on its list of the World's 15 Top-Earning Supermodels after she earned an estimated $3,500,000 in a single year.

In addition to modeling, Boscono pursued acting in theater. She made her theatrical debut on May 18, 2006, playing Solange in Jean Genet's play The Maids at the Lee Strasberg Theatre Institute in New York City. She later performed in several productions directed by Imogen Kusch, playing Florizer in Shakespeare's Women in 2010 at the Colosseum in Rome, followed by roles in The Winter's Tale and Cymbeline in 2011.

In her personal life, Boscono gave birth to her daughter in August 2012 as a single mother. She was romantically linked to Italian-Tunisian rapper Ghali from 2019 to July 2020. In 2024, she married Italian pole vaulter Claudio Stecchi.