Mariacarla Boscono

Recently annouced by H&M as a replacement to Kate Moss, Mariaclara Boscono started modeling at the tender age on seventeen. Model.com says "... "My parents traveled a lot, all over the world. They lived for seven years in Thailand before I was born. Then my Mom got pregnant and my family moved to Rome. My mom is from Tuscany and my Dad is from a little city where most of the fabric is made in Italy.After Rome we all went to Providence, then to Key West when I was two years old. I went to school in America.

They had this shop where they were selling Saucony. The shoes. They invented that. They were featured in Time magazine which did a big interview on them and things started to go well.After that period they decided they wanted to go back to Italy for me to study. I was Italian, they wanted me to grow up in Italy.

Then when I was 9 my Dad went to work in Kenya. He had this cave with this beautiful
material... huge... molto... unbelievable when you walk in. Because when you walk in, you're in this huge hole in a mountain. The material was... I don't know what the name is in English... but

it's very very white. So you have this beautiful light pouring in. We did five years there in this little village which is between Malindi and Mombassa. The village we were living in was really small, Kilindi. It wasn't even on the map then. It is now but not then. But it was the most fantastic five years of my life. Have you ever read this book... I can't translate the title but it talks about the unique feel and smell and taste of Africa. The heat, the slow life. Hakuna matata. Everything was like that.

But at one point you had to go back to reality, because that's a more fantastic world which was a beautiful thing to experience, but as a kid, it was strange for me too. I had no friends. I was alone in this huge house, in this huge park, with this huge balboab tree. You had to watch out everywhere because there would be snakes everywhere, falling down from trees, in the toilets,in the rooms.

I had this little puppy which we found in the streets called Pippo. We had this iguana, who just walked into the house one day so we adopted him. We'd feed him. We'd call him and he'd come for his food, like a pet. But I never touched him. He was huge. I was a kid and he scared me."

I find that the fashion business is not geared to keeping the model forever, anymore.
I think that's a really good thing. It's a business of the new. It's a young thing. It doesn't last forever. You have to move on! It's very unreal. I'm lucky that I can keep my feet on the ground.

I'm from the countryside. My mom, she calls me every day. All that helps me to see it for what it is.

For my future, what I would like is to have a magazine. It has to be a homemade, high quality travel magazine. Not as professional and cold as National Geographic. In that vein, but more homemade, more poetic! You go somewhere, you're a very good photographer, you're a very good writer and you go for a holiday and then you come back with an amazing story about this guy you met... who teaches you how to cook fish on the beach. Very personal. Like a letter from a friend..."

Photo by Don Ashby and Courtesy of STYLE.COM