Mariacarla

Why do you think you’ve had such a prolific career as a model?
I’ve always been up for changes and really open. There’s nothing worse to me when I hear a younger model saying “I don’t want to bleach my eyebrows”… Girl, it’s your job! People have different things that they have to do for their job and this is ours! I like to think that [models] are like white paper, a designer or photographer can just write everything on top. We’re like a character, a blank page. That’s what has inspired me always. I’m not really into the natural look. I’m like, very simple everyday; I have a child so I need to be fast and easy. I’m really into back in the days when fashion for me was a dream. When you look at a page of a magazine or an ad it should always make people dream. It should make people think, “Who is this woman? What are these clothes?” That’s for me is what is fashion!

What does iconic mean to you?
It’s more like a statement that people drew around me. But, I think what they mean is I am a very specific type of person and I became an icon because I created a very particular career and look. I think it’s more like how you draw a character. That’s what makes an icon.

You mentioned character. What character did you draw about yourself?
You know, it’s more than just a character – it’s the way I drew my career. I came into fashion and I had no idea what fashion was. I came from my mother who was a very glamorous woman but we didn’t have much. She didn’t have things like Chanel, she wasn’t that kind of glamorous but she was very poignant, and always pushed me to be myself. You know, you go back to school and you come back and you say “Mom, I want that jacket!” and she would say “why do you want that jacket” and I said, “Because everybody has that jacket” and she said “that’s exactly why you should not have it! Which jacket do you really like? Let’s go get the one you like not the one that everybody else has” She always said, “just find your way.” If you see the picture that was taken of me when I was 17 in London by Juergen Teller, for his Go Sees book, you should look at the way I dressed then. I had leather pants, a Russian scarf on top with red roses and a top and a red corset.

I knew since the beginning, what kind of a model I wanted to be. Maybe I’m one of the poorest top models in the fashion business because I never like to sell myself too commercially. When I say cheesy or commercial stuff I don’t want to be snobby about it, I just say when you look the way that I am being represented it’s very specific. You know, it’s not just the way I look it’s the way I wanted to be seen. For me that was important. I had that inside of me since the beginning even if I had no idea of so many other things. I’d rather shoot for an unknown magazine for a good project with a new photographer than go for something that I just don’t feel is right. I always had to feel comfortable, I want to be happy when I go to work, I want to feel satisfied. It’s so frustrating when you’re a model because there is so many things that you do but so many things that you cannot do. So, at least for the little that you do you should be very proud of when you go home you can say you took a damn good picture!

Damn good picture, damn good walk, for sure!
The picture, the collaboration, the relationship that you have with the designer and photographer. That deep talks and sharing, that’s what fulfills me.

In your career, when did you realize that you had gotten to that next level?
I’ve always been very outgoing because I had a very strong personality with the way I dressed and the way I was always curious about things. I was very present. I never show up and just sit in the chair and get my hair and makeup done.
When I walked the first time in Chanel and met Karl (Lagerfeld), I was like “Oh what’s that? What am I going to wear? This is beautiful! I love the collection!” For me, it wasn’t phony. It was just me, I’ve always been like that.

So, I’m sure you have so many, but what have been your most favorite moments in your career?
Well, yesterday night (at the Givenchy show in NYC) was a pretty powerful moment for so many reasons. First of all, it has been like 9 years since I have been to New York to walk in a fashion show. So, I loved to be back here. It was a great, amazing collaboration to see my best friend and how far he’s gone. I’m very proud of him, very proud of everybody. It was a very strong moment. But I have many stories with Peter Lindbergh or Mert & Marcus you know, and funny stories with all of my agents, trips and travels. Almost every second of my career has been a special moment for me. Even the down moments were special.

Who have been your icons?
My mom. I know I might sound boring but she really is an amazing person. It’s quite heavy to deal with her because she is quite a powerful woman. You know, she’s just cool. She’s an incredible, outgoing woman, so smart, so secure of herself and very funny and beautiful.

You talk about your mom and I wanted to talk about motherhood. How has it been juggling your career and motherhood?
You know it’s empowering. For example, I feel so proud because I had been working so much while I was pregnant. I am actually really pleased that Givenchy asked me when I announced I was pregnant to still work for them. I was under contract for Dahlia Noir Perfume and I said you know, I’m pregnant, I have to do the promotion, and I hope it’s not a problem. And it was like, “Okay.” Of course, I cannot have a major perfume contract stopping me from having a life, you know? But, they were amazing! They embraced it and I shot the campaign while I was 6 months pregnant. I shot again when I was 7 and then I did all of my promotion while my baby was just 2 months old. For these kinds of things, we should be proud!

The fact of being a mother shouldn’t stop you from going to work. It was hard, it is hard, but as a woman we have to. For example, I find that Riccardo as a kid who grew up with 8 sisters and his mother, he knows exactly a woman’s worth. We are everything. We’re business, we’re mothers, we’re wives, we’re sluts to our husbands, we’re cookers, we’re cleaners, you have to embrace all of that. Once you become a mother you feel more powerful and that you can manage everything. Of course we’re allowed to have a down moment but we’re just made for this. We’re made to be so powerful. What’s the Beyoncé song? Who runs the World…

Girls! (laughs) No, I’m glad to hear something like that because I think a lot of times people think the opposite about work being supportive.
And I think I set the trend. After me everybody had a baby! I chose to be shot by Mert and Marcus while I was pregnant – they’re really good friends of mine and it was really beautiful. They make a woman gorgeous! And then, Juergen asked me if I could pose for him (for Flair Magazine) and at that point I was like a fat, pregnant woman. I felt like a whale! Juergen is quite realistic and I was afraid it would be a little grotesque but I thought, you know what? Yes. Take my picture and let’s show the world how I am a woman. I am a woman, a pregnant woman, and I love it.

And you did this amazing thing! You brought a child into this world.
Oh, she’s the most amazing thing to happen to me in my life. I respect people that don’t want to have children, but for me personally it made my life so much better…now I know why I am here.

So lovely! Your icon photo shoot was shot by the wonderful Emma Tempest. How was the experience?
She asked me right away to take off my knickers! (laughs) I’m not very prudish. In my house, I grew up with two brothers, and we just had open doors and everybody was just… it’s not like nudist but we’re just very open. I also don’t have a very vulgar body. When you start modeling they ask on a page if you have any tattoos, weight, what you’re open to do, what you’re not… I had at 17 already said no to lingerie, no to bathing suits, yes to nudes! I felt more vulgar in a bathing suit than naked.

There are quite a few established women photographers but fashion is so dominated by men. How was it working with Emma?
Oh I loved it! She’s so easy. First of all we had a terrible day for the beach. We had to go on a boat to get to this like, Atlantis Island and the sea was really bad and choppy. Then to get from the boat to the rock we had to just jump in the water. I had to kind of, climb onto it. She would just laugh a certain way and the connection we had was great. She’s fast, took gorgeous beautiful pictures, and we really had a connection straight away with all of the team. Margherita (Moro) the stylist, she’s amazing and I knew her since she was really little so to see her grow up is amazing. I was so pleased and so happy. Everything was just so organic for all of us.

How important is it to have an established relationship with the photographer who captures your image?
I think an example are really good friends of mine which I adore like Mert & Marcus. Still, when I go to their shoots I get really excited. I get excited even with Ricky. I think when you get excited to show up it means you still love it and that’s why I think I still model. I think when I lose that part I’m just going to stay home. I want to wake up and be excited… I want to go there like oh my god this is cool, I just want to be there.

It’s a very existential question but what’s next for you? What have you not done?
Modeling wise I feel like I’ve done everything, but I always brief my agents that I’m open for new magazines and new photographers. I love to search for new talent. I don’t want to be that girl that only shoots for high fashion things. I feel it’s good to always challenge yourself. I love this period of really good new kids too. For me, this would look stupid but I really am very concentrated on happiness and serenity always. Whatever is next for me, which I have a lot of projects, also outside it’s always going to be in the fashion world. Collaborations or my own things I don’t want to say too much, but a lot of good exciting things are coming on the horizon.

It’s already been like a lifetime. I could go and retire, but I don’t want to finish my life as a model. I want to transform myself into something a step above. It’s not like I’m going to be a photographer or a designer… you can do a lot of other things. I always want to connect my role as a public persona with an awareness or charity. I do my own things where I take care of people back in Kenya where I spent a lot of years. I don’t want a traditional foundation because I don’t want to be specific on something but I do want a project where every time I challenge people to learn about another cause. You can go for 6 months and create awareness about HIV throughout the continent or focus on adoption or another charitable cause. There’s so much going on and if I didn’t have so much responsibility sometimes I think that I would just leave everything, go somewhere and open an orphanage. Sometimes life puts you in a place, and for me it was modeling, that wasn’t so much a choice, but how do you transform these lucky things that happen to you and still follow your drive? Sometimes you get a little bit drowned because it’s a lot of work. You have to always ground yourself and say don’t lose yourself, don’t lose your soul, don’t lose your goals, don’t lose who you are.