José Fonseca is the co-owner of Models One, a busy model agency with top names like Marisa Berenson and Lauren Hutton on the books.

“As a child, I loved fancy dress and I still like breaking the fashion rules. I go to the office in clothes that can take me to a party afterwards—I just don’t know how to wear casual clothes perhaps because I hate my bottom! I feel more like a woman in long skirts than in pants or jeans. Ever since Ossie Clark made his first mid-calf skirt I have been trailing along—Ossie-style. I wear a lot of black because it always makes me feel fantastic. I like the anonymity of black and the way you can use it as a foil for jewellery and scarves. I went mad on sequins last winter. I bought jackets, berets, even a gold sequin ‘Twenties theatrical outfit—I like to sparkle. I wear a lot of make-up as I feel I can hide behind it. My hair used to be straight but I wanted a change so I had it cut and curled and then permed. But I’m going to grow it out.”

This is a part of a larger feature with ‘real’ Cosmo women putting fashion to the test, but this is definitely my favourite one.

Fashion by Penny Graham.

Photographed by Mike Berkofsky.

Scanned from Cosmopolitan, March 1974.