Then this fifteen year old Buffalo native, Jessica White ambled in with her mother Fanny: down coat, tight jeans, standard Upstate boots and I started to sweat. The "Hi. How are you? May I see your book please. Thank you for coming!" mantra that had served well all day failed me. I think I said something like "Uh Uh Uh " So now a year later, when we book her for this current MODELS.com cover, it does not shock that Jessica White is the girl with the most cake. An exclusive Cover Girl contract under her belt- (a killer follow up to her beauty.com campaign), the scorching Spring 2001 Chloe ad photographed by Taryn Simon, a gig in Teen Vogue, two editorials with Harper's Bazaar (including a swimsuit shoot with Mini Anden shot by Demarchelier in St Barts) and a suite of coveted Fall 2001 New York fashion shows clogging up her charts at the start of Fashion Week. A year can wield strange changes in a model but the Jessica who arrives bright and early that January morning (with her sister Pam in tow) is the same beautiful gamine of a year ago, a little more comfortable with the spin of the fashion whirl but still flashing that megawatt smile. I ask her what this first sensational year has felt like. "It's been great," enthuses Jessica. "I've learnt so much and I've met so many incredible people, it's been everything I hoped for. Plus I'm going to LA to go on some castings as an actress because a lot of people have been approaching me about that!" As well they should, I note as Jessica's exquisite little face is buried in a gigantic Afro-wig to match Fausto Pugilisi's perfectly impractical fur bikini studded with Swarsowski crystals. And how was shooting the Chloe ad? I prompt as Jessica sidles up to the marble fireplace. Martha Camarillo, our beloved photographer is firing the Polaroids. " Incredible. We shot it on the beach in the Bahamas. Paradise Island, I think" "Of so the horses weren't photo-shopped in? "Uh-uh. Those were real horses," laughs Jessica at my presumptuousness. Martha peels back one Polaroid and the effect is somewhere between a manic 70's blaxploitation "Cleopatra Jones" moment and an elongated Lil Kim music video reverie. Which is the point because having recently discovered the stunning oeuvre that is 70's blaxploitation, don't we all believe it is high time that fearless sense of style be put back on the fashion map. I mean they did dress like this back then, apparently. " Oh my god. They're gonna kill us," groans Martha.