Coco Rocha might have just happily accepted her engagement ring from James Conran–but she’s already finalizing her big wedding day. “I’m getting married in three months,” she told us backstage at Dior. “I can’t believe it actually, but I’m so excited.” And where will the ceremony happen? “We getting married right here in France,” the model told The Daily. “A friend has this beautiful house here so we’ll bring everyone here!” As for the dress? “I know exactly what’s it going to look like and who’s making it, but it hasn’t actually been produced yet. But the time is ticking!”

Source: Fashion Week Daily.

Coco released a statement in response to the New York Times article printed about her.

There has been quite the commotion over the recent articles about me in the New York Times and The New York Daily News. As only a few select statements of mine were printed I find it necessary to properly express my point of view, without outside editing.

I’m a 21 year old model, 6 inches taller and 10 sizes smaller than the average American woman. Yet in another parallel universe I’m considered “fat”… This was the subject of major discussion this week and the story that was spun was: “Coco Rocha is too fat for the runway”.

Is that the case? No. I am still used and in demand as a model. In fact I find myself busier than ever. In the past few years I have not gained an extreme amount of weight, only an inch here and there as any young woman coming out of her teenage years would.

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“I don’t do nudes, I don’t do semi-nudes, I don’t do cigarette shots,” Coco Rocha was saying on Sunday evening before the Diane Von Furstenberg show at the Bryant Park tents. “It took me a long time in the business to realize I didn’t have to do everything people told me I should if I wanted a career.”

Ms. Rocha is a model. Who isn’t nowadays? It used to be that kids wanted to grow up to be astronauts, police officers or doctors. Now it would appear that modeling is the career default of anybody who doesn’t have two heads. Ms. Rocha, according to a well-rehearsed story, was discovered by a scout at an Irish dancing contest in her native Vancouver, British Columbia. Whatever her real name is (apparently Mikhaila, which lacks the show-business pop of Coco), it was quickly altered, and she was sent to see Steven Meisel, the photographer who is fashion’s resident Pygmalion. Mr. Meisel photographed her in 2006 for the cover of Italian Vogue, and there followed in short order a series of high-profile jobs on catwalks, in magazine editorials and in advertising campaigns — enough of them to fill three fat paragraphs on her Web résumé.

The adjective before the word “paragraph” in the previous sentence was chosen for a reason. Despite all the recent blather about promoting wholesome body images and encouraging designers to scale up sample sizes — and a prevalent fantasy that the industry has suddenly embraced people of all sorts and shapes — fat in fashion remains anathema.

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Coco Rocha is currently reporting on Fashion Week with Veronica Webb for public-television channel NYCtv Life; when we encountered her (and her entourage of cameramen) at the Arise African Collective show last night, she was looking longingly at the catwalk. “A year ago when I got to sit and watch most of the shows, it was a surreal feeling. But as much as it is fun sitting here, when the music starts I’m like, ‘I wish I was on that runway,’” she admitted. Rocha also finds herself defending the models when she overhears audience members discussing them: “Sometimes a girl will come out and people start to murmur, and you hear them say things, and you’re like, ‘Shh! Shut up! I’d like to see you try!’”

So what’s it like to be reporting on designers she used to model for? “Being treated as a reporter, they’re like, ‘Oh, she’s here! Let’s make this place look good.’ It makes me smirk — it’s funny.” Rocha is also in the process of designing her own line, Rococo, and she’s using her journalistic access to enhance her personal knowledge: “I find myself asking what it was like when they started, since I’m trying to start my own line,” she said, adding that some designers have been particularly helpful. “Zac Posen was very sweet and was like, ‘Come on down, I’ll explain things and show you things.’ His boyfriend as well. So that was super sweet. I was expecting a lot of people to be shaking their heads — and people are — but that just makes me want to prove myself even more.”

Source: NY Mag.

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Miscellaneous > Unsorted

The supermodel and catwalk veteran takes us bargain-hunting for the perfect Fashion Week outfit.

H&M (515 Broadway between Broome and Spring Sts; 212-965-8975, hm.com)
Coco Rocha has an every-girl quality that’s surprising for a model of her caliber. She blogs (ohsococo.blogspot.com), she tweets, she Facebooks…and, okay, she also happens to be the new face of Rimmel and has designed her own collection, Rococo, due this September. Still, when she arrives at H&M, hand-in-hand with artist boyfriend James Conran, she’s ready to rummage and immediately makes a beeline for a black blazer with silver studs ($60). She also picks out a pleather motorcycle jacket ($50), bleached-out skinny jeans ($39) and an ivory linen shirt with ruffles down the front ($30), but the outfit is complete only after she perches a men’s fedora ($15) on her head.

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As fashion bloggers and fans watched the red carpet at the Grammys for starlets’ style choices, Modelinia was focused on one thing.

Just what will Coco Rocha’s first design look like?

True to her personal style, Coco’s Grammy dress was nothing less than her romantic vintage style meets youthful and creative. The navy blue hue was set off by deep gold accents in a design that was perfectly reminiscent of 18th-century fashion and Marie Antoinette. And to make the dress even more special, her boyfriend had a hand in creating the shoulder accents.

And the name of Coco’s new collection? Rococo. Now let’s bring it to Fashion Week, Coco.

Source: Modelinia.

Perched on a see-saw in a grand taffeta ball gown lined in acres of tulle, Coco Rocha is slipping, almost falling. But that doesn’t compromise her poise; she tries a funny face (very Audrey Hepburn), surprise and a cool couture profile as she lengthens her leg just so.

In the photo studio, a macaw, or maybe it was the cockatoo, shrieks.

The crew is used to this by now and nobody flinches.

Supermodel Rocha, who grew up in Vancouver, was in Montreal last week to shoot Ogilvy’s spring catalogue, and six exotic birds were among the props, along with the see-saw and a swing.

At 21, Rocha has got it all — an apartment in New York’s Gramercy Park area, a boyfriend and a modelling portfolio to die for with covers and campaigns for the top magazines and fashion houses shot by the greats of the day. Mentored by photographer Steven Meisel at the start of her career, she’s the face of Rimmel London, along with Kate Moss and Lily Donaldson.

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Coco was ranked #59 on AskMen.com’s Top 99 Women of 2010 list.

Victoria’s Secret and Sports Illustrated models are one thing, but haute couture models aren’t exactly the easiest sell when it comes to a male audience, unless, of course, this was Out magazine. Nevertheless, British Columbian Coco Rocha sits quite comfortably on this list at No. 59. Maybe it’s because she came into the profession accidentally after being discovered while competing in an Irish dancing competition in her early teens in Vancouver, or that she admittedly doesn’t care for Paris (a fashion world faux pas if there ever as one) or that her hometown friends had to quiz her on designers when she got started in the biz, but her quirky and sometimes goofy demeanor adds a refreshing sincerity to the fashion world. At 21 years old, she’s already an industry vet, modeling for the likes of Jean Paul Gaultier and Chanel. She might think that the word “supermodel” is something that belongs in the long lost era of the ‘90s, but Coco is proof that a model can still go by just her first name, if she’s in a league of her own.

Source: AskMen.com.

Coco Rocha was listed by Vogue Paris as one of the 30 models of the decade.

Passionnée de danse traditionnelle irlandaise, Coco Rocha se prédestinait à devenir danseuse professionnelle mais elle sera mannequin. Elle est véritablement reconnue en mars 2006 après avoir posé avec Gemma Ward et Amanda Moore devant l’objectif de Steven Meisel pour le Vogue italien. Elle a également égérie du parfum Elle d’Yves Saint Laurent lors de son lancement en 2007. Sa carrière est lancée et elle défile depuis pour les grands créateurs.

Source: Vogue Paris.

Jezebel.com ranked Coco #8 on The Decade’s Top Models list.

One of our all-time favorite model bloggers, the Canadian Rocha has been heavily featured in editorials and advertising for companies including Dior and Yves Saint Laurent since about 2006, and once did a jig on Jean-Paul Gaultier’s runway. A favorite of Grace Coddington at American Vogue, she also dyed her hair red at the request of Steven Meisel himself. Rocha, who worked for several long years in secondary markets before making it big, is also one of the few models willing, like Natalia Vodianova, to talk about the industry’s pressures regarding weight. (She herself has used diuretics to stay thin in the past.) Rocha practically has a patent on the open-mouthed, furrowed-brow, angry-cute expression we’ve seen so much of over the past few years.

Source: Jezebel.