Coco Rocha is a Canadian fashion model who has walked in shows for designers including Marc Jacobs, Anna Sui, Stella McCartney and Christian Lacroix. Her first major editorial shoot was with famed photographer Steven Meisel, and shortly after she landed on the cover of Italian Vogue in February 2006. She recently married James Conran and wore a wedding dress designed by Zac Posen.

Quote: “It’s nice to be important, but it’s important to be nice.”
Treasure: My baby bear that I’ve had since I was born and my diamond wedding ring, which I’ve had since last summer. I have to admit, both are equally valued!
Escape: Locking myself up in my apartment with my husband, take-out and a good movie.
Vacation: Africa, or somewhere equally warm and off the beaten path
Inspiration: Watching and playing with children.
Movie: Price and Prejudice—the six-hour BBC version. I can’t get enough of Jane Austen!
Childhood Memory: Singing “We’ll Cry For You Mr. Mida” (with the melody from Evita) to my janitor who was leaving our school in 2nd grade. We really did love him!
Work of Art: Anything by Gustav Klimt.
Song: Right now? Black Eyed Peas “The Time” though I know I’ll be sick of it in a week as I’m playing it almost hourly.
Designer (past and present): Jean Paul Gaultier. He’s one of the only designers I know who is involved with every step of his clothing. He even styles us girls himself—a true hands-on genius.
Misconception (about you): That I don’t care when people comment about my weight or my looks.
Guilty Pleasure: Knowing (and singing) all the words to every show tune you can imagine.
Junk Food: Salt and Vinegar chips
De-Stress Mechanism: Leaving my phone and computer at home on vacation. It’s scary at first but does the trick.
Cocktail: Vodka Gimlet (extra sour)
Party: Any party where I can worry less about who’s watching me and more about dancing to good music.
Crush: I’m still crushing on my hubby Mr. Conran.
Lipstick and Nail Color: Right now I’m loving pink lips and matte gray for nails.
TV Show: I get addicted to entire seasons of 24.
Cartoon Character: Jessica Rabbit
Restaurant: This tiny Lebanese place I always go to in Paris. Mmm…chicken shawarma.

From catwalk to corner shop, Karl Lagerfeld continues to add his stylistic touch. Collaborating once again with Diet Coke, fashion’s favoured designer has created three iconic bottles all fashionably wrapped in his trademark ‘playful’ signature.

Hankering to be enjoyed with this season’s colour block trend, the contemporary prints scream Karl whilst taking inspiration from the Diet Coke heroines- Bernadette, Eleanor and Irene. Polka dots match Bernadette’s romanticism, swishy swirls for Eleanor’s fashion forward stance (v Christopher Kane SS11) and rock drama to tally with Irene’s persona.

But it’s not just the dolls that have been given the Karl touch. The new advertising campaign featuring Coco Rocha, Heidi Mount and Jeneil Williams has been photographed by world-renowned designer himself.

Models aren’t generally known for their word play. But Modelinia.com’s cool new T-shirts are emblazoned with model-related catchphrases that riff on well-known idioms and logos. Now you can Facebook “like” Karlie Kloss or proclaim that “Nobody does it better than Abbey Lee” on your shirt.

Backstage buddies Coco Rocha and Behati Prinsloo combine their names in the “Team Cohati” tee, a take on the pro-Conan O’Brien “Team Coco” graphic. “I like that we’ve become the Brangelina of the modeling world,” Rocha said backstage at Anna Sui. “But I’m kind of obsessed with Lara Stone’s Rolling Stones spinoff — that gap tooth is just perfect.”

The tees are $45 each on Modelinia’s Facebook store, and all the proceeds go to Unicef. Get them while they’re hot: as the Modelinia editor Bianca Posterli says, “We made them limited edition because our girls are too special to be mass.” We won’t mention the early catalog years.

Source: New York Times.

The inimitable Boy George presented Coco Rocha with the Best Model award at tonight’s ELLE Style Awards.

The Canadian model looked regal in a blush silk and cream lace Alexander McQueen dress. Ever poised and gracious, she took the time to thank loved ones and industry supporters.

“This is an amazing honour — most models I feel don’t get this opportunity.”

Then she headed backstage to talk to ELLE… stay tuned for more.

Source: Elle UK.

Is there anything Coco Rocha can’t do? The beauty is rapidly becoming a one woman wonder – from her impressive career as a model to her unstoppable giving heart to her creative talent as a designer – she’s touched multiple different sections of multiple industries, not just the fashion world.

Now, she’s bridging her writing talents from blogging to books and penned the forward to Jeanne Beker’s new book about modeling called, Strutting It! In two pages, Coco breaks down the stereotype of modeling and explains the reality of the job to the world. She’s posted a preview of the new must-read on her Tumblr, as well as her forward!

Fingers crossed that this is her first motion into writing her own book!

Source: Modelinia.

Dr. Vasey: How do you balance health and fitness while working in the industry?

Coco: Well no matter what is “in or out” in the industry, for me its very important to be fit, healthy and ultimately, to be happy. If my look isn’t what someone wants for a job, its fine, I know through experience that there’s always someone else in line who’ll like my look.

Dr. Vasey: Has health and fitness played a significant role in your life from the start of your career or something that evolved over the years?

Coco: I started out in this industry at 15 – I was young and knew little about what constituted a healthy diet and routine. There were those who tried to steer me into negative habits but there were also those who taught me good body image and positive healthy living. I think its important that kids today have positive influences to counteract the negative, that’s one of the reasons I’m teaming up with Seventeen magazine to be part of their Body Peace Council.

Dr. Vasey: What is your typical daily diet?

Coco: I love breakfast, that’s a must! I usually try to have a “healthy” lunch and a good solid dinner. I try not to snack too much but I’m not a fanatical about making any daily rules on anything.

Dr. Vasey: What is your typical daily and/or weekly exercise regimen?

Coco: I used to work out all the time, I ran miles upon miles. I found I built up a lot of muscle from doing that, which isnt always the right look in modeling. Now I just walk everywhere. If I have a shoot all the way across town I’ll leave 45 minutes earlier just so I can walk there. I love it, I hate being stuck in the subway.

Dr. Vasey: Are there health related foundations causes/foundations that you are particularly fond of?

Coco: Right now I’m working with Seventeen Magazine on a project called “Body Peace”. I’m writing a few monthly blogs for them along with Serena Williams and Whitney Port. Mainly we’re trying to help young girls find a positive self image. I think in general that there’s a severe lack of good examples for girls in the media. I’ve always tried to be a good role model and I’m still looking for more ways I can do that. I have plans to try to reach out to a lot of girls in Canada in 2011 and those details should be coming out soon.

Dr. Vasey: How does media attention to health in the United States industry compare to other countries you have worked?

Coco: I would say that the states has always been driven by scandals – that goes for the fashion industry too. When a topic arrises it always hits the media and is sensationalized. I found that to be the case through my own personal experience when the whole “is coco too big for the runway?” story broke. I don’t see that happening in other countries quite as much. Whether that’s a good thing or a bad thing, I don’t really know.

Dr. Vasey: What is your advice for young women embarking or hoping to embark in a career in industry? Coco: Don’t get into this career unless you feel secure in yourself and who you are. Its not a place for the weak or easily manipulated. Once you do find yourself a working model, stick to your values, stick to what makes you, you. Work and make decisions with the goal of being able to leave this industry the same girl as you walked in.

Dr. Vasey: What is one of your most memorable moments in your career thus far?

Coco: Theres been a lot! Working with Steven Meisel was a big one. Still to this day I get butterflies when I hear I have a shoot with him. Dancing down the runway at Jean Paul Gaultier was a special moment that I’ll never forget.

Dr. Vasey: What is a common means for models to obtain health insurance in the industry?

Coco: There is no industry standard and we don’t have unions that provide such things. Being from Canada I always had great national health care. When I moved to the US I had to find my own insurance provider. For other models out there I think a girls agent should be able to advise her on a good company to go with.

Dr. Vasey: Are there psychological support structures in place for models to easily access given the mental strain the industry can exude?

Coco: Not specifically but again a good agency will help a model find the right coaches, trainers, doctors and people that she needs to give her a healthy and happy career. For girls underage its imperative that their parents take an active roll and not leave it up to other people. Everyone needs to take up a level of responsibility.

Dr. Vasey: How have you learned to handle casting call “rejection” in the industry?

Coco: In the beginning its hard, but you realize you cant dance every dance.

Dr. Vasey: Thank you for taking time out of your undoubtedly busy schedule to share your perspective with NYJSM. You are truly a class act.

Source: The New York Journal

James Conran said his fashion education began out of necessity soon after he met his model wife of five months, Coco Rocha. “I had to have a crash course in fashion. About two years ago I didn’t know anything, but then I was like, I better get to know what this girl’s doing for work,” Conran said at last night’s WWD @ 100 Anniversary Gala. By this point, Rocha thinks her husband knows more about fashion than she does, but she still has more clothes, and she hogs all the closet space in the house. “She has her closet and my closet,” Conran said; in fact, the flannel shirt Rocha wore to the party is her husband’s. “I couldn’t even find my own clothes; I was like, give me your clothes,” she said.

Meanwhile, the couple is hoping for more closet space soon: “We want a house with a garden,” Conran said. “We’re talking about Brooklyn Heights or something.” If they lived there, he went on dreamily, they’d only come into Manhattan for work. “You’d never see us again,” Rocha added. There’s one problem, though: “No one wants to buy our apartment,” she sighed. (The apartment was recently featured in Vogue.)

Source: New York Magazine.

Vancouver-born model Coco Rocha was one of the first models to understand the power of social media and the importance of branding.

For the past year, the 22-year-old has written a blog that takes readers behind the scenes of the fashion world. Her Twitter page has more than 45,000 followers.

A little background on the Coco phenomenon: In 2008, she admitted to having taken diuretics to help her lose weight. She revealed her use of the water-expelling drugs during a presentation at a conference organized by the Council of Fashion Designers of America.

Last February, Rocha was the subject of a New York Times article in which she said demand for her runway services was not as high now that she is a size 4 and no longer a size 0 – larger than many of her rivals.

The following day, the New York Daily News splashed her photo on the cover with the headline “Is she too fat to be a runway model?” The stories made her a media sensation and today Coco is more popular than ever.

I met her eight months after the flurry of articles in the ninth-floor offices of her modelling agency, Elite, on Park Avenue. She’s sitting her 5’10 frame in a conference room while a dozen bookers and agents work the phones in the loft space. A parade of aspiring young models and their mothers drop photos at the front desk.

Micki, Coco’s long-time agent, sits down with us to oversee the interview.

Coco is relaxed, wearing black leggings, an oversized leather coat and sporting a tangled ponytail and no makeup. She’s just returned to New York after a month criss-crossing the globe. There were fashions weeks in London, New York and Toronto, as well as a hosting gig on the red carpet at the MTV Video Music Awards.

Coco lives in an apartment in Gramercy Park (featured in the current issue of Vogue) with her husband James Conran, a painter and interior designer who she wed in June in a sumptuous French castle. They met through his job – she had hired Conran to decorate her flat.

Did she ever think she would be married at the age of 21?

“No,” she replied, playing with her diamond wedding ring. “I know there are some people out there that wonder: ‘Why 21?’ I feel that if you know, you know. There is no starting point for love. I grew up in this industry and I’ve always been mature, I was never the party girl.”

As for the New York Times article, Rocha says she had no regrets.

“The feedback was good,” she said. “People were amazed that I decided to say it and I’m glad it hit the spot. It kind of diluted who will work with me and who will not work with me and that’s fine. You can’t model if you can’t take criticism. My nose might be too piggish to some and it can be amazing to others.”

Coco was discovered at the age of 15 while participating in an Irish dance competition. Acclaimed American photographer Steven Meisel put her on the cover of Vogue Italia in 2006 and her career took off. Some say she’s one of the most creative models around and the best poser.

But she was shy as a child.

“I can still be shy,” she admitted. “I didn’t have a lot of confidence when I was young. I was nervous around boys and wasn’t the most popular girl in school. But I came from a religious background where I was taught to speak publically.”

It was her dance talents that helped her get noticed. Designer Jean-Paul Gauthier had her grooving on the catwalk during the opening of a 2007 fashion show.

But fashion standards dictate she can’t dance anymore.

“A dancing body is different from a modelling body,” Rocha said. “I’d have much more muscular legs. I do less working out now and less stressing about food. The funny thing is I lost weight. When I was working out hard my body was bulking up.”

Coco is part of a select group of Canadian supermodels –along with Daria Werbowy, Jessica Stam, Heather Marks and Irina Lazareanu – who have a wholesome reputation in the industry.

What distinguishes them?

“I think because we come from Canada and we don’t have to work from such a young age, like the girls from Ukraine or Russia,” said Rocha, who always had her mother by her side at shows and fashion shoots. “They really need to work and would do anything.”

Source: Toronto Sun.

Hi girls! I’m so excited to be blogging for you today!! If there is one message I really want you all to hear from me its that to be truly beautiful we ladies have to stay true to ourselves!

In all honesty, there’s no perfect outfit, body shape, or hairstyle that will make you or me beautiful. True beauty radiates from within – and I think that loving yourself and being confidant in who you are as a person is by far the most beautiful thing in the world.

A lot of young people, myself included, get wrapped up in the opinions of other people. At times we feel like we have to follow in with exactly what they are doing or saying in order to be popular or attractive. Sometimes that can be true in matters of what we wear, how we think of issues such like sex, alcohol and drugs or even in how we view our bodies. It’s so easy to allow the negative views of those around us to force us to change who we are to try to fit in. But you know what I’ve learned? When you look back, and you see that you’ve changed just to fit in, you’re just not happy.

In the beginning of my career, I was doing just that – I was completely changing my body and how I treated my body for the modeling world because it was what I was told was expected of me to be beautiful. I was already a slender girl but in order to please other people (who wanted me even skinnier) I used dangerous means to lose weight like diuretics. Luckily this didn’t go on for too long and a point came along where I had to stop and ask myself WHY was I doing this to myself – and even more importantly, where would this all end? How sad that I was changing myself for someone else. In the end that was not beautiful at all. So I stopped stressing myself out, and I promised that I’d never put myself into harms way again just to keep up with what other people said or did. If they couldn’t take me as I was, then they didn’t have to take me at all.

I accepted myself and I believed in myself, and you know what? It turned out a lot of other people did too. I hope you all can come to the point where you realize how beautiful you already are, “flaws” and all. Be confident ladies and be true to yourself, your values and your body. If you do, I promise, you will always be beautiful!

xoxo
Coco Rocha

In our new feature, “APT with LSD,” Lauren Santo Domingo gets an inside look at the homes and apartments of some of Vogue’s favorite people—from models to designers, actors, stylists, artists, and more.

First up: the Gramercy Park, Manhattan, apartment of model Coco Rocha and her husband, the artist James Conran, which Rocha purchased three years ago. “My mom fixed up houses my whole life. I spent so much time helping her paint walls and build cabinets and things,” says Rocha with a laugh. “So, when I got my first place, the first thing I did was hire an interior decorator because I didn’t want to have to do it myself again. I thought I deserved it.” Walking through the two-bedroom apartment, you find each room filled with books, bottles, pictures, and souvenirs. “Every spot in this house has a story,” she says. “And James remembers everything, so he can tell you what is behind each and every item.”

Watch the slideshow here.

Source: Vogue.