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.

Now, she plans to start her own line, with advice from a few of her friends like designer Zac Posen and inspiration from Balenciaga’s Nicolas Ghesquiere.

She’s also got a gig as fashion commentator at the Grammys this month with ET Canada. She’ll tell it like she sees it, but won’t be too mean, she admitted, because she might have to work with those designers at a later date.

And Rootstein, a top mannequin maker, has cast her face and figure, following models of Twiggy, Erin O’Connor, Agyness Deyn and Jade Parfitt.

Rocha’s fashion line will reflect her own taste, she said, which is futuristic. She loves the Jetsons, but also Elizabethan and Tudor style. The name for the line is still in the works — there are issues with both Coco and Rocha, she said — and she’s put a call for suggestions out on her blog, www.ohsococo.blogspot.com (So Coco, The Second Coco, COCOnut and Not So Coco are among the suggestions.)

“My first presentation — I want it to be ‘Wow,’ ” she said, adding she hasn’t decided whether she wants to brand it with a mega-chain like H&M or go more toward haute couture.

“I want to be taken seriously,” she said. “That’s the problem with models.”

Rocha, accompanied on the set by her mother, Juanita Rocha, has certainly been serious about her job, speaking out about the pressure to be thin and the extent to which photos are doctored.

Last week, her professionalism, and inability to take a bad shot, impressed everyone, from Ogilvy marketing vice-president Steeve Lapierre to photographers Leda & St. Jacques and the crew. The shoot was way ahead of schedule.

Lapierre conceived the project, down to the birds, with sketches showing the pose for each page of the catalogue.

“The whole idea is about movement and light. That’s why I thought about Coco. She’s really the queen of movement,” he said, referring to her background as a dancer. She opened a Jean Paul Gaultier show in 2007 with an Irish jig, leading Vogue to declare a “Coco moment.”

“She gives you great faces. She’s light and funny and happy. It works well for spring,” Lapierre said.

Source: National Post.