Cover Story: ‘Candid Coco’ (Coco Rocha, Flare, February 2012)
Supermodel, philanthropist, designer – why we love Canada’s own Coco Rocha.
How many models are defined not just by their beauty, but also by brazen outspokenness? In the six years since she leapt across photographer Steven Meisel’s set and was catapulted to fashion’s front lines, Coco Rocha, 23, has built a formidable mini empire out of just being herself. While we are lucky to get a peep out of Kate Moss (or a straight story from Naomi Campbell), this Richmond, B.C., native delivers opinionated musings multiple times a day through her Twitter page (205,000 followers strong), Oh So Coco blog and plucky television appearances, such as a guest stint on America’s Next Top Model “It [used to be] all about a visual and not the personality…I wanted people to know what I had to say about a subject. Or if something was being said that was inaccurate, I would at least have the chance to correct it on my blog,” she says from the makeup chair on-set in Toronto as various stylists poke and prod, her husband James Conran and mother Juanita standing by.
Since FLARE began shooting Rocha at the beginning of her career, brand Coco has become a bankable juggernaut. While the other models who broke out at the same time have since struggled to keep momentum, Rocha has been steadfastly building a global name for herself as a supermodel, advocate and philanthropist.
It’s no wonder that the two women Rocha cites as mentors –Cindy Crawford and Iman – answer her emails. They too see that she’s more than just a pretty face. Indeed, the once-shy Rocha has built an identity around not playing it safe. Impromptu Irish dancing at a star-studded New York charity auction to raise $35,000? No problem. Premiering her documentary film Letters To Haiti, about her goodwill mission, for Toronto’s fashion crowd? No sweat. Posing for top photographers with such little inhibition that she can seamlessly meld the swan-like grace of Dovima with the Japanime-like expressiveness of a kewpie doll? All in a day’s work. Rocha is afraid of very little. But curling irons? Terrified. Well, we all have our thing. “I’ve watched too many models be burnt before,” she says on set to FLAREs unflappable beauty maestro Tony Masciangelo, who assures her he has a scald-free scorecard.
This detail is significant, as most models won’t let you interview them before the hair-and-makeup transformation is complete. But Rocha could care less about appearing less than perfect. “The fashion industry loves to be very hidden, or at least it used to be very quiet and no one really knew about it. Now everyone – the bloggers, stylists and models– is opening up,” she says on this newfangled interest in the personalities behind the pictures. “Now we’re getting into blogs just about models, which there’s never been before.”
While other models’ lips are sealed on industry issues lest they risk high-profile jobs, Rocha is vocal—very vocal. From eating disorders among peers and pressures to be skinny to age constrictions, even excessive retouching, she consistently raises awareness 011 fashion’s hot topics. Take this past fall’s Jacob campaign, which featured the model au naturel “I thought it was a really awesome thing, especially for Canada to be on the forefront,” she says.
“I’m not against airbmshing. I believe in removing pimples and even dark circles. It’s good to still look beautiful, but I really don’t believe in cutting out my waist and enhancing my legs. That is not necessary. Take me as I am.”
As Rocha’s profile grows, so does her confidence in saying exactly what’s on her mind. “I was just on Anderson Cooper and spoke about how I believe that if [models] were a bit older and wiser, there wouldn’t be so many issues,” she says, referring to the prevalence of eating disorders among pubescent models and her work to create industrv mandates. “When vou start outbat 13 years old, your body is still a young girl’s. All of a sudden it evolves and no one really explains to you that you’re supposed to get hips and boobs and a nice hourglass figure. To you, that’s just so abnormal that you think something must be wrong,” she says about the expectation to be thin. It all came to a head in 2010, when her apparent weight gain (and willingness to talk about the ridiculousness of it all) made the front page of The New York Times Style section in an article poignantly titled “A Model’s Prospects: Slim and None.” Armed with her current steely core, she reveals that when it all became too much for her a few years ago, her mother had her leave New York and move back to Vancouver to get perspective. Judging from today’s guilt-free McDonald’s breakfast, these anxieties are in check.
“I’m a young woman. I don’t need to freak out about what I eat and do. James and I make sure that after work, we relax at home.” Indeed, why not have it all and eat Egg McMuffins too? In a frenetic, fickle industry, Rocha has found a way to remain grounded and still be called on to pose for Karl Lagerfeld in Paris or close Giorgio Armani’s latest show in Milan. Her most recent passion project is for Senhoa, a line of Swarovski crystal jewellery she designed to benefit Cambodian victims of human trafficking and community redevelopment projects by employing young women to craft pieces. It’s further proof that Rocha is intent on not just being a supermodel, but a role model as well.
“I just hope to stay humble and remember where I come from. That’s my main goal in life.” – Mosha Lundström-Halbert.
-
…And they lived to talk about it. The twins known as BruceGlen have been running around the city... Read Full Story » -
Coco Rocha (via Twitter) Coco Rocha warned us via Twitter Sunday night her hair for the Met Gala... Read Full Story » -
Coco Rocha (born Mikhaila Rocha on September 10, 1988) is a Canadian fashion model Rocha was... Read Full Story »
