My Favorite Supermodels Of All Time – COCO ROCHA

A Canadian native of Irish, Russian & Welsh decent, Coco Rocha is probably my favorite model of the 2000s. Born Mikhaila Rocha in Toronto, she put the global fashion industry in a tizzy when she landed on the scene. She was a breath of fresh air; with her signature strut, extraordinarily distinct yet chameleon-like abilities & an essence about her that wasn’t seen since the ‘Supermodel Era’ of the 80s & early 90s.

Model agent Charles Stuart discovered Rocha at an Irish square dancing competition where he had seen her perform. Her professional modeling career started in 2004 but didn’t really take off until 2006 when she met fashion photographer Steven Klein. After appearing in an editorial with Gemma Ward & Amanda Moore, she landed the cover of February 2006 Vogue Italia. Coco had unknowingly caused a hype in the industry. She then met supermodel Naomi Campbell, at New York Fashion Week Spring/Summer 2006, who told her that she was her favorite new model.

Coco’s career has been somewhat of a fairytale as she gained momentum of her popularity in the industry. She’s walked for designers like Jean Paul Gaultier, Stella McCartney, Shiatzy Chen, Christian Lacroix, Emanuel Ungaro, Marc Jacobs & Anna Sui. She has also appeared on countless top fashion magazines such as American, Brazilian, Italian, Japanese, Korean AND Spanish Vogue, Flare, Fashion, Numéro, W, Harper’s Bazaar & i-D. She quickly became known as the ‘Queen of Posing’ due to her remarkably quick & expressive movement in front of the camera. She is featured in many online videos showing off her impressive posing skills in minimal time.

My most memorable images of Coco Rocha are of her during the footage of the praised docu-film ‘The September Issue’, which depicts how the world’s most revered fashion magazine (Vogue) & its Editor-In-Chief (the ‘Queen of Fashion’ herself) Anna Wintour go about putting together the most important issue of the fashion calendar. The September issue! Coco was chosen for two editorials in that issue; one showcasing the movement of different textures of fabric & another where she & fellow models were featured in a 1920s fashion homage entitled ‘Paris Je T’aime’, shot by Steven Meisel. Another great moment was that of Coco in a commercial for White House|Black Market, where she showed off her skills by tap dancing! Again proving that she is more than just a pretty face.

Rocha has also been quite vocal about her stance of pressures in the industry, including eating disorders that are prevalent amongst models. She said in an open letter to The New York Times, “How can any person justify an aesthetic that reduces a woman or child to an emaciated skeleton? Is it art? Surely fashion’s aesthetic should enhance and beautify the human form, not destroy it.” She caused a stir when she said to Associated Press, “I’ll never forget the piece of advice I got from people in the industry when they saw my new body. They said, ‘You need to lose more weight. The look this year is anorexia. We don’t want you to be anorexic but that’s what we want you to look like.” Again, showing that her stance was clear & unshakable. GO COCO!!

Coco is also a devout Jehovah’s Witness & still does the tradition of door to door preaching! She has said that due to her devout faith that she has always turned down jobs where she was asked to either pose nude, with cigarettes, guns, nationalistic emblems or any religious icons. She said, “I am a Christian first, and a model second.”