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(cover_story) COCO WEARS Prada dress, (02) 9223 1688; Chanel boots, 1300 242 635 STRIKE A POSE Model and mum-to-be Coco Rocha talks to Alice Wasley about walking the line between her rebellious nature and religious beliefs Photography Darren McDonald Styling Kelly Hume 14 | SUNDAYSTYLE.COM.AU 15 (cover_story) ven if you don’t know your Ghesquière She has walked for all the big names and a temporary gig, he stayed on (I’m told they from your Givenchy, your Tom Ford featured in campaigns by Christian Dior, never fight about work, only trivial who- from Eileen Ford, you’re more than Chanel, YSL and Dolce & Gabbana. didn’t-change-the-toilet-roll couple stuff). E likely aware of the fashion world’s One of the most tech-savvy models Ask Conran how he views the Coco fondness for hyperbole. Words such as genius, around, she has millions of followers Rocha brand, and he says, “I think she’s sort fabulous and ahmaaazing are bandied about worldwide across several platforms, including of like a rebel in a very non-traditional way. more often than is perhaps warranted. And, Twitter, Instagram and Tumblr. And not Models are expected to be sex, drugs and just as swiftly as someone is anointed a genius, many high-fashion models can count being rock’n’roll, so to stand aside from that and darling, they can become old news. So, a columnist for PCMag on their résumés. be a wholesome girl, who’s also a model, before watching model Coco ‘Queen of the Her latest project is the book Study of Pose, she’s kind of an outlier in that way.” Pose’ Rocha in action at Sunday Style’s cover which documents her adopting 1000 different Faith plays a large part in guiding shoot at Milk Studios in New York, I’m not poses. It’s designed to function as a beautiful Rocha’s professional decisions. Both she sure what to expect. coffee-table book and/or resource for artists, and Conran are Jehovah’s Witnesses. When What I discover feels closer to performance photographers and models. The concept I begin to ask questions about her religious art than a fashion shoot. The lithe, pale Rocha was devised and captured for the book by beliefs and how they influence her career moves quickly and rhythmically through a photographer Steven Sebring. Gaultier, who choices, I’m politely asked to submit the succession of poses for the photographer. She’s wrote the foreword, says Rocha is a “model questions over email, as she’s nervous about up on her toes, then jumping in the air, all who breaks the stereotype, and here she being misrepresented. the while twisting her body into a rapid-fire is creating and pushing the boundaries in In response to my initial question, she array of silhouettes. The hip-hop music in one thousand ways. I find that fabulous.” writes: “For me personally, respect for God, the background is somewhat at odds with High praise from Gaultier. In what for family and for others affects my decisions her precision. Turns out Tyra Banks – who ways does she think she pushes boundaries? greatly. I try to be consistent in my word and bestowed the regal title on Rocha when she “There are many ways, I hope,” she says when deed, so if I don’t smoke or do drugs out of was a guest judge on 2011’s America’s Next we sit down to talk after the shoot. “From how respect for the life God has given me, then Top Model – was onto something. Though, I move to how I work, what I stand for in the I’m not going to portray that in an image, no doubt Banks could take her in a ‘smizing’ industry and how goofy I am. Of course I take either. I try to make choices that make sense contest, a term she coined to describe smiling my job seriously, but I always say we’re not with who I am as a person and what I value.” with your eyes. curing cancer, so we should have fun with it. It has been reported that Rocha and Rocha’s ability to manipulate her body was That’s what this book is – it’s about having Conran preach door to door on occasion. fostered well before the modelling industry fun with what I do. I wonder if she is ever recognised and, if so, came knocking on her door. As a dance-loving “I do stand for a lot of things [though]. are people more – or less – receptive to what 14-year-old (then going by her given name, I don’t do nudes. I don’t do semi-nudes. I she has to say? She responds: “I do go door Mikhaila), she was performing at an Irish really am specific about how I’m portrayed to door as much as I can. We do it because dance competition in Vancouver, Canada in photos. Gaultier knows all of that and it was one of the last things Jesus asked his (near where she grew up in Richmond), when he still works with me, and I love him for it. disciples to do at the end of the book of she was scouted by the owner of a modelling For someone like that, who’s so creative in Matthew – to teach others the good news agency. At first she thought it was a crazy what he does, to say something like that contained in the Bible. idea and laughed it off, but after some further about me is quite an honour.” “I’ve been recognised as a model a handful investigation, Rocha and her mother realised Her husband, James Conran, also points of times, but usually, if people listen to me, it’s it was a legitimate offer. Not long after, she to her mould-breaking ways. Rocha married because they are at a point in their life where was off to model in Asia and learn the ropes. Conran in 2010 in a lavish ceremony at a they have a spiritual need. Some people we find are genuinely searching for answers to questions they have had their whole life, and “COCO IS A MODEL WHO we are happy to try to help them find the BREAKS THE STEREOTYPE” answers in the Bible. Others we come across aren’t at all interested in what we have to She signed with a New York agency and, in French chateau, wearing a custom Zac Posen say, and we certainly respect that, also.” 2006, got her big break when she was shot by fishtail gown. And, not one to keep her fans in Over the years, Rocha has gained a renowned photographer Steven Meisel for the dark, she posted a beautifully edited short reputation for being outspoken, fuelled by the the cover of Vogue Italia. film of the wedding on her Tumblr blog, Oh unfiltered way in which she uses social media High fashion favoured her long limbs and So Coco, which has since been viewed more to get her views across. She fights for the rights angular features. In 2007, Jean Paul Gaultier than 600,000 times on YouTube. of younger models through her involvement was casting his ready-to-wear runway show, Conran, who she met through mutual with the non-profit Model Alliance, and a Celtic-themed collection, and caught wind friends at 18 and started dating when she advised her protégées on last year’s series of of her Irish dancing background. He had her was 20, was her first boyfriend. She explains reality-TV show The Face that staying true open and close the show dancing an Irish jig. that she was consumed by work up until that to their values was worth more than any job. This energetic deviation from the runway point and had little time to date, but found “Yes, of course it stemmed from me being norm was dubbed the ‘Coco moment’ by herself wanting to turn down jobs to spend religious, but it’s also about what I stand for in COCO WEARS Miu Miu American Vogue. time with him. He was a muralist, and then the industry, for the young girls, as well,” she coat, (02) 9223 1688; Now Rocha, 26, is in demand as much for became her manager not long after their explains of her moral position. “[For example] By Johnny dress, her brand as her looks and contorting skills. wedding. Enjoying what was supposed to be if they don’t want to wear fur, how can they ABUKU MAYUMI MANICURIST: KANAKO. MAKE-UP: BALCKE. TRAVIS HAIR: byjohnny.com.au 16 | SUNDAYSTYLE.COM.AU 17 (cover_story) And what of the reaction? window. After living in Manhattan earlier in “If people are disturbed by their marriage, it seems as if they are happily the musical choice, which settling into a quieter family life. “For sure,” is a little music box, a she agrees. “We got this house knowing we’d child’s thing, then they’ve want to raise a family in it. It’s not a shock; got bigger problems.” we’ve definitely been thinking about it.” Rocha says she’s more Being “the type of person who likes than ready to embrace the to prepare”, Rocha found out the sex changes motherhood will of #BabyConran and posted a video of bring – both physically and to the ultrasound of her “little lady” on her lifestyle. “I’m always looking Oh So Coco. at photos of women with a big bump and I’m I mention the recent launch of her book kind of jealous,” she laughs.