Model Mikhaila “Coco” Rocha is from Canada. She is renowned for being one of the first “internet” supermodels and for her support of emerging talent. She contributed to the 2014 book Study of Pose as an author. In addition, Rocha founded the Coco Rocha Model Camp and is a co-owner of the modeling agency Nomad Management. Rocha was educated in Richmond, British Columbia, where she attended Hugh McRoberts Secondary School. She was born Mikhaila Rocha in Toronto, Ontario. At first, Rocha worked as a model in Asia, shooting up to 75 looks every day for two months. She went back to New York and contracted with photographer Steven Meisel exclusively, who compiled a list of clients she could and could not work with.
She walked in the ready-to-wear show for Anna Sui and Marc Jacobs during New York Fashion Week in the Fall/Winter 2006 season. Rocha encountered Naomi Campbell backstage during the Anna Sui presentation, who held her hands and proclaimed Rocha to be “her new favourite model.” She participated in the runway shows for prestigious fashion houses at Paris Fashion Week, including Marc Jacobs, Christian Lacroix, Shiatzy Chen, and Stella McCartney. A year later, Rocha opened Jean Paul Gaultier‘s Scottish Highlands-inspired Fall/Winter 2007 show with Irish dancing down the runway; American Vogue dubbed this the “Coco Moment” and suggested it as a sign that the fashion industry misses the “supermodels”. Rocha was featured in the May 2007 issue of US Vogue as one of the “World’s Next Top Models.”
The 2010 MTV Video Music Awards white carpet was presented by her. Tyra Banks, the host and chief judge of America’s Next Top Model, referred to her as “The Queen of Posing” when she came as a guest judge. Along with Karolina Kurkova and Naomi Campbell, Rocha served as one of the three coaches/judges on the inaugural season of the Oxygen network reality series The Face. In the second season, she did not come back. Additionally, as a model in Season 14 of Project Runway, she acted as a guest judge in a competition where the designers drew inspiration from the Broadway production of Finding Neverland. Project Runway’s designers created an evening gown for Rocha to model and were photographed during episode 12 of season 19 in 2022. She was a guest judge as well. She additionally made an appearance as a guest judge in episode 7 of Germany’s Next Top Model season 17 that same year.
The book, Struttin It!, written in the modelling industry by Canadian fashion reporter Jeanne Beker, has a foreword by Rocha. Her new website, she said, The website, which contains approximately 10,000 images spanning the entirety of her modelling career to date, was reportedly launched in March 2011. In 2014, Rocha and photographer Steven Sebring published Study of Pose, an encyclopedia of 1000 positions that she had modeled, including ones inspired by figures like Botticelli’s Venus and Jessica Rabbit. Rocha married James Conran, a painter. In addition to James Conran, Iver Eames Conran, and Iley Ryn Conran are their other two daughters. They also have a son, Iver Eames Conran. In Kanye West’s song “Christian Dior Denim Flow” from 2010, Rocha was one of the twenty-one top models mentioned.
The Seventeen Body Peace Award was given to her by Seventeen magazine. Rocha had written several articles for the magazine about the importance of girls’ self-esteem and body image. Boy George presented her with the Elle Style award for “Model of the Year” in London. At the Pay It Fashion Forward event in Manhattan, Rocha and her husband, James Conran, each earned honours for their charitable work. She was named one of the top 30 models of the 2000s by Vogue Paris. At the Canadian Arts and Fashion Awards in Toronto, Canada, Rocha received the “Model of the Year Award.” At a sumptuous ceremony held in Vienna’s Museumsquartier, she was presented with the esteemed Vienna Fashion Award as Style Icon. The Identity Leadership in the Arts award was given to her.
