Coco Rocha rocks the runway

Gallery of Irish Canadian dancer model Coco Rocha. Click here

She looks, if possible, even more modelesque in person, although this might have something to do with the high-heeled lace-up Balenciaga boots she’s wearing (along with an Urban Outfitters top, Marni belt, vintage gold lamé purse and a skirt that once belonged to her mother).

When I sit down with Irish Canadian Coco Rocha, who has taken the fashion world by storm before turning twenty-one with an unforgettable face, modish look and vivid persona, I’m struck by her openness and eloquence.

Discovered at the young age of fourteen by agent Charles Stuart, Coco (born Mikhaila Rocha on September 10, 1988) had never considered modeling or fashion as particular interests before Stuart approached her after seeing her perform in an Irish dance competition.

She initially told him that she wasn’t interested, but Stuart, whose daughter also did Irish dance, persisted. “He would come to every competition, or he would have some lady come up to me and say, you know, ‘He is legit, try it!’ So a year later I decided to do it, see what it was like — and now here I am today. If it weren’t for my Irish dancing, I wouldn’t be modeling.”

Coco can attribute both her dancing, which she practiced for twelve years, and her looks to her Irish ancestry. “My mom’s half Irish and my dad’s half Irish. We don’t know much about my mom’s side but my dad’s mom came from Belfast and married my grandfather, who was from Wales.” Her grandparents later moved their family to Canada.

Born in Toronto, Ontario, Coco grew up in Richmond, British Columbia. She has two siblings, and her parents are both in the airline industry. Coco says her parents are supportive of her career, if a bit out of touch. “For the longest time my dad didn’t quite understand. He’s like, ‘So what are you doing? Are you known?’ I’m like, ‘Yes, I’m modeling now, people know what I do.’ He’s still a little bit, ‘What’s going on?’ My mom, though, she’s here a lot so she sees it all firsthand.”

Her lack of fluency in high-end designers before modeling has helped Coco to create a unique personal style, especially indebted to a great love of vintage clothes. “I didn’t know anything about fashion. You would see me in the biggest sweater with jeans or the tightest elastic pants. Not nice clothes. My mom took me a lot to consignment stores when I was younger and I never really got to go to fancy high-class stores so … vintage was like a step up. You can always find one thing that no one else has, which is nice. To wear things from the 1800s to the 20s and 30s is kind of amazing.”

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Nster.com