Life via Instagram - April 3rd to 8th, 2013
In this installment of “Life Via Instagram” I go back to red and
celebrate at my friend Fiona Byrne’s one year anniversary of The Byrne Notice with Margaux and Zachary Quinto. Also, after presenting a few of the Shorty Awards, I bump into my buddy Carrie Keagan and long lost twinie Alyssa Campanella.
- I’m really going to miss Nicola Formichetti at Mugler. I loved his leadership of the brand!
- My Team Coco girl Margaux Brooke is going crazy changing up her looks on set today.
- Fashion Flashback to Jeremy Scott’s very dirty 2008 runway show for today’s Throwback Thursday!
- I’m usually all about fan art, but a taxidermic head is just a liiittle disconcerting.
- At Fiona Byrne’s The Byrne Notice 1 year anniversary party with Fiona and Zachary Quinto.
- With Margaux Brooke and Zachary Quinto at Fiona Byrne’s The Byrne Notice 1st anniversary. Ps. I’m a red head again!
- Found twinie Alyssa Campanella at the Shorty Awards! Now we even have the same hair color!
- With my buddy Carrie Keagan.
- Presenting at the Shorty Awards! Dress by Zac Posen.
![SPOILER ALERT!! - My The Face finale recap for People MagazineWell, here we are: The final episode of The Face. It seems like just yesterday we had 24 girls and now all of a sudden we’re down to four: Team Karolina’s Devyn, a mother from the Bronx who all three mentors fought for on day one; hardworking and sweet Ebony, also from Team Karolina; Team Naomi’s former Miss Universe China, Zi Lin, who has been one to watch all season; and finally the beautiful Margaux from my Team Coco, a quirky model after my own heart who won me over on the first day with her risky head shot. Together, for better or for worse, we never played it safe as a team and we always strived to think outside the box.The final stretch: The girls are introduced to the Director of Public Relations and the Director of Trend Development at Ulta Beauty, the clients who will ultimately pick one girl to be the face of their brand. Their final test run involves learning about products and interacting with customers at an Ulta beauty store. Team Karolina’s Devyn, who works in retail, and Ebony, a preschool teacher, both seem very comfortable with the customers.
Zi Lin gives it her all and does well despite her language barrier. Naturally a shy girl, Margaux pulls through and is very warm and engaging. When asked what the brushes are made of by a would-be client, she admits that she doesn’t know the answer. I was very happy with her response, as admitting you don’t know something is much better than making something up (which we saw Team Naomi do to their downfall last week).
The girls give it their all: Photographer Dusan Reljin gives the girls one last shoot to help Carrie and Molly of Ulta decide which girl should be The Face.
Margaux is first and needs no time to warm up; as far as modeling and posing go, this girl is a machine and gives Dusan one amazing shot after another. She works with her facial expressions, her angles and even her hands. I could not be more proud of my little protégé.
[[MORE]]
By comparison, Ebony (Team Karolina) falters. She is a little slower in finding her groove and seems to be unsure of her angles. Devyn makes up for her teammate’s shortcomings with a great connection to the camera. The clients have no problem choosing a usable shot from her work. Zi Lin is last and, with warning from mentor Naomi to not “do that pageantry thing,” serves model all the way.
It’s evident these four girls are the best in the competition and all deserve their spot in the finale. However, in reviewing the pictures, the client decides that Ebony does not have what it takes to be the face of Ulta and she is sent packing before the final runway show.
This season of The Face opened with the girls watching myself, Naomi and Karolina walk in a Zac Posen show at Lincoln Center, so it only seems right that it closes with the girls actually walking alongside us in another Zac Posen show. All three girls look amazing and we all feel like proud mamas.
And the winner is…Taking into account everything they have seen, the representatives from Ulta decide that The Face will be (drumroll, please) … Devyn! Personally, I believe that any one of the top three girls would have done an amazing job with Ulta, so Carrie and Molly couldn’t have made a bad choice.
Margaux takes the loss in stride. In the modeling world we hear “no” just as often (if not more) as we hear “yes,” and although she didn’t win the Ulta campaign her story does not stop here.
Margaux has since been signed to my agency, Wilhelmina NY, and is being guided by the same amazing agents who have worked with me for the last decade. This last month Margaux was featured in Virgin Mobile’s television spots (airing between commercial breaks of ‘The Face’!) she shot a campaign with Target and, surprise surprise, a Zac Posen for Moda Operandi look book!
All very impressive accomplishments for any model, and I, for one, could not be more excited to continue to watch and mentor Margaux and all my girls as they expand their careers in the months and years to come. You have not seen the last of Team Coco!](http://24.media.tumblr.com/f5b2e50818228b0f8760776154deaf27/tumblr_mkkzlqDAKs1qeyuguo1_500.jpg)
![SPOILER ALERT!! - My Episode 6 recap for People Magazine
This week’s episode of The Face is all about being a brand ambassador. The most envied campaigns in fashion and beauty nearly all require that the model be able to speak, sometimes extensively, about a product. Learning how to communicate as a brand ambassador is a must.
The challenge is a red carpet press event thrown by a magazine. The clients are journalist William Norwich and iconic model Pat Cleveland, both experts on red carpet etiquette, who will look at how the girls walk and hold themselves in front of press, photographers and fans, as well as they answer questions. Billy and Pat teach the girls how to pose for the cameras in their Guido Maria Kretschmer gowns, and remind them that “to admit when you don’t know something” is the height of intelligence. In other words, no making stuff up.On the red carpet, Ebony (Team Karolina) breezes through a tough question from Wendy “How You Doin’” Williams about her children having different fathers. Devyn tells Wendy that she doesn’t categorize herself as a “black girl model” and Naomi calls her out. “That’s a disgrace!” she says, throwing Devyn off her game and making her think she has lost it for her team.
[[MORE]]
Next, Jocelyn (Team Naomi) is upstaged by former pageant queen Zi Lin on the red carpet. Jocelyn refuses to answer a question about her mystery “reality star boyfriend.” Zi Lin is asked the name of her eyeshadow (by Ulta, the brand these girls represent) and instead of admitting she doesn’t know, she starts talking about how her name means purple in Chinese and then says of the eyeshadow “I call it Ulta Special Purple.” Googling that product name does not get you very far.
Team Coco does well. Margaux quickly fires back at a negative comment about her height with the classic example of 5-foot-7 Kate Moss. Although inaudible to anyone else, Naomi thinks she hears Margaux mispronounce the apparently complex and nuanced name ‘Moss’ and calls her out on that. It’s an act both distracting and completely uncalled for considering no one criticized Zi Lin’s pronunciation, ever.
Team Karolina wins and Naomi gives the news to her girls, saying, “We’ve won three challenges, Karolina has won three challenges, and Coco’s won zero.” Although technically correct, my team won the biggest challenge of all: the public vote. Fans of the show gave Team Coco 70% of the popular vote online, leaving just 18% for Naomi and 12% for Karolina. Whatever the outcome of The Face’s challenges, the people have spoken and they loved the way my girls played the game.
Karolina is faced with the difficult task of sending two girls home this week. Apparently Naomi’s name-calling last week made no impact on her as she puts Zi Lin and Margaux, arguably the two strongest girls in the competition, through to the finale. Stephanie leaves with her head held high and says she is walking away as a model and that she never could have said that before.
Of course the show cannot end there. Despite the fact that both of our teams lost, Naomi seems determined to make Team Coco feel like somehow we’re the real losers, saying she’s “yet to be inspired” by us.
Regardless of how the points are divided, I’m very proud of my team. As aspiring spokespeople for Ulta Beauty, none of my girls made up an imaginary brand name like Zi Lin did. “Do not say my girl lied, you better re- check your facts,” says Naomi. I remind her those were the client’s words, but Naomi couldn’t care less and goes off topic telling me “Check your lipstick, before you come and talk to me, because you’re wearing it.” For the record, my purple lipstick was not called “Ulta Special Purple.”
–Coco Rocha](http://25.media.tumblr.com/6bc2bd4dc96a161354e8b5c5615dc252/tumblr_mk84ucQmlB1qeyuguo1_500.jpg)
![SPOILER ALERT!! - My Episode 4 recap for People Magazine(Photo by Ben Cope of 7 Artist Management)
Vogue! Let Your Body Move to the Music: When I shot my new Longchamp campaign film a few months back, they assigned Salim Gauwloos, a.k.a. SLAM, to teach me disco dancing. A few weeks later I brought him to The Face to help me teach this week’s challenge – a test shoot all about movement and dance.
Having a dance background is not a prerequisite in modeling, but it certainly helps; ten years ago I was discovered at an Irish dance competition, and one of my early breakout moments was doing an Irish jig down Jean Paul Gaultier’s runway. Since then dance has been an integral part of the way I model and I treat every job as a performance.
Salim, best known as one of Madonna’s iconic dancers in videos like ‘Vogue’, teaches the girls a simple routine and we set up a photoshoot to judge them on control, timing and expression. I don’t care if they can dance – I want these girls to move. A lack of experience makes some girls nervous, and Devyn (Team Karolina) stops mid-shoot and walks off set a few times because she can’t keep up with the other girls.
[[MORE]]Ebony, who vowed to never step foot in the elimination room again last week, has some beautiful moves. Contrary to that, Jocelyn (Team Naomi) says she’s really confident because she “used to dance.” I guess that dance was the ‘Macarena’ circa 1994 because that seems to be her go-to pose. Margaux (Team Coco) second-guesses herself and completely loses focus, but Stephanie impresses everyone. Not only was she the only one who remembered all the steps, but she did so gracefully. Despite all this, in the end I give Ebony the win.
“Wicked Witch” Is a Test: The campaign this week is to create a look book for Marshall’s to be judged by celebrity stylist Jen Rade. My team picks outfits before I arrive, but Team Karolina has a conflict because Devyn doesn’t want to be cute or girly. Again, Karolina reminds her girls that a model must be all things to all people.
The girls of Team Naomi are surprisingly all getting along for the minute and pick out their looks. The peace is broken, however, when Naomi comes in saying, “I think it would be nice for you to wear something completely opposite to what you’re wearing.” I guess it was too much to expect all of Team Naomi to agree for once. Jocelyn is irritated and tells Naomi that she’s not going to show her the poses in advance. The world gasps.
Jen, the self-professed “wicked witch of wardrobe” judges Karolina’s team with some sense of control, but when it comes to Team Coco she is irrationally aggressive from the minute we walk in. We are treated to her non-stop stream of mean-spirited and hurtful comments, which are hugely demoralizing, especially for Stephanie who has no modeling experience. If I ever had a stylist like this on a shoot, I’d walk. How can you get a good performance from a model who’s being trashed off-camera?
Despite the harsh beginning, we do pretty well with the look book. Team Naomi gets much better treatment from Jen – I guess she got all the aggression out of her system on us.
In the end Jen announces that, for the third time in a row, Team Naomi wins. They performed adequately with their look book, and I give them credit considering Jocelyn’s uprising. Despite winning, the team starts fighting again and Naomi has to break up the mess herself for the tenth time.
Low Moment: Since we’ve lost every challenge so far, I’m starting to doubt myself as a mentor. I choose Stephanie to go into elimination because I know Naomi sees Margaux as her main threat and Stephanie is much less likely to get sent home. My decision pays off; Naomi sends Madeline (Team Karolina) home and tells Karolina that she did so because Madeline’s “not memorable.”
However, in a private interview, she tells the viewers that her decision to keep Stephanie was “because she was the weaker of the two girls.” Well, which one is it? One thing we can be sure of – Naomi is in it to win it.](http://25.media.tumblr.com/96af189f0ed8a17815c0394fc1cc5446/tumblr_mj9azzhIW81qeyuguo1_500.jpg)
![SPOILER ALERT! - My Episode 3 recap for People Magazine(Photo by Ben Cope of 7 Artist Management)Tonight at 9/8c I hope you’ll watch episode 4 of The Face! If you missed last week’s episode you can watch it HERE and read my recap for People Magazine below:
This week’s episode of The Face starts out with a quick-change challenge. Runway models often have two or more looks in a show, leaving us mere seconds backstage to throw on the next look and walk the runway. The girls are all done up in heavy red lipstick and slicked hair — the perfect look to be totally messed up in a hasty change. Karolina teaches the challenge and sets the bar mighty high by changing into a runway look in just 41 seconds.
Timing Is Everything: Team Naomi’s Zi Lin goes first with a time of 1:18, which she says is not good enough for her. Aside from being a magnificent beauty, Zi Lin is refreshingly humble in this competition — something some of the other girls could definitely learn from. Devyn of Team Karolina beats her time with 1:09, but Margaux (Team Coco) beats her by two seconds and wins a $5,000 shopping spree. Devyn complains that it isn’t fair because Margaux “wasn’t completely composed,” which a slo-mo recap proves to be false. Karolina is not impressed with her teammate’s poor sportsmanship and lets us all know it.
A Surprise Move: On a Sunday afternoon when we aren’t shooting, I’m called in unexpectedly to see my girl Marlee. She tells me that her family is facing financial difficulties back home and she needs to leave the competition. This comes as a total shock to me but at the end of the day family always comes first, so I completely understand and respect Marlee’s choice to leave.
[[MORE]]
Gowns Down!: The client this week is Kleinfeld Bridal of Say Yes to the Dress fame. The girls are to navigate a dramatic staircase in their epic dresses, some of which weigh upwards of 30 lbs. Although my Stephanie is the only one who has never done runway before, Margaux takes the first spill during rehearsal. Naomi has doubts about Jocelyn’s runway ability, but it’s Sandra who almost falls headfirst. Karolina instructs her team very well, though I am tempted to remind her that she called me “bossy” for doing that last week!
When it comes to the actual challenge, Stephanie is amazing and I can’t be more proud of my baby model-in-training. The client loves her, the crowd loves her. Even Naomi is impressed! Unfortunately Margaux takes another big fall, this time in front of the client and a live audience. Overall it was not a strong performance from Team Coco and I’m feeling nervous; there were a few minor missteps on Karolina’s team, but no epic Jennifer Lawrence-worthy tumbles like Margaux’s. Team Naomi’s Zi Lin is the true runway star, gliding down the stairs in a giant gown that even Naomi admitted she couldn’t handle. Way to go Zi Lin!
Memory Fails: The audience vote reveals that Team Naomi wins the challenge, thanks in no small part to Zi Lin’s magnificent walk. The client tells me he likes two of my girls (including clumsy Margaux), but can’t remember Brittany. In the end I forgive Margaux’s fall (all runway girls have fallen) and send Brittany to elimination for not making an impression. When you’re trying to get a job over plenty of other beautiful models you want to be the one to stand out. Saying you were “un-memorable” is akin to the kiss of death.
Both Ebony (Team Karolina) and Brittany plead their cases before Naomi, who pulls a McKayla Maroney and lets us know she is not impressed. She says they are both trying to play on her heartstrings and that’s a song she does not want to hear. Naomi chooses Ebony over Brittany, resulting in Team Coco going from four girls to two in a single episode. Talk about getting kicked when you’re down!
Brittany accepts Naomi’s decision and is realistic about the fact that we all face rejection sometime in our careers. I applaud Brittany’s drive and determination, and I know she will continue to do well long after this season’s finale.
–Coco Rocha](http://25.media.tumblr.com/e59233cfc5b65bb36b1aefd8411f7663/tumblr_mj6ydaZxaM1qeyuguo1_500.jpg)
