WHY I INSTAGRAM - By Coco Rocha for Vogue Around 2006 I began noticing the photographers waiting outside runway shows were beginning to outnumber those actually working inside. They were shooting our “model-off-duty” looks and plastering them all over the Internet, where they garnered as much interest and discussion as the campaigns and editorials in which we star.  These days everyone is his or her own street-style photographer, myself included. As a model in the digital age, the ability to reach an audience outside of the traditional magazine ad and billboard realm is increasingly important to me and my clients who realize we live in a new world of far more social networking- and endorsement-based advertising—from what your friend in school “likes” on Facebook to what your favorite top model wears in her downtime. I use platforms including Instagram, Tumblr, and Pose on a near daily basis to document my own looks for my almost ten million followers worldwide. The responses to my posts are always a gauge of how well I did with my personal styling. A picture that garners 30,000 likes versus one that only gets 5,000 says a lot about where I hit and miss in capturing the fashion zeitgeist. (Surprisingly the pics of just me at home usually get more likes than the ones of me with celebrities or designers.) The only time I get negative feedback is when I post a look containing fur, so now that definitely crosses my mind before I post an image to social media. While I believe everyone must make up his or her own mind, I don’t like to unnecessarily act insensitive to my followers. Often I’ll have my husband, James, take a few dozen pictures with his phone and then we will edit them until we’ve found the most aesthetically pleasing and interesting image. After that, we filter the pictures using a host of iPhone apps like Camera+, Pictwo, and Snapseed before we decide the image is ready for posting. Selections are always about quality versus quantity. There is no formula as to exactly how many photos I Instagram per day; one day I may post a single shot, where other days I may put up a dozen. I try to share sneak peeks of events I attend, behind the scenes moments at photoshoots, or anything I witness that I think my followers would find interesting.  Models are never really “off duty” anymore, and I view social media as an extension of my career as a whole. Sometimes posting can feel like a chore and in those cases I view it as a necessary part of my work, but other times it’s genuinely fun to share and document my life with friends far and wide. It’s the way of the 21st-century girl. See our slideshow above featuring our favorite Coco Rocha Instagrams.

WHY I INSTAGRAM - By Coco Rocha for Vogue

Around 2006 I began noticing the photographers waiting outside runway shows were beginning to outnumber those actually working inside. They were shooting our “model-off-duty” looks and plastering them all over the Internet, where they garnered as much interest and discussion as the campaigns and editorials in which we star. 

These days everyone is his or her own street-style photographer, myself included. As a model in the digital age, the ability to reach an audience outside of the traditional magazine ad and billboard realm is increasingly important to me and my clients who realize we live in a new world of far more social networking- and endorsement-based advertising—from what your friend in school “likes” on Facebook to what your favorite top model wears in her downtime. I use platforms including Instagram, Tumblr, and Pose on a near daily basis to document my own looks for my almost ten million followers worldwide. The responses to my posts are always a gauge of how well I did with my personal styling. A picture that garners 30,000 likes versus one that only gets 5,000 says a lot about where I hit and miss in capturing the fashion zeitgeist. (Surprisingly the pics of just me at home usually get more likes than the ones of me with celebrities or designers.) The only time I get negative feedback is when I post a look containing fur, so now that definitely crosses my mind before I post an image to social media. While I believe everyone must make up his or her own mind, I don’t like to unnecessarily act insensitive to my followers.

Often I’ll have my husband, James, take a few dozen pictures with his phone and then we will edit them until we’ve found the most aesthetically pleasing and interesting image. After that, we filter the pictures using a host of iPhone apps like Camera+, Pictwo, and Snapseed before we decide the image is ready for posting. Selections are always about quality versus quantity. There is no formula as to exactly how many photos I Instagram per day; one day I may post a single shot, where other days I may put up a dozen. I try to share sneak peeks of events I attend, behind the scenes moments at photoshoots, or anything I witness that I think my followers would find interesting. 

Models are never really “off duty” anymore, and I view social media as an extension of my career as a whole. Sometimes posting can feel like a chore and in those cases I view it as a necessary part of my work, but other times it’s genuinely fun to share and document my life with friends far and wide. It’s the way of the 21st-century girl.

See our slideshow above featuring our favorite Coco Rocha Instagrams.

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PARIS FASHION WEEK via INSTAGRAM - March 2nd to 4th, 2013

In this installment of Life via Instagram, I have the privilege to sit front row and watch some of the Paris Fashion Week shows for the first time in 18 seasons. I catch up with old friends like Jean Paul Gaultier, who tells me an amazing secret, and I discover who’s on Ellen Von Unwerth’s iPhone screensaver!

  1. Before the Jean Paul Gaultier show with the amazing Numero editor-in-chief, Babeth Djian! #PFW

  2. Strike a pose! The fantastic stage design at Jean Paul Gaultier tonight. #PFW

  3. Jean Paul Gaultier whispering a secret… My lips are sealed!

  4. Picking my look for tonight’s Diesel party at #PFW.

  5. Bumped into two of my favorite people, Ellen Von Unwerth and Renzo Rosso, at the Diesel party!

  6. The official iPhone screensaver of Ellen Von Unwerth ;)

  7. Glamour and I are in agreement - we are all about orange for Spring 2013.

  8. Spotted my friend Ava in the white jacket at Giambattista Valli. She and I used to be roommates years ago!

  9. Anna + team taking it all in at Giambattista Valli - PFW.

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LIFE via INSTAGRAM - November 1st - 13th, 2012.
Follow me at @cocorocha for realtime updates! 

  1. Posing with the shark, Mr. Brad Goreski, in his killer Givenchy sweater.
  2. Good morning NYC. I’m back for tonight’s Coalition For The Homeless Artwalk event and hoping the second storm heading our way today shows some mercy.
  3. At Liebeskind NY and I’m having a hard time picking just one bag here.
  4. My look for tonight’s ARTWALK supporting Coalition For The Homeless. (Taken with Pose)
  5. With the man of the hour, Mr. Patrick McMullan, at ARTWALK.
  6. So… Barack Obama just flew overhead in Air Force One.
  7. Pairing my Diesel hoodie with a fancy room. On set with one of my favorite photographers, Ellen Von Unwerth. (Taken with Pose)
  8. The fall colors at my house inspired my look for tonight’s Vogue/CFDA Fashion Fund dinner. Dress by Suno, jacket by Reiss and shoes by Versace. (Taken with Pose)
  9. With Caroline Trentini, one of my all-time favorite girls (and models), at the CFDA Vogue Fashion Fund dinner.

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Solomeo - American Vogue

This summer American Vogue flew me out to the Perugia countryside in Italy to visit the beautiful city of Solomeo. You may remember me freaking out after I showed up an hour before my flight (with only carry-on luggage) only to find the airline had SOLD MY SEAT! To cut a long story short, I ended up having to fly a day later and showed up in Solomeo just in time to jump into hair and makeup.

Photographer: Ben Toms
Fashion Editor: Katie Shillingford 

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Expanding Her Efforts to Be a Role Model

By Irina Aleksander for The New York Times

ONE afternoon in late July, traffic stopped in Manhattan so that a small parade of models could cross the street. They entered the Coffee Shop, a restaurant in Union Square, and descended to a dimly lighted subterranean lounge with leather banquettes and Champagne buckets filled with mini cartons of coconut water. The girls, most of them around 16 years old, wore shorts and tank tops along with chunky heels and too much eye makeup.

“These are really the babies, but to me, this is the perfect group,” said Coco Rocha, the 23-year-old model, who was there to give a lesson on modeling and social media. She was wearing slim black pants, black boots and a snug white blazer over an oxford shirt buttoned to the neck. Her red hair was pulled up into a neat topknot.

“Who here has a Tumblr blog?” she asked, addressing an audience of several dozen. Ten hesitant hands sprouted. Ms. Rocha smiled. “O.K., what we’re going to talk about in class today is how important it is to brand yourself.” Ms. Rocha, who used to teach dance to 4-year-olds, stood with one foot planted firmly in front of the other, pumping her right knee in the manner of a cabaret dancer as she spoke. “You cannot be just another pretty face,” she added. “Do you know how many girls there are in New York right now?”

More than just a pretty face, Ms. Rocha is one of the few models who has become known by just her first name. At a moment when the fashion industry has increasingly marginalized models — to anonymous, size 0 waifs, a life span of three seasons (that’s a year and a half in human years), and off the magazine covers in place of celebrities like Jennifer Lopez and Lady Gaga — she has emerged as the model’s liberator.

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Solomeo - American Vogue
September, 2012

This summer American Vogue flew me out to the Perugia countryside in Italy to visit the beautiful city of Solomeo. You may remember me freaking out after I showed up an hour before my flight (with only carry-on luggage) only to find the airline had SOLD MY SEAT! To cut a long story short, I ended up having to fly a day later and showed up in Solomeo just in time to jump into hair and makeup.

Photographer: Ben Toms
Fashion Editor: Katie Shillingford 

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CHOOSING THE COVER SHOT - Usually when models go in for an editorial shoot we take a couple hundred pictures, wait patiently for a few months for the magazine to come out and then finally find out which shots made it to print and which gracias chosen for the cover. Only once in my career have I ever been able to hand-pick the cover image for a magazine all by myself and this is it.

CHOOSING THE COVER SHOT - Usually when models go in for an editorial shoot we take a couple hundred pictures, wait patiently for a few months for the magazine to come out and then finally find out which shots made it to print and which gracias chosen for the cover. Only once in my career have I ever been able to hand-pick the cover image for a magazine all by myself and this is it.

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Model Coco Rocha to Channel Elizabeth Taylor at Met GalaBy Lorena Blas, USA TODAY It’s the fashion world’s equivalent of the Oscars, so it’s no wonder models and stars want to go all out for the annual Metropolitan Museum of Art Costume Institute gala. Model Coco Rocha will merge the fashion and entertainment worlds at Monday’s event by wearing a vintage Givenchy outfit previously owned by Elizabeth Taylor. Rocha bought the yellow and fuschia jumpsuit and jacket at auction in December. “I’ve always been a huge admirer of Elizabeth Taylor,” says Rocha, 23. ,”For me, it was her wardrobe that was really impressive. Here was a celebrity who, in the time before stylists and professionals picking your wardrobe, always looked amazing.” Gala guests can try to spot a souvenir on the outfit. “If you look carefully, you can see the suit has this very faint red wine stain on it. After I had it cleaned I took it to show the editors at Vogue and we could still see the stain. We all agreed that since it was Liz Taylor’s wine stain, it’s OK to wear as is,” Rocha says.

Model Coco Rocha to Channel Elizabeth Taylor at Met Gala
By Lorena Blas, USA TODAY

It’s the fashion world’s equivalent of the Oscars, so it’s no wonder models and stars want to go all out for the annual Metropolitan Museum of Art Costume Institute gala. Model Coco Rocha will merge the fashion and entertainment worlds at Monday’s event by wearing a vintage Givenchy outfit previously owned by Elizabeth Taylor. Rocha bought the yellow and fuschia jumpsuit and jacket at auction in December.

“I’ve always been a huge admirer of Elizabeth Taylor,” says Rocha, 23. ,”For me, it was her wardrobe that was really impressive. Here was a celebrity who, in the time before stylists and professionals picking your wardrobe, always looked amazing.”

Gala guests can try to spot a souvenir on the outfit. “If you look carefully, you can see the suit has this very faint red wine stain on it. After I had it cleaned I took it to show the editors at Vogue and we could still see the stain. We all agreed that since it was Liz Taylor’s wine stain, it’s OK to wear as is,” Rocha says.

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