Notre Mariage

Within this blog you often see into my professional life but, once I saw these films I realized that though personal, they were too beautiful to keep to myself. The first film is just 3 minutes long and is perfect for those of you who may not have much time. The second  film is an expanded 18 minute version and contains some lovely interviews. I'm happy to present to you two short films documenting our wedding in France, the happiest day of my life.

Coco + James // Teaser from Americana Cinema on Vimeo.

Coco + James // Short film from Americana Cinema on Vimeo.

James and I would like to give a heart felt thanks and credit to the following people:

• Cynthia Nicholson and her lovely family who opened the grand doors of their Chateau to us. Cynthia, you made us all feel like royalty and gave us two days we will never forget.  (I highly recommend you to make a trip to Chateau Challain in the Loire valley and spend the night, it's worth the trip!)
  
• Gilbert Le and his amazing Americana Cinema crew who made these beautiful films. He's simply THE best cinematographer we ever met and he realized our vision for the film perfectly. Thank you Gilbert for capturing the look, feel and ambiance of our special day in a way we can always cherish.
  
• Our wonderful family and friends who made it all the way out to France to watch us exchange our vows. You are the reason we are who we are and we love you with all our hearts.
  
• Zac Posen and his talented team who created a true masterpiece for me to wear. I can never thank you enough for making this little girls dream come true Zac, you are a true artist and friend.
• Additional thanks to Dior Homme for James' handsome tuxedo and Liz Pugh at Rimmel for coming all the way from London to do my make-up.

I sign off now as,

Mrs. Coco Rocha Conran.

RUNWAY RELIEF

Well August is almost out the door and that means one thing - Fashion Week is nearly here!!! This season Modelinia has teamed up with Nine West on a very special project which I'm happy to be a part of. I'll be one of forty models doing what we models do best - WALK - but this time, for a cause. My girls and I will all be strapping on our specially made Nine West’s boot with built in pedometer's to track our every step. For every mile of steps accumulated Nine West will make a donation to Fashion Targets Breast Cancer which supports research and education. 

Would you like to help us? Well you can! Modelinia will have a dedicated site for you to check out how many steps each model has taken per day (oh its on!!) and you can even SPONSOR A MODEL! How great is that? 

I'm unleashing my competitive spirit on this one and calling out all other models!! I promise you, if that means I'm going to be walking to each and every show, I will out walk them all. That having been said, if any show is late on my account, please remember it will be for a good cause ;)

During our week we've been given these new Sony Bloggie's to document our thousands of steps. I used my Bloggie for the first time while Nigel Barker shot myself, Jessica White and Lisalla Montenegro in a little promo we did. I uploaded the rather jerky video for you guys but let it be known, drinking lots of coffee before working with the bloggie is not advised:

Yah, I realize I have quite a way to go before my first full motion picture. I just thought it was kind of funny seeing the whole shoot from my perspective. By the way,  we're doing another shoot with the charming Mr. Nigel Barker and this time FOURTY girls, on August 31st. You're invited!! Really! You can all come watch it all happen in Manhattans meatpacking district so stay tuned for more information. Before I go I'll leave you with a much better quality video from the shoot, courtesy of Modelina:

See more videos on modelinia.com

XOXO COCO

The Artists Studio

The location picked for Nordstrom's Fall 2010 collection shoot was the most amazing artists studio I'd ever seen, right in the middle of Manhattan. After the first day of shooting I went home and told James (also an artist) all about the studio, its magnificent views and its old world charm. The next day James came by and got to see for himself what an artists paradise it really was! This studio is home to artist Ruben Toledo who is actually the husband of designer Isabel Toledo! They are quite the dynamic duo and for a lovely little article about how they work and inspire one another, please turn HERE.

Rubens work is well known. He's illustrated for many of the worlds top fashion magazines and for many years now he's been the illustrator of Nordstrom’s national designer ad campaign. Hence this little shoot...

To see the pictures we took in Rubens loft (please do!) feel free to have a look at the album I made on my Official Facebook HERE (click).

XOXO COCO

Mystery Billboard Explained!

Hello from gorgeous Costa Rica!!! If you're in north America and you watched TV on Wednesday night you might have figured out the mystery of my Times Square billboard - The billboard was actually part of last weeks Project Runway challenge which was won by Gretchen Jones. As part of her prize I was asked to model her navy jumpsuit to appear on the Marie Claire campaign. So the big secret is now out, which is good, it was getting pretty awkward keeping it -  even my Auntie was trying to get the info out of me!!! For more information on the episode click HERE and for a cute little article about the Project Runway preview party I went to last week go HERE.

This months Glamour magazine has a fun little feature called the "How To Do Anything Better Guide". A few weeks the magazine came over to my apartment with the chef from New York City's SALT restaurant to help me throw a "better" party for some of my friends. I was taught a few interesting new dishes and mixed drinks and the magazine asked me to give my own party-throwing advice (though I'm probably the least party-minded model you'll ever meet). I

I will admit, the party playlist leaves something to be desired, I thought they were asking whats on my iPod right now! Opps... I do love myself some Cocteau twins though.

My Honeymoon In Corsica

Written by Coco Rocha for Huffington Post

This Spring my fiancé James and I decided to have a fairy tale wedding across the Atlantic in a castle in the Loire Valley of France. Since this was to be a destination wedding we soon decided we didn't want to back-track halfway around the world for our honeymoon. James suggested Corsica as a possibility. Neither of us had been there and, to be honest, I'd never even heard of it! To me the name "Corsica" sounded like a made-up world like Pandora, where the Na'vi live. To my surprise the country was indeed real and in fact very beautiful in all the pictures I saw doing research. When we got there, we realized we didn't even know the half of it.

Corsica is the most mountainous island of the Mediterranean due to the fact that it was created out of a series of huge volcanic eruptions. Picture dramatic cliffs falling into the ocean and rich green mountains rising over the horizon. For the most part Corsica is untouched compared to similar islands I've been to. Nearly half of the land is devoted to nature reserves so driving across the island you get the feeling that this is your own private place. On a road trip going nowhere in particular, James and I set off in our little rental car and hugged the tiny mountain roads, making stops at old abandoned stone farm houses and ice cold mountain waterfalls where we stripped down and swam. We basically saw no one else around most of the time, exactly what a couple on their honeymoon hopes for. When we weren't exploring the island by car, James and I stayed in a gorgeous northern coastal town called Ille Rousse. Within two days we felt completely at home there, roaming the winding cobble stone streets for new restaurants to try. We found the food was mostly a French-Italian mix of pastas, seafood and pizza, and we greedily devoured it all. Both James and I have always hated olives but, for some odd reason, we dared each other to try one in Corsica and we were instantly hooked! I don't know what it was about those olives, but they were amazing and when we came back to New York and tried an olive here, it just wasn't the same.

Corsica is very much your own experience. No one is going to hold your hand to guide you or to hold you back. In all the beaches we lounged on there were no signs posted "Do Not Swim Here" which was both very freeing and a little scary. I get rather nervous when I don't know what else is swimming around me so my snorkel helped me to assure myself that Jaws was not actually right underneath me. The ocean, by the way, was crystal clear and a gorgeous shade of turquoise. I truly loved Corsica, and that funny name will forever be associated with my beautiful honeymoon and first two weeks as a married woman.

We've said we are going back there for our 10-year anniversary.

XOXO COCO