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

Good news comes in three's

Hey everyone, I'm currently writing this blog as I fly to Montreal. I've had a lovely two weeks in New York, settling back into "real life" with the hubby (yes, I really did just say that). We arranged all the furniture, a few times and worked out little things like who does the dishes (him) and who makes the bed (both of us, since its so massive). Anyway, I just wanted to write a little blog to let you know about THREE work related things going on right now too:

The first thing which was recently announced is that I have joined my bud Behati for VS pink (click!) We had fun catching up on set and bouncing around the streets of Soho. Here's a few pictures posted from my twitter and Behati's twitter back in May, though we didn't tell you what it was for at the time!

The Second thing I wanted to mention is that I'm doing this great little project with British Vogue called "Today I'm wearing.." (click!)

The idea is that every day for a month I'm sending in a picture of my outfit for them to post at Vogue.co.uk - You'll likely see that we models don't always walk around all fashioned out in haute couture. In fact, half the time you'll probably see I'm just stealing James paint covered shirts! Anyway, keep checking back with Vogue, it may not be the guy who took a picture of himself every day for 6 years but I hope its a somewhat entertaining month. Oh and by the way: We've already had one guy criticizing my "photographer" for not using enough "fill-light" in these shots so umm, just like to point out that these pictures are being taken by James, on an iPhone... and not even the new iphone, so... yeah, you get what you get.

Last but not least I wanted to tell you that I've been asked to be the new face of Esprit's FW 2010 campaign! It officially comes out next month (August) but some of the shots are already circulating now so I'm posting a couple here...

This fall is going to be crazy by the way - lots of amazing things on the horizon, nearly all of which I'm sworn to secrecy on!! For now...

xoxo
COCO
P.S You might notice 2 new things on this blog. If you look at the column to your right you will see a link to my official Facebook page as well as my official Twitter. Add me!!!

ENGLAND

Something you might not know about James and I is that we're both English citizens. My dad is English, born in Coventry, so I recieved citizenship through him. James on the other hand was actually born and raised in Yorkshire (Northern England) until he was 12 and most of his family still lives there. This past week, we've both been back in the old country. James is working on a house here in London and I've been working a bit too. I actually shot over by Buckingham palace the other day which was interesting. At one point everyone was sure the Queen was coming out... but sadly no, no sign of her, not even the corgi's.

When I'm in London, I usually stay around Hyde Park but this time I'm staying in London's east end. I have to say, I really like it here! There are so many boutique vintage stores around and I love the street style I'm seeing everywhere. The kids around Hoxton and Shoreditch actually remind me of characters from the TV show, The Mighty Boosh, all future retro'd out. If you don't know what I'm talking about, I suggest you take 2 minutes out of your busy day to watch this classic Mighty Boosh clip. James and I have been inspired to randomly sing this song all week long:

Trust me, you'll get into it eventually.

The other night we were invited to Brown's 40th anniversary dinner. Browns is still owned and run by Mrs. Burstein, or Mrs. B as she is known - a classy lady if ever I saw one.  I was really interested to learn what a patron of fashion Browns has been and how, through the years, Mrs B. has championed the talents of John Galliano, Alexander McQueen and others very early in their careers.

At the dinner James was sat next to the beautiful Eva Herzigova who apparently gave him top secret travel advice for our honeymoon (which he still wont tell me!). Meanwhile on the other side, I got to chat with my pal Henry Holland about the good old days... aka, 2006. A funny story about Henry: I remember a time I was flying from London to New York, I came out of the washroom and nearly fell backwards when I saw a man with a neon pink shirt that had my name in giant letters printed on it!! I realized it was Henry right as he realized it was me staring back at him. Then came the awkward moment of whether or not we should acknowledge each other and that we were both riding in coach (oh the horror! The shame!!). Henry broke the ice and asked me why I was back there and I could only respond with "well, whats your reason?!".  Anyway, I joined him and we sat next to each other, chatting it up the rest of the flight home. He did zip his jacket up after he realized what he was wearing though...

On Saturday both James and I had the day off. Since it was so nice out we decided to take a long leisurely walk over towards the London Eye. Along the way we found the Globe Theatre which is a reconstruction of the exact theatre Shakespeare's company would perform in 400 years ago right along the River Thames. We bought tickets to Henry VIII but the only ones we could get were standing, which we did... for hours!! Still, its all part of the experience, or so we are told. After that, we continued on to the London Eye but the line up was massive so we opted not to go. 

After a photo opportunity at Big Ben (Tim Walker style camera trickery!), we found a park where this cute little squirrel started to follow us. James stopped and beckoned the squirrel over and to our surprise all of a sudden he ran straight up James' leg!!  James took it like a man... well maybe... he might have squirmed just a little bit. Of course, I need to document everything so we tried to make the squirrel do it again but he wasn't having it. Now, he seemed to want to chase after me!! A little side note: squirrels terrify me. A friend of mine was attacked by one once (its true!) and since then I'm always on edge around them. I can shoot with all sorts of animals on set, but a wild squirrel is a bit of a nightmare for me. Anyways back to the subject. I realized the squirrel wanted to see what was in my bag, so I handed the bag off to James. In the end the squirrel jumped back onto James leg and we got our picture of Mr. Squirrel and James chatting it up. After that a pigeon walked over to James and then a duck?!  Now James thinks he's the animal whisperer and that all animals of the land will flock to him...

We have one more week here in England and then its off to Toronto for 'Strut For a Cure.' Then of course there is the wedding, just 22 days away! Exciting times!!

XOXO
COCO

Walking in the clouds

One event I look forward to every year is the Costume Institute Gala at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Absolutely everyone you can imagine is there, all dressed up like they're attending a high society event straight out of a Jane Austen novel. I suppose you could think of it as the one big New York event that kicks off the summer social calendar. This year Anna Wintour and Oprah Winfrey hosted the annual event, opening the special exhibit called "American Woman: Fashioning a National Identity" and I was privileged to attend.

I'm sure countless hours of preparation go into this event but for me the prep work started two weeks earlier at Zac Posens atelier. Before I got there Zac had brought a few dresses out of his archive for me to look at. Every one of them was a masterpiece in its own right but by the time I tried on his "cloud dress" my choice was obvious. The cloud dress, you might remember, is from his spring 2008 collection (vintage!) and is a spectacular gown with an incredible 8 foot train. Apparently it had never been worn on a red carpet before either. It looked perfect but the question on everyone's mind was: how on earth was I going to walk through a room of 600 people with this massive train behind me and not rip the dress or worse!? James had this crazy yet fabulous idea to take my train, flip it up and use it as a cape. It was very 1920's avant garde and when we tried it, we all loved the idea. Zac's team went right to work attaching a button and loop hole and in no time my cape was ready to go.

The day of the Gala I was getting ready to leave my house when I realized the dress was a little heavier than I remembered. I turned around a found my dog Peekaboo curled up and taking a nap on the train. Apparently she was quite content being dragged around the house. After ending Peekaboo's free ride I flipped up my cape, got into the car and headed uptown to the Met. I was so nervous the whole way. The red carpet at the Met Gala can be brutal - with celebrities like Oprah and Justin Timberlake on hand, how can a girl expect to get any attention? James assured me I looked great and told me I had nothing to worry about. As it turned out he was right, the photographers loved the dress and I could barely see straight after the barrage of flashing lights that hit me on the red carpet.

Once inside the Met you get your table number and then ascend another very long staircase up into the cocktail room. This staircase isnt lined with photographers though, its lined with male and female attendants in tuxedo's and ball gowns every step of the way. Every single attendant has their eyes on you, all silent. Its a very eerie experience, climbing all those steps and then finding at the very top Anna Wintour and Oprah Winfrey are stood waiting to shake your hand.

Once I was inside the cocktail hall I decided it most practical to keep myself and my dress in one spot. I bet Caroline and Hilary both thought me a snob at first, since I wasn't running over to talk to them, but once they realized my predicament they kindly came and chatted with James and I for the better part of the cocktail hour. At diner I had to ask for the gentleman's forgiveness before sitting and tried very hard to push as much material under the table as I could.

There were a number of other beautiful dresses at the Met ball but I'll never forget wearing my cloud dress. I'm so thankful to Zac and his team for making me feel like a true Cinderella story.

XOXO COCO

James & I at Flare

A few months ago I took James to my Flare magazine shoot up in Toronto. There he was sat all cozy, reading his book and sipping on his coffee, thinking he was just going to take it easy while I worked all day!! Well word spread on set that James was an artist with a background in murals and so pretty early in the day he was recruited to draw on the giant chalk board behind me. By lunchtime he was covered in chalk dust and still drawing up a storm. All together I think he drew at least 8 unique backdrops that corresponded to the outfits I was wearing. We had such a great time working together! It was interesting to see how he was inspired by the clothing to draw the backdrop, and I in turn was inspired by the backdrop to model the clothing! Here's a behind the scenes video from Flare, but go buy your copy now for all the pictures!

XOXO COCO

P.S Just a tip on playing this video - If it wont work for you, set it to FULL SCREEN then press play.

Blogging from the sky!!

Well people, I'm on a plane on my way to LA. Yes, that's right, I'm on wifi at 12,000 feet!! How amazing is technology these days?! The only thing that could make this any cooler would be if I were blogging from my iSlate which Apple may or may not announce actually EXISTS at their media event tomorrow. Have you guys seen this video !?! I want! I want!!!

Anyway, I land in LA in a few hours and I have a busy few days filled with Grammy rehearsal's and clothing line meetings. I can't believe it but the 52nd annual Grammys are coming up in just 5 days now. Are you ready? I am... sort of. The last few days I've been thinking a lot about what going to ask the attendees. Do you have ideas? Send me your suggestions if you do and I'll gladly read over them. Anyway, even if I'm not 100% ready, my dress is and its looking great if I may say so myself!!  I'll be posting a video about the "making of" very soon... well, just as soon as I get a free minute to get on iMovie. (Yep. Another Apple plug... you're welcome Steve Jobs!!)

One thing I'd like to ask: If you're not following me on Twitter make sure you do by the night of the Grammys! In between corresponding for ET Canada I shall be twittering my thoughts about what everyone is wearing on the red carpet. You'll not be able to find any more up-to-the-minute  red carpet Grammy information than by following my streaming updates on twitter.com/oh_so_coco - BELIEVE THAT!!!

Before I go I'll leave you with a picture of James and I enjoying the wonders of modern life. At this very second he's on his plane from NY to LA and I'm on my plane from Miami to LA - Yes, we're video chatting up in the sky - Could we be any more futuristic?!

XOXO COCO

P.S please watch this video for no other reason than, its hilarious.

Stuck in Toronto Airport

Last week there was a huge snow storm that covered much of the east coast in a foot or two of snow. I was in Toronto airport at the time waiting on a flight home which ended up being delayed, delayed and then... delayed. If you follow me on twitter you might have seen my picture update. When James and I realized we were going to be stuck there for a few hours we decided to stretch our legs out on the floor and picked a space away from everyone else. Unfortunately this  was the spot a family of rambunctious kids also picked and we ended up being harrassed by little kids the whole time. James who was, shall we say, a little cranky (and running on 3 hours sleep) decided to set up a fortress of bags and coats to defend our turf from any invading little people. This really didn't help a whole lot, the kids just ended up bashing into it and we gave up on resting entirely.

Anyway, in our sleepless frustration James and I decided made a little parody video of that little boy David, after his trip to the dentists.  You might have seen it on Youtube? We thought it was funny at the time but perhaps we were just delirious??

A Night At The Ballet

James & Coco

A Night At The Opera

If you've been following me on Twitter (I've been faithfully tweeting every day people!!) you might have noticed that this week James and I had the opportunity to go see the opera Il Tritico at New York's Lincoln Center!!! It could be because of my early training as a dancer,  but since I was little I've always had a big appreciation the performing arts and so to see Il Trittico was a special treat for me.

Lincoln Center is a gorgeous theater and we had our own little box with a great view. We tried to take a few pictures before the opera began but no sooner had we taken out our camera to take this picture - an usher appeared out of no where insisting that we refrain from photography. We obliged, the lights dimmed, the curtain rose and we saw the set of the first act...

It was stunning! The first act takes place on a barge on the river Seine and the forced perspective was so believable that I found myself wondering where the set ended and where the backdrop began. The Opera itself is very dark and brooding, and ends on a very depressing note. The second act is quite different. It is set in the square of a convent and deals with a nuns guilt over past sins..Unlike the first act, the second is quite uplifting in the end. Once again the set was amazing!! The whole floor was on an angle so that everyone could see into the convent. 

At one point a donkey came on stage!? James initially insisted that it was just two midgets in a donkey suit but it turns out it was indeed a real live donkey! This led to a whispered conversation between James and I about this donkey: where did he come from,  and where does he live?? Is he like the Phantom of the Opera, living in the dungeon cellars below Lincoln Center?? And what must be going through the donkeys mind as it goes on stage?!?  Here he is,  walking onto a sloping stage with these weird optical illusion-like props and structures that surely must play tricks on his little donkey brain... and all the while 50 people in nun costume are around him, singing in these loud operatic voices. Not to mention the hundreds of people in the audience watching  on. That donkey must be thinking "what the...?!?". - Anyway, we digress...

The third act is the most popular; a comedy full of greed and conniving. It is set indoors, in a giant old bedroom in Florence and features the soprano aria,  "O mio babino caro" (Oh, my dear papa - see youtube!!), which you might have heard in a number of movies. Its also officially known as "the song that always makes me cry" by the way!! Anyway, between tears I did managed to sneak a picture using my iPhone and amazingly the ninja-usher didn't magically appear to reprimand me!

All in all we had a lovely time. I'd highly recommend seeing Il Trittico to anyone living in New York or visiting!!

XOXO

COCO

P.S By the way, I want to let you know that I've been working very hard on my new line these last few weeks!! We think we have a name and I now have a lot of initial designs and ideas sketched out. That's all I'm allowed to say at the moment but expect a detalied update very soon!!!

One week in New York

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Here I am, back at my second home, the airport. This time I'm headed to Brazil for 48 hours (which includes 20 hours of flying there and back!!) I'm sad to be leaving so soon, though I did have a nice week back in New York...

On Monday I got to catch up with friends at the CFDA Fashion Fund Awards dinner which turned out to be a lovely evening. Even for us models, its fun to see what people are wearing to events like that. As soon as I got there Miss Karlie Kloss came over to chat. She's such a sweetheart and was definitely the "lady in red" wearing a simple but chic Calvin Klien shift. My fellow Elite girl, Poppy Delevigne (how cute is that name?) looked so sweet with her floral print dress and blazer combination and I loved Jessica Stam's outfit - she floated in wearing all white, looking like the angelic counterpart to my black on black DVF ensemble. Chanel Iman was looking very rocker chic in her OTK boots. She showed me her giant three pronged ring which was no joke - that ring demanded respect!! (and possibly doubled as a weapon). Chanel's boyfriend asked my boyfriend James who it was that had styled him that night and James proudly announced that he had styled himself! Apparently he's been dressing himself for 20+ years now!! (Though I seem to remember telling him to buy the jacket he was wearing a few months back).

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I got to catch up with Behati who was positively glowing, she told me all about the grueling preparation a Victoria's Secret model must go through ready for the big show (which was actually filmed last night). At the dinner Behati and her date sat at one end of a long table with James and I sat 20 feet away at the other end. Though we couldn't talk we shared winks and mimed pointless commentary back and forth as we were treated to what we all agreed was probably the best chicken pot pie anyone had ever tasted. Of course, none of the fashion people at the table dared to be the one to finish the whole thing - except of course James, who unabashedly did so. I was jealous.

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The key note speech by Alber Elbaz was quite hilarious and the presenters, Anna Wintour, Diane Von Furstenberg and Nicole Kidman looked as beautiful as ever. The winner of the $200,000 fashion fund was Sophie Theallet. No doubt she will be a designer to watch for in the years to come. Last years winner was Alexander Wang and his career sky rocketed since.

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Anyway, the rest of the week I was working with one of my favorite photographers, Arthur Elgort. I remember one of my first shoots for American Vogue was with Arthur and Grace up in Maine. We were shooting with these grisly fishermen who all looked vaguely like the guy from the Gortons Fish Sticks commercials. I had such a lovely time, I was only 16 or so and the local kids wanted to take me out bowling one evening. I remember asking Grace and Arthur for permission to go and like they were my fashion Mom and Dad I remember having them excitedly tell me "Go Coco! Have fun!!". I've worked with Arthur quite a few times since then and we always do have a great time. He has this amazing penthouse studio he works out of in Soho. When you're up there you're a little overwhelmed by the gorgeous light streaming into such a gigantic space. Its a little like being in an ethereal Noah's Ark.

Well that's all for now.... When I get back to the states in a few days I'll be making that big announcement I spoke of earlier, so please do check back here.

Before I go, I should mention that Ive been asked by a few people what I think to Miss J's recent comments about my walk. As you might know, Miss J is a runway coach and judge on America's Next Top Model. In a recent interview with the New York Times he described my walk as looking like my "nose is always running". I'm not sure what that means, but if it keeps me in demand then I hope I never cure this cold!

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Sniff sniff...

xoxo

COCO

This and That...

Hello everyone, sorry its been a little while since my last post. After another work trip to London I'm back in Vancouver right now for a special event called Faces West. Faces West is is a yearly conference my mother agent Charles Stuart hosts where scouts from around the world come to find aspiring models for their individual markets. Faces West is actually where I was discovered many moons ago... so for the next few days I'll be here, speaking to a few hundred girls about my experiences modeling.

Sunday night I fly back to New York ready for the CFDA award dinner! For those of you unfamiliar, the CFDA (Council of Fashion Designers of America) is an association of America's foremost fashion designers and on Monday night they honor this years new designers. I think its great how the industry supports and nurtures its young and this year I'm allowed to bring my own date! So I'm taking my boyfriend, James Conran. I know I've mentioned him before (and some of you may have seen him on ET Canada) but I just thought I would introduce you all to him properly. James is a very sweet man I've been friends with for the last two years. We became good friends when he did the interior design and painting of my NY apartment but it wasn't until late this summer that we started dating and we've been in relationship bliss ever since!!

James lives just a few blocks from me in New York, so when I'm home I try to spend as much time as I can with him. Oh and  James has a new website up, have a look at what he does!

www.jamesconran.com

Well that's all for now. Please keep checking back here, I'm going to be making a very special request and announcement soon and will be needing your help!!!

XOXO
COCO

Catching Up!!

Hello people!!!

September, as expected, was a complete blur. After getting back from Costa Rica I had only a few days before the first ever "Fashions Night Out" in NY - then there was New York fashion week - then London followed by a quick trip to see my boyfriends James' hometown and then a trip back across the Atlantic for Paris fashion week! Still, I had a good time and it was great to catch up with everyone.

It's now October and I'm back here in New York enjoying the fall weather, the crisp air and sunshine remind me of Vancouver. The other day I was lucky enough to be sent a custom long board from the good people at Losee Longboards. I was a bit nervous to take it down busy city streets but I did like the idea of being a little more independently mobile here in the city so I was inspired to get a scooter! Its kind of like the one I had as a kid except this one has bigger wheels and goes super fast! I even convinced James to get one too and we ride them everywhere now... the other day we rode them all the way to the southern tip of Manhattan! Here's a few pictures:



Yes, we do realize we probably look like over-sized children but we're having fun anyway. Say hello if you see me float by!

More to come from me soon...

XOXO
COCO