Early life
Rocha was born in Toronto, Ontario, and grew up in Richmond, British Columbia where she attended McRoberts Secondary School. Her family is in the airline industry. Her mother, Juanita, is a flight attendant and her father, Trevor Haines, is a ticket manager. She has one stepsister named Lynsey and one stepbrother named David (Chippy). She is of Irish, Russian, and Welsh descent.
Career
In 2002, agent Charles Stuart approached Rocha at an Irish dance competition and asked her if she would consider modelling for him. At that point, she had never thought of modelling before. When she did begin to model, her knowledge of fashion was limited. She eventually gained insight into the fashion world after her best friends crammed in fashion study sessions in between studying for exams.
Rocha started her professional career in 2004, signing with SUPREME in New York City. Two years later, Rocha met fashion photographer Steven Meisel. Soon, she was featured in an editorial with Gemma Ward and Amanda Moore. The editorial kickstarted her career, landing her the cover of the February 2006 issue of Vogue Italia. The week after, she walked the Spring/Summer 2006 New York City runways for a handful of designers, most notably Anna Sui and Marc Jacobs. Backstage at the Anna Sui show, Rocha met model Naomi Campbell, who held her hands and told her she was "her new favourite model". After the New York Fashion Week, she soon followed by taking part in the Paris Fashion Week as well. She walked for esteemed designers like Stella McCartney, Shiatzy Chen, Christian Lacroix, and Emanuel Ungaro, and was chosen by Marc Jacobs to open and close his Louis Vuitton show.
During Jean Paul Gaultier's Scottish Highlands-inspired Fall/Winter 2007 show in February 2007, Rocha opened the show by Irish-dancing down the runway; American Vogue dubbed this the "Coco Moment" and suggested it as a sign that the fashion industry misses the "supermodels".
In the May 2007, issue of Vogue (US), she was featured on the cover with fellow models Doutzen Kroes, Caroline Trentini, Raquel Zimmermann, Sasha Pivovarova, Agyness Deyn, Jessica Stam, Hilary Rhoda, Chanel Iman, and Lily Donaldson as the new crop of supermodels.In 2008 casting agent James Scully said of Rocha:
| “ | I will be the first to admit I did not believe the hype, but within five seconds of meeting her, I was totally charmed and understood why everyone loves her. Some people feel her look is specific, but I find her to be the most chameleon-like of all the girls.[9] | ” |
Rocha has been on the covers of many top fashion magazines including American, Brazilian, Italian, Japanese, Korean and Spanish Vogue, Flare, Fashion, Numéro, French, W, Harper's Bazaar,Dazed & Confused, i-D, Time Style & Design, among others.
Since her debut, Rocha has been the face of a variety of advertising campaigns including Versace, Americana Manhasset, Balenciaga, Chanel, D&G, Dior, Dolce & Gabbana, Lanvin, The Gap,Ports 1961, Tommy Hilfiger, Yves Saint Laurent, Esprit, Liz Claiborne, Calvin Klein, Nicole Farhi, DeBeers, Zac Posen, and Rimmel. She has appeared in editorials for American, Italian, Korean, French, Russian, Spanish, Brazilian, Japanese, Mexican, and British Vogue, British, Canadian, Czech, French, Quebec, and Italian Elle V, W, French, Korean, and Japanese Numéro, British and Japanese Dazed & Confused, i-D, Time Style & Design, and Ukrainian, Russian, Korean, and American Harpers Bazaar
In July 2010, Rocha appeared on the Vogue website daily for an entire month in a feature named "Today I'm Wearing". The following month, Rocha appeared on a billboard in Times Square for an ad campaign with Marie Claire magazine in partnership with Project Runway in which she modeled a contestant's winning design.
In spring of 2011, it was announced that Rocha would again be the face of a limited edition Karl Lagerfeld designed Coco Cola light campaign. She previously collaborated with Lagerfeld and Coca-Cola in 2010.
In July 2011, Coco Rocha became the first high fashion model to be photographed by the Lytro Camera, the camera takes what the company calls a “living picture,” meaning that it captures enough visual information in a single exposure so that the focus and zoom can be adjusted even after the picture is taken. Rocha said she reached out to the company after reading about them on the website Mashable.
In August 2011, it was announced that Coco would be the face of an upcoming Karl Lagerfeld for Macy's collection.
In mid-February 2012, Coco appeared in a commercial for White House Black Market created by New York advertising agency Ceft and Company in which she was featured tap-dancing.