Babs + Coco + Barker = Genius.

I stumbled across this while poking aroung my FAVORITE supermodel, Coco Rocha's, blog. Now, Coco was participating in a project by Nigel Barker of America's Next Top Model fame. Nigel is a famed photographer who decided to put together a look-book called "RAW," which depicts simple images of people being completely natural and well...raw. Coco was asked to be a part of this, and OF COURSE she had her own twist. She models fiercely....whilst lip-syncing to her Barbra Streisand playlist...especially the song "Don't Rain on my Parade." The photos are genius and so is this backstage video of the blessed event. Watch it by clicking the below link and you won't be able to get tha tsong out of your head....but totally worth it:

yfrog Video : http://yfrog.com/3uj75z - Uploaded by cocorocha

Let's Talk Some Coco!

IT'S COCO TIME!

Let me take a minute to introduce some very important to me. Her name is Coco Rocha and she is the best supermodel to inhabit this earth. Move over Tyra, Naomi, and Heidi...this girl can WORK! Now, for my most recent painting, I took inspiration from her Italian Vogue Editorial entitled "Indie Coco" where the theme was just that: Indie. Very "low budget," even though it's not...because it's Vogue. Here's the link to her blog with the photos: http://oh-so-coco.tumblr.com/post/2519464944/indie-coco-elle-italia-january-2010-photo#disqus_thread 

Also, Coco is extremely famous for were signature walk. Her sassy and high fashion strut has made her the supermodel she is today. But of course, who could forget what fashion show put her on the map. Jean Paul Gaultier. Fall/Winter Show. 2007. Coco has a background in Irish Step dance, and had won competitions as a child...so hearing this, Gaultier had Coco open the show step-dancing down the runway. It was the epitome of FIERCE.
The video below is fantastic and shows that exact moment:

 

Not only is Coco a tremendous poser and model, she is a fantastic person with a personality and heart as big as possible. Coco has become an advocate of  talking to girls about a healthy body image. Especially in the fashion industry, the question of being healthy AND skinny is one that is very taboo. Rocha declares that models should be healthy and that anorexia is not the way to be thin. Currently Coco, as well as all the other models at Elite Model Management, are going to Haiti to help out rebuilding houses and the culture...fiercely of course. She has a campaign called "Letters to Haiti," where you can send a letter of hope and guidance to the Elite Models to bring to the people of Haiti. Hand-written letters are better...but since they leave in a couple days, emails are the best way now. If you are interested and want to email a letter the people if Haiti, please email your letter to letterstohaiti@gmail.com to help bring hope to the people of Haiti.

Below is my painting as an homage to my dearest Coco. She's truly an inspiration inside and out.