Modeling In 2002, agent Charles Stuart approached Rocha at an Irish dance competition and asked her if she would consider modeling for him. At that point, she had never thought of modeling before. She returned to New York and signed an exclusive contract with photographer
Steven Meisel, who created a list of clients she could and could not work with. Of the time, Rocha has stated that, "the industry started to hear about this list, so when I finally got to Paris, big designers were trying to get their name on the list. It was, now looking back, one of the craziest times in my career." She became known as one of the first models to harness social media, and earned the nickname the “Queen of Pose” for her skill and creativity in posing. Meisel shot an editorial of Rocha with
Gemma Ward and
Amanda Moore, which appeared on the cover of the April 2006 issue of
Vogue Italia. The following March, she walked the Fall/Winter 2006 ready-to-wear show at
New York Fashion Week, most notably for
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". During
Paris Fashion Week, she walked for designers like
Stella McCartney,
Shiatzy Chen,
Christian Lacroix,
Emanuel Ungaro, and
Marc Jacobs. A year later, in February 2007, Rocha opened
Jean Paul Gaultier's Scottish Highlands-inspired Fall/Winter 2007 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". Rocha was featured on the May 2007 issue of US
Vogue with models
Doutzen Kroes,
Caroline Trentini,
Raquel Zimmermann,
Sasha Pivovarova,
Agyness Deyn,
Jessica Stam,
Hilary Rhoda,
Chanel Iman, and
Lily Donaldson as the "World's Next Top Models." In 2008, casting agent James Scully said of Rocha: Rocha has been on the cover of many top fashion magazines including American, Brazilian, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Thai, Mexican and Spanish
Vogue, Russian, Australian, Singaporean, Chinese, Vietnamese, Serbian, Thai, Brazilian and Mexican ''
Harper's Bazaar, Flare, Fashion, Numéro, L'Officiel, W, Dazed & Confused, i-D and 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,
Rimmel,
Hermès,
Fendi,
Longchamp,
Balmain,
Christian Siriano,
L'Oréal Paris,
Nine West,
Chaumet,
Akris,
Banana Republic,
H&M,
Area,
Donna Karan,
Diesel,
Roberto Bravo and many more. 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. 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 Coca-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 Rocha 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 new york in which she was featured tap-dancing. In September 2014, Rocha walked for designers including Zac Posen at Spring New York Fashion Week, her tenth year working with the designer. In November, Rocha again appeared on the cover of
Flare, and became the magazine's first guest editor.
Film and television appearances Rocha appeared in
The September Issue, a 2009 fly-on-the-wall documentary film about American
Vogue magazine. Rocha appeared as a guest judge on episode 8 of
season 2 of the reality competition show
Project Runway Canada in 2009, where the challenge for contestants was to create a dress for Rocha to wear. She hosted the 2010
MTV Video Music Awards white carpet. On October 19, 2011, she appeared as a guest judge on ''
America's Next Top Model, where host and head-judge, Tyra Banks, referred to her as "The Queen of Posing". The short documentary Letters to Haiti'' featured Rocha and fellow model
Behati Prinsloo delivering supplies to
Haiti after the
2010 earthquake; it was shot by Rocha's husband, James Conran. The movie premiered in Toronto in October and New York in December 2011. In 2013, Rocha was one of three coach/judges (along with
Karolina Kurkova and
Naomi Campbell) on the first season of the
Oxygen network reality show
The Face. She did not return for the second season. In 2015, in the 9th cycle of ''
Australia's Next Top Model'', Rocha appeared in the series' ninth episode, where the final four traveled to New York. She also appeared in
season 14 of
Project Runway as a guest judge on a challenge where the designers took their inspiration from
Finding Neverland on Broadway. In 2022, in episode 12 of
season 19 of
Project Runway, the designers made an evening dress for Rocha to model and be photographed wearing (in lieu of a runway presentation). She also served as guest judge. That same year, she also appeared as a guest judge in episode 7 of
season 17 of ''
Germany's Next Top Model'', a role she reprised in
season 18 a year later. In 2025, Rocha was named as the host of the Project Runway Canada reboot on Crave.
Writing and online presence Rocha wrote the
foreword to Canadian fashion reporter
Jeanne Beker's book
Struttin It!, about the modeling profession. In March 2011, she announced the launch of her new website In April 2012, Rocha became the first high-fashion model to have more than one-million followers on the
social media platform
Google+. In 2014, Rocha released the book
Study of Pose with photographer
Steven Sebring, an encyclopedia of 1000 poses modeled by her, including those from her influences like
Botticelli's Venus and
Jessica Rabbit.
Other ventures In June 2016, Rocha took a management and ownership stake at Nomad Mgmt Modeling Agency and served as the brand director for the agency. In her new role, she works with models to help them develop strategies for their career. Its roster includes
Soo Joo Park,
Jourdana Phillips, and Rocha herself. She also helped launch the agency's first office outside of the US, in
Vietnam, in addition to opening a
Los Angeles booking agency. Rocha privately trained models entering the fashion industry, such as
Kendall and
Kylie Jenner, through one-on-one consultations, from which she developed the idea for a model camp. In July 2018, she opened the Coco Rocha Model Camp in a renovated 8,000 square foot property that can house about a dozen model students at a time. The program is attended in four-day sessions, instructing students on the modeling industry, and Rocha has also taught the program at
Harvard University. Rocha, along with her husband, is an investor and advisor for two
web3 platforms, P00ls and FLYP. Both platforms connect creators of art and fashion with their fans through
social tokens, a type of
cryptocurrency used to monetize a brand. ==Activism and charitable work==