The Chameleon in Charo

Hand her an African-inspired belt to accentuate her dress and Charo Ronquillo, 18, will give a roaring expression. Ask her to wear a black shirt with tie and her mien is transfixed to a seemingly far away land with oblivion clearly written on her face. Yes, this supermodel bases her emotion for her shoot or show on the clothes she is asked to wear. Her face can run a gamut of expressions – the very reason why she’s now the toast in whatever runway she sets her foot into.

At the early age of 17 – when she was named second runner-up at the 2005 Supermodel of the World in New York – Charo has experienced what glitz and glamour is all about. Right away, she was booked to do runway shows in New York Olympic Fashion Week for Fall/Winter, sashaying the ramp while wearing Lacoste, Zero Maria Cornejo, Tory Burch, Chloe Dao (for Project Runway second season winner), Nanette Lepore and Lela Rose. Her title also comes with a whopping $100,000 worth of modeling contract.

To say that Charo – who also shot a recent editorial for TelevisA wearing Benetton and Sisley – is the hottest property of CalCarrie’s International Models Philippines, the modeling agency that handles her, is highlighting the obvious. After all, this is the first time after 25 years that a Filipina coveted a place at the Ford Model’s Supermodel of the World finals. Her first appearance in the Philippine fashion scene took place when she opened and closed the Philippine Fashion Week last summer. (Her pictorial with Allure is her first ever in the Philippines, Charo says.)

For a lady with a supermodel stature, Charo is acutely shy in person. Once on the runway or strutting before the camera, however, Charo – svelte at 110 lbs., lanky at her height of 5’9" and sexy enough for her 32-24-34.5 figure – effortlessly takes a secure and steady stance as she sheds off her shyness, allowing all and sundry to feel her presence with that Supermodel look on her face.

"I’m really shy," confesses Charo. "But I am working on overcoming it." Once in New York, she recalls, a forty-something American approached her, obviously ogling over her beauty. The guy asked for her name. Sensing that it was a pickup line, Charo walked fast to her place, a Ford Model’s apartment on Wall Street. Thank heavens for that time that she was being stalked, she was wearing her first and only Nine West black shoes, her first purchase on her own. With her sturdy shoes, Charo recalls with a smile, she was able to escape the guy without losing her poise

The only time she is not coy is when she’s with her family in Cabuyao, Laguna – the place where she honed her dream of hitting the ramp one day. As a child, she remembers looking at herself in the mirror, pouting her lips, imagining that, indeed, she was a model.

In 2004, she joined MTV Fashionista, a modeling search held in Robinsons Sta. Rosa in Laguna but failed to take home the plum. In the same year, she also tried joining Starstruck, hoping that she could start a career in GMA 7, but Lady Luck was still not on her side.

But for someone who believes that patience is a virtue, her chance to make it big came when she won Supermodel of the Philippines in 2005. From there, opportunities came knocking at her door, so to speak.

People perceive that Charo now lives a sheltered world, what with her title. Unknown to them, the supermodel still commutes – she takes the jeep or the FX as she shuttles herself from her aunt’s house in Mandaluyong to her place of engagement.

"It does not bother me to take public conveyance," she says, adding that she has grown accustomed to people who throw her a surprised stare or two.

"Even if I am shy, my father taught me to be comfortable in every situation," she says. When she mentioned her father, a slice of sadness pierced her face. "My father was murdered when I was eight." Her mother, who to this day still works in Bahrain, remarried to a Bahraini after the death of her father. From her, Charo learned how to take care of herself. "My family is my ultimate inspiration in life."

"I will continue to model until I can. But if the runway does not need me anymore, I’ll go back to school. Never mind if I am already old by that time," says Charo who stopped taking up Business Management at the University of Perpetual Help in Biñan, Laguna to give way to her modeling career.

Meanwhile, Charo is enjoying the world of modeling she is in now, the world she has always dreamed of even when she was still a little girl. In August, she will be back in the runways of New York to do the Spring/Summer Fashion Week. From there, Charo dreams of hitting the catwalk in Paris and London.

"I am armed with my dream of making it big. I can make it there," she concludes.

(E-mail the author at bumbaki@yahoo.com)