A model life

Slouching in at a not-unimpressive five-foot-nine-and-a-half inches, Charo Ronquillo is a tall drink of water. With her latte-colored skin, long black locks and slender frame, she is everything you imagine a supermodel would be.

She shows up to the YStyle shoot at club Government a little early, before anyone from the crew even makes it to location. Fresh-faced and dressed in a knee-length floral frock that flatters her figure, Charo is like every other girl you know — sweet, soft-spoken, a little prone to shyness with a voice that can hardly be heard over the din of a photo shoot set — except that this girl boasts a modeling resume that would make most senior models green with envy.  

The 20-year-old, after bagging the Ford Super Model competition over two years ago in New York, went from one triumph to another. Making the move to New York, walking in more than a few shows at NY Fashion Week, and grabbing some face time on not one, but two, Marie Claire fashion editorials are part and parcel of Charo’s success story.

The Cabuyao, Laguna native, who was discovered in a Robinsons mall just a few years ago, could be the modern Cinderella. When she’s not walking around the city with Teen Vogue cover girl and fellow model Chanel Iman, she’s hanging out at her Manhattan apartment, which, during the busier season, she shares with up to seven models at a time. She’s worked with famed photographer Bruce Weber who shot her for a Ralph Lauren American Living ad — a comment that made model-turned-photographer Joan Bitagcol, who’s helming the shoot, whistle in admiration — and considers Steven Meisel an acquaintance. “Well, I met him once,” she says, correcting my — and everyone else’s assumption — that they were instant BFFs. What can I say? A girl can dream. “Take a photo of him! With him!” Joan Bitagcol says, oddly giggly as she realizes that this unfledged lass has been in the same room as — and worked with —  the people often idolized in the pages of Vogue.

Not everything is peaches and cream for the statuesque model. She spent most of fashion week schlepping from a fitting to a show to a casting, one after the other nonstop, during most of the season. “It was exhausting,” she murmurs as L’Oreal Paris chief makeup artist Jigs Mayuga paints her eyelid a smoky black. After making her debut on the Lacoste, Zero Maria Cornejo, Nanette Lepore, and Lela Rose runways, she turns up the following season on cult fave Tory Burch’s show, and makes an appearance on the Lamb by Gwen Stefani, Kenneth Cole, BCBG, Sisley and Benetton’s catwalks. But modeling isn’t without its perks. Charo’s gotten tons of swag from the likes of MAC, which she also posed for, and from labels like Tory Burch.

After a stint modeling for Chloe Dao of Project Runway season 2, she honed her modeling chops on the pages of Teen Vogue, Marie Claire, Spanish Vogue and Glamour. Christened the “Asian Kate Moss” — seriously, it says so on her Wikipedia page — the lithe stunner is getting her groove on for another series of shows this coming September for fall/winter fashion week in New York. In the meantime, she’s on vacation in Manila, catching up with her family, and, oh you know, headlining Philippine Fashion Week. Just another day for the Filipina supermodel.