The Many Sides of Rocio Zobel

Despite a long shoot day, Rocio lights up when the conversation turns to her nephews and nieces. “I have nine,” she says. “They’re the best things in the world.” In days when the whole bunch would converge at home in the Philippines, the kids would eventually pile into their aunt’s room, where they would huddle up in her bed, with some mattresses on the floor, for the occasional movie night. Rocio recalls her moments with them, many of which are also documented on her social media pages, and jests that there is nothing “glamorous” about being with kids. “They’re messy,” she jokes with fondness, “and loud!”

Even when she was miles away, the ties stayed tight. In New York City–where not too long ago, Rocio spent her college years studying fashion design and photography at the prestigious Parsons School of Design–she recounts a recent text message from her niece: “[She wrote,] ‘Hi, I’m going to a party on Friday night. Can I go to your closet and borrow some clothes?’” From there, her young aunt’s collection became fair game, part and parcel of being the coolest tita in the block.

Her closeness with her nephews and nieces was one side of the dynamic within their large but tight-knit family. Rocio is the youngest of five, but between her and them is a sizeable age gap; however, that didn’t deter her from her relationships with each. “All my siblings are like my parents,” she describes. One of her sisters, she recalls, was her emergency contact during her school days. Emails usually meant for their parents would be sent straight to her inbox. “Everyone asks, ‘Are you close?’ I’m super close to them,” she says. “I think all of my siblings and I are so different that we each have something that we go to each other for, and we respect each other for. And I don’t think that’s dictated by age.”

The distance–both in age and location–seems like a matter of mere concepts, too. Her siblings would often visit at home, and in their halls, there is an almost-always present energy that comes with a big family. “I love it that when I’m bored in my bedroom, I can walk downstairs and I know there are people over,” she says. “There’s just always something going on.”

A slow and perfect weekend to her paints the same image when she describes it: Rocio, with her family at their farm in picturesque Calatagan, Batangas, where days would be spent swimming in the morning, with kids and cousins frolicking about, and where they would share every single meal. “[I feel most authentic] when I’m with my family,” she says. “My parents, my siblings, all my nieces, nephews. All my best friends are my cousins. That’s when I’m most myself.”

At home, the energy remains, added on with their loving brood of pets. One, in particular, tags along with her at the shoot–her French bulldog named Biggie, which, Rocio says, is “something small” bringing her joy. They’re all snippets of her life often glossed through the lens of her online pages, which her followers have become attuned to. And while her audience is growing, it was never one outlined from the start. “At the beginning, I was taking photos with my friends, playing with color. Editing–that was fun,” she says, pointing out her Instagram page. 

“But I mean it when I say social media was never something I thought about,” she adds. “It’s really a fun place for me to play. You know what I mean? It’s really a creative output. It was never intentional. And until now, I really try to keep it that way.”

Her presence on social media has catapulted her into the consciousness of online onlookers, who have come to know her through timelines and For You pages. With the spotlight came the ongoing buzz of her eye-catching styling choices and the titles by way of headlines–including “heiress” and “it girl.” 

“I think of it as playful,” she responds, regarding her thoughts on the monikers, saying that she doesn’t consider them as “actual labels” that define her in totality. Some comments even question her Filipino lineage, which she points out. “If you speak to a friend of mine who’s not Filipino, they will be like, ‘[Rocio] is the most patriotic person we know,’” she says, narrating moments abroad when she and her friends would visit each other’s houses to eat Filipino food.

“I grew up here. I speak Filipino. I have Filipino blood. [The comments] are like, ‘No, she's not.’ And I’m like, ‘But I am,’” Rocio recounts. “All the other things, it doesn’t bother me, ‘cause it’s just someone behind a computer, typing it.”

While they may be strangers who have been piqued by the presence of Rocio, her story is grounded by those who really know her, which, by the looks of it, is still unfolding.

Before the it girl label and her current profession as a stylist, the story starts with younger Rocio, rifling through her mother’s closet. “I grew up with my mom and her friends picking outfits,” she recalls. “That was my creative space.”

The creative space formed into a full-fledged interest in fashion, which she would later pursue in college, alongside photography. Her time at Parsons was marked with classes considerably larger than those in her boarding school in London, but beyond the curriculum, Rocio considers the environment and students as those that naturally motivated her. “The city is amazing, and all your classmates are the people you draw inspiration from,” she says. “Just style-wise, everyone has their personality. In a place like that where everyone’s so confident, it’s so interesting to see.”

After going back and forth from Manila to a handful of cities across the globe–from her familial roots in Spain, to schools in London and New York–Rocio’s visual and style language was also formed by the differing locales. Often, hometowns can become a bubble in creativity. Widening her horizons has sharpened it in many ways, through the leeway of experimentation and new inspiration that came with life abroad.

The Philippines, however, is still a formidable foundation for her, where she gleans creativity from even mere sceneries like tropical landscapes. “I’m an adventurer. I love drawing inspiration from places that I’m going to,” she says. “I’ve traveled to many places, but I always tell people, ‘You can’t even match what we have back home.’” At many points, Rocio invited her friends to see these landscapes in the flesh, and, as figured, they’re left with awe-struck reactions.

Now, as a working stylist, Rocio still shifts between continents, where creative inspiration pulsates on either end. “Living in two different places and being able to see a lot of the world gives you such different perspectives,” she muses. “I’m really lucky that I’m exposed to a lot of different people.”

One aspect of her job that she’s honing is the ability to adapt, especially with her own clients in the mix. “At the beginning, you don't necessarily think to tailor your taste,” she says. “And through time, I’ve learned to do so. [One of the challenges] is having differences in taste. It really depends on the client–some don’t care, some are opinionated. What I’ve learned is that everything is case by case, because at the beginning, I treated everything the same, where I was like, ‘No, this is how it’s done.’”

And with learning how to adapt came more sources of influence. Rocio’s creative process often begins with a mood board, that even every “minor thing in her life” has had one. Like her followers, she pulls her biggest inspirations from the people she sees on her own For You page, because they’re “realistic,” yet “everyone has their own quirk.” Her creativity and motivation are constantly evolving, much like Rocio herself. “I’m super young,” she says with sure, subtle conviction. “And I’m just learning.”

Perspectives change with growth, but some of her principles have foundations that still shape her. As with her career, they’re grounded at home. Rocio recounts how her ideals of beauty started with her mother as well. “My mom was always really good at enhancing your own beauty,” she says. Among the points was height, and Rocio, standing at a petite five feet, would often receive a sweet anecdote from Maricris. “My mom would always be like, ‘The best things come in small packages.’ She was very good at almost reverting your insecurities.”

Growing up with her mom and sisters, beauty was skewed natural, merely enhancing what they already had. The mantra carried on to Rocio as a young adult, whose daily routine consists of two-step skincare (“Just face wash and moisturizer,” she says), copious amounts of sleep, and barely any makeup. However, while her connection with Belo has long been formed, an infection in her gut and a breakout bout strengthened their bond. “I didn’t know what to do,” she says. “My mom was like, ‘You should go to Tita Vicki.’”

Her partnership with Belo, according to Rocio, was a natural fit, as she would regularly text them for appointments even outside of campaigns. “That’s why it’s actually a really authentic and genuine collaboration, because I actually use their products and all their machines.” 

Among them is the range of treatments from Belo Neurocosmetics, like the NeuroGlow Facial, which eventually helped clear her breakouts. “I believe in their stuff. When they talked to me about it at the beginning, I wasn’t so sure about my face being on a billboard–I’m shyer on that end!” she adds. “But I was like, ‘If I’m ever gonna do it, this is the people I would do it with.’”

Like the partnership, Rocio is walking the path paved with her own passions, yet shaped by her foundations. She, too, lights up with an anticipation when discussing her upcoming passion project–her very own resortwear line called Cala, which is named after her family’s haven in Calatagan. From the materials to how the pieces are made, Rocio alludes that they’re meant to recall the homegrown.

“I want it to be an international Filipino brand,” she says. “It’s being able to share the excitement of being Filipino and what a beautiful country we’re from. It’s a piece of me.”

There are, indeed, many facets to Rocio Zobel. Some are for the world to witness, while others stay out of view. Tied together, there’s a common thread: every side of her carries her home and her roots, even as she continues to define herself.