What began as wide-eyed excitement at her first Gucci show in Milan has since settled into a steady rhythm. No longer the newcomer, Pia Wurtzbach-Jauncey moves through the fashion industry with a clear sense of self and style.

PHOTOGRAPHY Alexis Dave Co
CREATIVE DIRECTION Loris Pe&ntilde;a
STYLING Yanna Lopez
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Pia Wurtzbach-Jauncey joins our call from the backseat of Manila. There, she steals a quiet moment amid another busy day. Fresh off a whirlwind fashion month, she admits with a soft laugh that she&rsquo;s feeling slightly under the weather. It&rsquo;s hardly a surprise after weeks of runway shows, brand dinners, and intercontinental flights. Yet, as always, she shows up.&nbsp;
Showing up, after all, is something she has been doing since she was only 11.&nbsp;
The 35-year-old has had a long and storied career in the spotlight. She started out as a child actress and model, then, of course, as the pageant queen who won over the entire nation when she was crowned Miss Universe in 2015. Today, Pia is one of the most visible fashion influencers in the world. 
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It&rsquo;s easy to think of these achievements as serendipitous&mdash;the natural result of her beauty, charisma, and talent. But the truth is, it&rsquo;s really built on years of grit, planning, and intention.&nbsp;
&ldquo;You know how, in some movies, you see a timeline of your life, parang bilis siyang dadaan. And you think&mdash;whoa, that all happened,&rdquo; she says.&nbsp;
&ldquo;People might not see it. What they see is the end result&mdash;the photo of me at a show, on stage, or on a billboard. But they often don&rsquo;t know everything that happened to get to that point. I do. I have everything saved in my memory. Sometimes, I still go back to those milestones because you have to, so you don&rsquo;t get lost in the now and tomorrow. It&rsquo;s what keeps me going.&rdquo;

In her recap reel for 2025 Haute Couture Week, which has since amassed over 4.3 million views, Pia revealed that she spent a decade attending hundreds of commercial castings without booking a single one. Before her Miss Universe win, she had to compete three times as Ms. Cagayan de Oro in Binibining Pilipinas.&nbsp;
Pia admits that fashion was a world she also had to learn to navigate. And coming from pageantry, it was one she worked to belong in.&nbsp;
&ldquo;I was actually told that it&rsquo;s going to be very hard for me to get into fashion because of Miss Universe,&rdquo; she reveals. It was the first time she realized that her pageant past might hold her back. Used to the feeling of being an underdog, she welcomed the challenge.&nbsp;
&ldquo;It was actually a nice exercise, kasi dapat kang magpakumbaba, &lsquo;di ba? To accept that when you walk into a room or a show, people don&rsquo;t know who you are right away. I liked that process. It helped me learn how to talk to people, to pick on my other strengths, and to stop using [the Miss Universe] card I&rsquo;ve been using for so long.&rdquo;

Her entry into fashion began in 2023, when she was invited to her first Gucci show in Milan Fashion Week. At the time, the house was also ushering a new era under creative director Sabato De Sarno. It's exciting to anticipate how Pia's style will evolve with Gucci, especially that the brand is under the care of visionary, Demna Gvasalia.&nbsp;
&ldquo;When I attended my first few shows, I loved everything,&rdquo; she recalls. &ldquo;There wasn&rsquo;t any show or any outfit that I did not like. I was very, very excited.&rdquo;&nbsp;
Since then, she&rsquo;s barely paused&mdash;attending fashion month twice a year, every year. Until this day, each time she attends a show or goes to a fitting, she says she still gets the same level of kilig.&nbsp;
&ldquo;There were moments in the past where I asked, &ldquo;Bagay ba ako dito?&rdquo; Pia admits. &ldquo;Because I don&rsquo;t come from luxury. I wasn&rsquo;t born rich. As a kid, I didn&rsquo;t have access to these things. They were aspirational things for me. So I said to myself, &lsquo;You know what, I&rsquo;m not going to lie that I&rsquo;m new here, and I&rsquo;m just going to let that all play out in my videos.&rsquo;&rdquo;

That honesty has become part of her charm. Her cadence shifts as she recalls her first luxury purchase&mdash;a Gucci Abbey bag she used for culinary school in San Juan when she was 19. 
&ldquo;It was [canvas with the interlocking] GG logo. I wish I kept the bag,&rdquo; she says fondly. &ldquo;I had to sell it because I needed the money.&rdquo; 
It feels like a full-circle moment. What started as a dream purchase has, after 16 years, turned into a genuine connection with the luxury maison&mdash;now cemented in invites to its shows and events. And as Gucci moved through its own creative eras, Pia&rsquo;s style evolved too. She&rsquo;s gone from the maximalism of her pageant- glamazon days to something more pared-back and precise, with that balance of the masculine and feminine, which has become her signature. 
&ldquo;Over the years, I&rsquo;ve developed more of an eye of what I like on myself and what I don&rsquo;t like,&rdquo; the former pageant queen shares. She gravitates toward plains over prints&mdash;relaxed, tailored silhouettes for off-duty days, and romantic, glamorous looks for work.

&ldquo;Coming from being a model and an actress at such a young age, and then the beauty pageant space where I always had mentors, I needed feedback for every look. That was 10 years ago now, but that was four years of my life. I needed to know if I was going in the right direction, kasi I was joining a competition. It was hard to erase for a while.&rdquo; 
Scroll far enough down her feed, and you&rsquo;ll notice the shift in her style and storytelling. On Instagram, her formula looks simple enough: build a look, attend a show, film, post, and conclude it all with a recap reel. 
Behind the scenes, though, is a creative team that works like a well-oiled machine. Before each event, they huddle and plan what they all tenderly call their &ldquo;atake&rdquo;&mdash;their plan of attack&mdash;covering everything from hair and makeup to styling and video direction. 
&ldquo;I&rsquo;m always part of each and every step,&rdquo; Pia says, comparing their democratic process to playtime. &ldquo;But I let them have fun. Because I think when you let creatives be creative, that&rsquo;s when the magic happens.&rdquo;
Perhaps that&rsquo;s why she resonates with so many. Pia makes the fashion industry feel open, welcoming&mdash;attainable even. Her 14.6 million Instagram followers are along for the ride. &ldquo;There is room for everybody,&rdquo; she says. It&rsquo;s a warmth that translates through the screen in her videos, and even through the phone as she speaks.

As she grows more comfortable navigating fashion weeks, Pia&rsquo;s focus has begun to shift. She&rsquo;s quick to admit she&rsquo;s still new to it all, but what she&rsquo;s after now is something more grounded: community, connection, and a better sense of balance. She makes time for dinners after the shows, for unhurried conversations, and for family amid the busier moments. It seems to be the rhythm that works.
&ldquo;Usually, I&rsquo;m really tired, and I&rsquo;m like, umuwi na tayo sa mga pamilya natin. We&rsquo;ve been on the road for a few weeks, and na fashion overload na ako,&rdquo; she shares, laughing. Home these days is split between Dubai, where she lives with her husband Jeremy, and Manila. &ldquo;But this time was different. Hindi pa tapos &lsquo;yung fashion week, I wanted to book the next one.&rdquo; 
Maybe that&rsquo;s what makes this chapter feel so right. Pia still shows up with that same built-in drive, but there&rsquo;s a calmness now to the way she talks about what&rsquo;s next. It&rsquo;s less about proving, more about being&mdash;making the most of all the moments in between. After years of reinvention, Pia Jauncey seems to have arrived at something rare: a sense of peace and gratitude for where she is, and excitement for what&rsquo;s ahead.&nbsp;

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PRODUCERS Loris Peña and Yanna Lopez 
FASHION ASSOCIATE Frances Laman 
MAKEUP Justin Soriano 
HAIR Jeck Aguilar 
SET DESIGN Justine Arcega Bumanlag 
VIDEO DIRECTION Heidi Bayani 
SHOOT ASSISTANT Teresita Gabat 
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Showing Up With Intention: Pia Wurtzbach-Jauncey

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