Beauty queen Pia Wurtzbach reexamines the meaning of wearing a crown. In doing so, she learns the indispensible value of self-care, friendship, and authenticity. The more she steps into the limelight, the more she feels the need to shed light. This balance makes her glow impossible to miss. It&rsquo;s the kind of glow that rises to the surface by staying true to its core.

PHOTOGRAPHY BJ Pascual
CREATIVE DIRECTION Loris Pe&ntilde;a and Yanna Lopez
STYLING Yanna Lopez
Away on a holiday with husband, Jeremy Jauncey, Pia Wurtzbach interrupts her vacation to chat with L&rsquo;Officiel about her latest foray into fashion. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m in Greece with Jeremy. We usually spend this time of the year to switch off because it&rsquo;s also around his birthday. I&rsquo;m still on vacay mode, but in a few days, that&rsquo;s it. We&rsquo;re back to work,&rdquo; she says.
What becomes apparent in our conversation is that no matter how entrenched she&rsquo;s fast becoming in the fashion industry, she always allots plenty of time for slowing down. It&rsquo;s in these moments when she can take a deep breath and focus on nurturing her wellbeing. For her, real luxury doesn&rsquo;t shout. It&rsquo;s about grace and maintaining a sense of ease for things that stand the test of time.

Dress, ANTONINA. Bvlgari Tubogas necklace and B.Zero1 Rock yellow gold earrings, both BVLGARI

Where are you staying in Greece?
We&rsquo;re in an island called Hydra. I would say it&rsquo;s a two-hour car ride from Athens, and then an extra hour boat ride. It&rsquo;s our first time here, but Greece is one of our favorites because we always have good memories here.
How is married life treating you?
I can&rsquo;t believe it&rsquo;s been more than a year since we married. I feel so grown up because it&rsquo;s nice to find a person who will always be there whatever happens at work or the world outside. You&rsquo;ll always have home and security.
Can you tell us more about being the first Filipina Friend of the House for Bulgari? Friendship denotes affection and precious experiences. What are&nbsp; your most memorable moments with your Bulgari pieces?
The first time I walked into the store in Solaire, I tried on the big Serpenti necklaces. I have photos of that day still on my phone. It&rsquo;s funny. I showed it to the team, and I said, look at this. I never imagined being a Philippine ambassador for it. It&rsquo;s crazy. They are beautiful pieces that will really catch your eye and make you stand out. I came back after a few months to get daily pieces. I wanted something I could mix and match. That was pretty memorable for me. You walk in as an admirer, and one day, you work with the brand.

Blazer, FENDI. Bvlgari Tubogas necklaces, Allegra rose gold earrings, B.Zero1 rings, and Serpenti Tubogas ring; all BVLGARI

How do you like wearing your jewelry?
You start to appreciate it more once you learn the story behind every piece and every collection&mdash;when you see its metamorphosis through the decades. It depends on the overall look I&rsquo;m going for. Sometimes I want the jewelry to stand out, so I&rsquo;ll wear something very simple. Jewelry is meant to be worn however you want it, whether you want the jewelry to stand out or whether you want it to accentuate other parts of you.
Speaking of friendship, who are your pillars?
My husband, Jeremy. He is stable, constant, and calm. That&rsquo;s the kind of energy I need. No matter how stressful things get, he never brings it back home.
I meet people along the way that are new friends, but they&rsquo;re very inspiring, especially other women. This journey has led me to meet aspiring, inspirational women who I can look up to. When I&rsquo;m at a dinner or at a show, sometimes I don&rsquo;t know who I&rsquo;m going to be seated next to, and it&rsquo;s always a surprise. Sometimes I&rsquo;ll sit next to a journalist from Germany, and I don&rsquo;t know anything about her. She doesn&rsquo;t know anything about me, but we get to know each other in that hour we are seated next to each other. The conversation just flows. When we look at fashion from the outside, the impression is it&rsquo;s very exclusive. Once you get to talk to people, you&rsquo;ll see that everybody is a person. Everybody is just like you, and everybody is just getting by.
I&rsquo;m also hosting a charity gala at the end of the year for my advocacy. I&rsquo;ve been doing regular meetings with them, and they&rsquo;re not showbiz people. They&rsquo;re volunteers, and I love speaking to them. It just brings me back to earth because you can get caught up in this bubble of luxury and glamour, but it&rsquo;s nice to step back from that from time to time. Parang, kumusta ka naman? Everybody asks me about how I&rsquo;m doing. I want to know how other people are doing. It keeps me grounded too because it reminds me that there is another side to this life.

Top, ANTHONY RAMIREZ. Octo Finissimo Automatic watch, Bvlgari Tubogas bracelet, B.Zero1 Essential yellow gold bracelet, and B.Zero1 yellow gold bracelet with pave diamonds; all BVLGARI

This aspirational relatability is why people support you around the world. You grew up in Stuttgart, Iligan, and Cagayan de Oro, and now you&rsquo;re shuffling back and forth from Manila to Dubai. After your extensive travels, what are your favorite places?
Jeremy and I were just talking about this. My top three include Bangkok as number two and Greece as number three. He asked for the top spot. I said, the Philippines is number one. That&rsquo;s where I live. I&rsquo;m from there. I have to count it. It&rsquo;s different. To me, it&rsquo;s the familiarity of it. It&rsquo;s&nbsp;home. I love going back home, being with Filipinos, hearing Filipino jokes, and eating Filipino food. That&rsquo;s the&nbsp;best.
Any favorite Filipino joke?
My stress reliever is to just scroll on memes. I think all of us are following the same Tagalog meme accounts. Filipino humor is different. I can&rsquo;t describe it. Sometimes the comments are funnier than the jokes. There&rsquo;s @poblaposting whose jokes are things only Filipinos will get. I also follow accounts that are for Filipinos in the US&mdash;the so-called second-generation Filipinos because they have their own sense of humor and jokes. Listen to their stories about their titas and titos.

Dress, GUCCI. Bvlgari Tubogas necklace, Bvlgari Tubogas bracelet, and B.Zero1 rose gold earrings; all BVLGARI

Dress, GUCCI. Bvlgari Tubogas necklace, Bvlgari Tubogas bracelet, B.Zero1 rose gold earrings, and B.Zero1 yellow gold rings; all BVLGARI

You&rsquo;re often called&nbsp; &ldquo;queen,&rdquo; but for you, what are the qualities of a queen? Who are your queens?
I used to cringe at being called a queen. But people say it as a compliment to each other now. I love that. I love that we&rsquo;re addressing each other as queens now. Among my queens are my girl friends, who funny enough, are called the queens because we used to have a podcast called, The Queens. I&rsquo;m always learning through them.
There are people I meet along the way who spark inspiration. One that comes to mind is Mama Vinn (or Ronivin Garcia Pagtakhan), founder of LoveYourself. It started when Dr. Vinn lost a dear person because of HIV. Now, she has made it a life goal to save everybody. That&rsquo;s so inspirational. These are the kinds of people I love hearing stories about. It doesn&rsquo;t have to be a celebrity or an influencer or a popular person. Sometimes it&rsquo;s the person next to you who&rsquo;s been through a really bad story, but still keeps smiling.

Bvlgari Tubogas necklace and Allegra rose gold earrings, both BVLGARI

Dress, ANTONINA. Bvlgari Tubogas necklace, Serpenti Tubogas two-twirl watch in yellow gold, and Serpenti Tubogas watch; all BVLGARI

PRODUCERS Loris Pena and Knelle Rosario 
MAKEUP Justin Louise Soriano 
HAIR Jeck Aguilar 
PRODUCTION DESIGN Aren Dale Santos 
VIDEO Aijalonica Lei
PHOTOGRAPHER'S&nbsp;ASSISTANT Ruel Estrellis, Richard Detita, John Paul dela Cruz, Abel Santos, Iggy Estacio, and Jilmer Carlos 
2ND CAM/PA Rohan Delfin Oncada 
GAFFER Ben Bigs 
PRODUCTION DESIGN TEAM Erwin Arda, Regie Alcayde, Romy Dela Cruz, Vincent Salvante, Erickson Salvante, Yoyo Dumdum, Alexander Hapayan 
STYLIST'S&nbsp;ASSISTANT Tere Gabat

Rise Above: Pia Wurtzbach

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