Pia Miller: From Home & Away to the face of Melbourne Fashion Week

When asked to be the face of Melbourne Fashion Week, Australian actress and former model Pia Miller, 35, couldn’t resist the urge to come home to where it all began.

The Sydney-based mother of two, who hasn’t strutted the catwalk for 15 years, says she owes her love of fashion to a designer mother who enrolled her in modelling school at the age of seven.

There was no time for puberty blues, either, after she won the Dolly magazine modelling competition at 14. She was signed to prestigious Chadwick Models, finding herself regularly on the catwalk with Australian brands such as Collette Dinnigan, Alannah Hill, Lisa Ho and Wayne Cooper.

The leggy Chilean-born star – who migrated to Melbourne aged four with her family – went on to become the face/body of Megan Gale’s swimwear line five years ago, the face of the Australian Grand Prix in 2010 and has since focused on an acting career – finding fame through her three-year role as policewoman Katrina Chapman on Home & Away.

“Our bodies change, and I’ve had two children. I couldn’t imagine being on the runway again,” says Miller, who sounds relieved to be sitting in the front row and schmoozing instead.

“I would definitely need some lessons again,” she says. “It would be like learning to ride a bike again and my body can’t do what it did 15 years ago.”

Miller couldn’t be happier with her new ambassadorial role.

“I have fond memories of being part of fashion week all those years ago,” she says.

“You buzz off the vibe and atmosphere and it was a no-brainer from me – an absolute yes to be involved in this capacity. My family still live in Melbourne and it feels like it’s come full circle for me.”

She counts Bianca Jagger as a fashion inspiration and fuses a love of comfort dressing with a bohemian backbeat in her own wardrobe.

In there you’ll find Scanlan Theodore, Bassike, Camilla and Marc and international label Isabel Marant.

“I remember thinking Bianca Jagger had a cool energy in the way she would wear suit jackets and carry herself,” Miller says.

“I was into the whole aesthetic – the ’90s blazer with jeans. It was a vibe I gravitated towards.”

After leaving Home & Away last year, she has returned to TV to star alongside Todd Lasance in the new Channel 9 crime-thriller series Bite Club.

“It was sad to leave my character on Home & Away, but I’m excited to see what else is on the horizon,” she says.

“And as far as juggling my work and family life, it’s a constant but it’s all I know and I just make it work.”

Miller says of her sons, Isaiah, 15, and Lennox, 11: “The boys are the most important in my life.

“They are my priority and they know that. I work around them, and sometimes, it means I forget one had soccer practice, but always have a backpack in the car, am on the run and juggle like everybody else does.”

• Melbourne Fashion Week is on August 31 – September 7, 2018