Second to None: Anne Curtis Is Preview's 2026 Style Icon

When Anne thinks back to the clothes she wore as a teenager, they look nothing like the ones hanging in her garment bags today.

“Actually, when you talked about the evolution of fashion, it hasn’t necessarily always been something like how we see it today, right?” she said. “When I was in my teens—I was probably 17, 18—I loved fashion, but my style was more surfer chic.”

Growing up in Australia had a lot to do with that. Her wardrobe revolved around Quiksilver, Miss Sixty, Fornarina, and Havoc, a streetwear store she remembers being “super into.” She described that her teenage self lived in low-waist jeans, baby tees, and Havaianas—or “thongs,” she corrected herself with a laugh, “not flip-flops.”

“I think it was heavily influenced by that as well,” she said. “Because it was a laid-back lifestyle.”

Revisiting her first-ever Preview cover from December 2004 brought another reminder of that time. Among the anecdotes about denim and surfer style accouterments was one answer that caught attention: she had always wanted to be a ramp model, though acting had become her real passion because, as she put it then, “modeling comes as a package deal with your job.”

It wasn’t far off. Magazine shoots and brand shows became an extension of that work, giving Anne room to experiment with fashion and, sometimes, to bring pieces from her own wardrobe. Over the years came the editorials, the campaigns, and eventually, the glossy invitations to Fashion Week.

Her first invitation arrived in 2019, when Louis Vuitton flew her to Seoul, where models wound their way through Incheon Airport for the brand’s Cruise 2020 Spin-Off Show. The runway’s guest list saw her name among Hollywood stars like Alicia Vikander, Chloe Grace Moretz, and Korean actor Gong Yoo.

Six years on, fashion has become a language she slips into with remarkable ease. The conversation skipped quickly from one house to another. Anne wondered aloud about the recent musical chairs of creative director appointments, lingering on Matthieu Blazy’s recent switch to Chanel before landing on the one she seemed particularly excited about. “I’m such an Alaïa girl,” she said, already imagining former creative director Pieter Mulier’s first collection for Versace. “How is he gonna approach Versace? I don't mean change, but how will he bring his style there?”

Watching those collections up close has only sharpened her curiosity. Fashion Week, Anne said, has given her an up-close view of how ideas evolve—from the way a creative director reshapes a house to the details that rarely make it into the photographs.

Those pictures, of course, tell only part of the story. Between shows, Anne remembered sitting on the floor of a car while hairstylist Raymond Santiago redid her hair before the next stop. There were days when one look had to be photographed in 10 minutes before everyone was rushing off again. “People don’t see that because they see the polished version,” she said.

It wasn’t an isolated day. Since that first Louis Vuitton invitation, the seasons have taken Anne from Seoul to Paris, Milan, and New York. Her Paris Fashion Week itinerary alone for the Spring/Summer 2026 season included Hermès, Loewe, Miu Miu, Acne Studios, Sacai, and more, with multiple shows often packed into a single day. After moving through those collections, Anne now finds herself just as absorbed by the creative vision behind them. 

When Anne began work on It’s Okay to Not Be Okay in 2025, the time spent around fashion’s frontlines had found another outlet. In the adaptation of the Korean drama, Anne slipped into the role of Mia Hernandez while taking more hands-on tasks in shaping her character’s wardrobe. The clothes became part of the storytelling: a darker, romantic palette at the beginning, gradually shifting as the character softened.

She worked closely with director Mae Cruz-Alviar and Filipino designers, sharing details about each scene and allowing them to interpret the character through their own craft.

“It was really a group effort,” she said. “But for me, really connecting with the designers and chatting with them about that, telling them what the scene was going to be—that was fun.”

For the scene after Mia cuts her hair, Anne knew the character needed something softer. Vania Romoff responded with a look finished with sampaguita details, a distinctly Filipino take on a storybook fantasy. Bree Esplanada created a skeletal Filipiniana with animation later incorporated into the design, a piece Anne remembers as fitting the character’s darker transformation. 

Working with Filipino designers has become one of Anne’s favorite parts of fashion. One collaboration often leads to another. She’s taken to asking the designers she already knows who else is making interesting work, which younger names they have been watching, and who she should meet next.

“It’s important in the sense that you give a chance to up-and-coming designers,” she said. More than once, a designer had come back to tell her that inquiries started coming in after she wore one of their pieces. “It really makes me happy that somehow I’m able to help them in that way.”

She speaks about those collaborations with as much enthusiasm as the clothes themselves. The younger designers, she said, constantly surprise her. “Ang grabe nila. So creative. So creative talaga.”

Each designer approaches her differently, and Anne enjoys seeing what they bring out of her. 

“For them, I always feel like I’m a blank canvas,” she said. “You don’t feel restricted with me. It’s not ‘You can only do this color, or you can only do this cut.’ I’m always open to being reimagined in their pieces.” 

Even when the conversation wound to a close, Anne’s thoughts wandered back to the racks and the stories behind the pieces she had brought, and to the designers who had made them.

There was, however, one outfit that had quietly escaped all that discussion. Anne stepped onto the set clad in denim and a tank top—the everyday uniform she had once described in the pages of her first Preview cover story. 

Pointing to her outfit, she laughed. “She’s still here,” Anne said, of that young girl whose eye was first drawn to a world that would become so much bigger. “Just another version of it.”