The face of Fashfest for 2014 was then a Canberra Girls Grammar student, and the Australian Fashion Awards was looking for models for its show at the Canberra Theatre.

''[The choreographer] saw me at a deportment course that I was doing and picked me out of a line-up of girls and said 'I want you to wear the winning garment','' she recalled.

Fast-forward 27 years, after a distinguished career on the catwalks of New York, Paris, Milan and Tokyo, Riding has moved back to Canberra with her family and is keen to promote Canberra's next generation of fashion stars.

Fashfest will return on April 30 after the event - which features local designers, models, and hair and make-up artists - successfully debuted on the Canberra calendar last year.

Riding has taken the reins from Annaliese Seubert as the Face of Fashfest this year, a role which will see her strut her stuff after ''a few years'' away from the catwalk.

It also gave her a place on the casting panel for models on Sunday, where she discovered that even with deportment classes now a rarity, aspiring models are teaching themselves the skills of the trade.

''There were some who knew how to walk really well … even having never walked on a catwalk before, they'd been watching on the internet and came across as really confident.

''There were some great young ones that I just thought 'fabulous!'.

''The hardest thing will be once these girls get discovered, then they're off - [they'll be] gone to Sydney.''

Indeed Riding had moved to Sydney within a month of her own big break, appearing on the covers of Dolly and Australian Elle before breaking onto the international scene.

It was in New York, where she lived for 12 years with husband Alan White, a fashion hairdresser, that she felt the pull back to Canberra.

''Living in New York for 9/11, Alan was under the buildings as they were being hit - I was pregnant with my second child … family all of a sudden became really important,'' she said.

''I left home at 16 and at 35 we arrived back in Canberra and I've sort of come full circle.''

While Riding says the Canberra lifestyle allows for a break from the ''intense'' fashion industry, Fashfest plays an important role for local talent.

''It's really exciting to meet people who are passionate about fashion and are in Canberra - there's so much talent here and it's just a brilliant way to showcase young designers and also give models a platform to start a career,'' she said.

Last year's inaugural event featured 38 designers in sold-out shows over four nights. There are 24 designers lined up so far this year, including new graduates and emerging designers as well as eight featured last year returning with new collections.