Ruby Rose Talks Style, and What Her Buddy Justin Bieber Wears

Once you peel back the orange jumpsuit, there’s a whole lot of fashion in Orange Is the New Black‘s Ruby Rose. From a childhood spent scouring thrift stores to design work in her native Australia, the actress knows a thing or two about clothes. The latest chapter in her style life? A plum spot for the Ralph Lauren Denim & Supply spring 2016 campaign. With the new ads recently released, we got a chance to talk style with the actress.

“I experimented with fashion as it being more like art, allowing what I wore to express what I was feeling on the inside. Androgyny, rock culture, and grunge—they definitely had an effect on the things that made me feel cool and comfortable. As I moved into [the acting] industry and got access to and education about more brands, I got to experiment more.”

__MORE: See Ruby Rose’s Best Style Moments __

If you try telling Rose how cool her style is, she’ll just brush it off in a self-effacing manner that, sigh, only makes her even cooler. She’s sure some of the outfits she’s put together were “terrible” and doesn’t waste much time stressing over clothes.

“I feel the most confident in whatever I’m feeling at that time. Sometimes it’s leather pants, a leather jacket, and a band tee, and it’s motorcycle-chic. Then there are times that it’s skinny jeans, a tank top, and a denim jacket. It’s whatever I’m feeling that day.”

She’s not an actress forced into caring about clothes and looking put-together due to the pressures of her profession either. Nope—this is a woman with legitimate fashion experience, having designed multiple collections for Aussie brand Milk & Honey and currently working on Scallywags, a zany range that benefits shelter animals. Rose reports similarities between the fashion and acting worlds, with the biggest being an unquenchable desire to learn.

“When I was designing I really wanted to know where the fabrics were from, what it felt like, what it was like to get samples made. There was a lot of learning, and I really enjoyed it,” she explained. “Both industries are high-pressure too. I showed two collections at fashion week in Australia, and it was the same thing as TV. When you put everything out there, it’s there for the world to critique. You have to have thick skin.”

“Fashion is such a weird thing. Growing up I just made do with whatever I had access to—a lot of hand-me-downs and thrift store shopping,” she said, remembering viewing the Ralph Lauren brand in childhood as something she was aware of, but couldn’t shop. “It was nothing I’d ever be able to afford. It seemed like a very prestige brand that people who had money wore.”

MORE: 10 Reasons Australian-Girl Style Is Awesome

Rose in the Denim & Supply spring 2016 campaign

Going from viewing the brand from afar to posing for its camera is certainly a sweet role reversal of sorts, though Rose didn’t really spend time thinking about the complexities of the universe’s grand plan while on-set. She was having too much fun.

“It was organic and didn’t feel like a photo shoot, like we were trying to get these looks in. It felt like, ‘Here’s our whole wardrobe, pick what you’re going to wear,'” she explained. “I just got to be myself and have fun with my friends and someone was taking photos at the same time. It was like a diary photo experience.”

L to R: Edward Granger, Hailey Baldwin, Rose, Thiago Santos, Alyssa Miller

You should know that it took approximately 15 seconds to understand that that enthusiastic response wasn’t part of an act practiced for interviews with journalists. Rose is really that sunny and appreciative of all the good stuff that’s going on in her life.

“Never say no to anything, whatever the universe brings me. I’ve always lived by that. I knew I wanted to get into acting and for some reason it’s taken me 15 years to do so. Before Orange I’d done everything in the acting world [but act]. I could not break into it,” she said. “I feel like the universe put me on a path that was the right one for me to end up where I needed to be, teach me the lessons I needed to learn. Now I know that my next eight months are back-to-back filming three films and that literally makes me one of the happiest people in the entire world.”

Sweet, right? And seeing as we couldn’t let Rose hop off the phone without asking her about her much-reported-on doppelgänger Justin Bieber, we had to know: Anything that the Biebs worn that she’d never, ever be caught in?

“I don’t follow what he wears that much,” she said, laughing. “Unless I’m physically with him, I wouldn’t have any idea what he was wearing.”

Another spring campaign that grabbed our attention recently? Jaden Smith, wearing a leather skirt and posing for Louis Vuitton. Come see the pics!

Now, see what Ruby Rose has to say—in 60 seconds: