For Orange Is the New Black's breakout star Ruby Rose, 2015 was a major year — and 2016 seems to be ticking along nicely. The Australian actress is starring in the spring campaign for Denim & Supply Ralph Lauren alongside her pal (and suspected paramour of Rose lookalike Justin Bieber) Hailey Baldwin. Rose spoke to The Cut about working with her buddy, and how she feels like fashion campaigns are shifting in favor of more gender-fluid subjects.
"I feel like some brands just hire people to stand near you and you pretend to be friends," Rose said of pairing up with Baldwin. "When you get the opportunity to have your actual friends shoot with you, there’s so much more energy to the photo. She's such a sweet girl and we were just laughing the whole time."
The campaign lets the actress highlight her androgynous style, though Rose says her short hair and preference for menswear haven't always been in vogue. She's proud she stuck to her guns, and sees campaigns like hers, including Jaden Smith's new shoot for the Louis Vuitton women's collection, as a sign of progress.
"I’ve been doing it forever, and people would make fun of me," she shared. "People at school would say, 'Why are you dressing like a guy?' or 'Why aren’t you wearing a dress?' Or when I had a few auditions, people were like, 'I think you should wear this,' or 'I think you should do it differently,' or 'I think you should grow your hair.' Even when I got my first job, people were telling me that I needed to change what was innately me."
She added that these campaigns are important in terms of helping those who are struggling with their gender identity.
"[Kids] from middle America, to smaller towns in Australia, to all over the world — if they don’t quite understand why they don’t quite feel comfortable in a dress, but all their friends wear dresses, or if they’re a boy and they want to wear a dress or they want to wear a skirt, they’re gonna get picked on," she said. "To be able to make this huge impact on what was really a huge transgender and gender-fluidity movement last year is really going to be for the greater good of society, because it’s going to let people know they’re not different in a weird way; they’re different in a way that should be celebrated."
AdvertisementADVERTISEMENT