They say you haven't made it in the fashion world until you've graced the cover of US Vogue. Which is exactly where Australian actress Margot Robbie found herself this month – smack bang on the front of the world's most coveted fashion real estate.

Wearing a leopard print, one-piece swimsuit (an ode, no doubt, to her upcoming role as Jane in the film Tarzan), Robbie killed every notion that she was a one-movie wonder. That she actually smiled on the cover of US Vogue, rather than giving the familiar pout/duckface we're used to seeing from thousands of fashionistas all over the globe, is a feat in itself. The smile is such a rarity in the fashion world (indeed, it was completely missing at Fashion Week among the terribly serious/posing crowd), but plastered across the face of Robbie it was wonderfully refreshing.

"No matter where we are on a press tour, I just want to be back on set," says Margot Robbie. Credit:Getty Images

She's come a long way from her Neighbours days. The awkwardness of growing up on screen must be forgotten by now. Do we think she's left behind that liquorice allsorts dress she wore to the Logies in 2009 that made her look like a low-rent can-can dancer? Yes. The ghost of that dress was swept away as soon as she got the call from Vogue.

So how did her style transformation begin? There's not much different about her hair and makeup – she's still the same beautiful blonde of years ago, but the clothes speak volumes. Rather than dolled up from head to toe with fussy frills or big prints, Robbie chooses sophisticated shapes in block colours that make a statement with the quality of the cut.