“Nothing fell into my lap”: How Law Roach redefined celebrity styling | fashion

He's the man behind some of fashion's most memorable moments – but you've probably never heard of him.

Law Roach is the 46-year-old stylist who presented Céline Dion in a pink, frothy millefeuille-style coat on the cover of Vogue France, dressed actor Hunter Schafer in little more than a feather at a 2023 Oscar party, and the model Convinced Bella Hadid wore exclusively vintage clothing on the Cannes red carpet.

But it's his work with Zendaya, whom he first met when she was 14, that helped make the actor a household name and led Roach to expand beyond the world of styling. Most recently, he oversaw the looks for their Challengers and Dune press tour, established tenniscore as the biggest trend of the summer, and ensured a suit of metal armor made front-page headlines.

While a celebrity's stylist typically stays behind the scenes, Roach has broken the norms and catapulted himself into the spotlight as an “image architect.”

J'Nae Phillips, senior trend analyst and author of the Fashion Tingz newsletter, says Roach has redefined the role of a stylist by “not just shaping the look of his celebrity clients, but creating moments and pizzazz through fashion.” She says: “He brought styling from behind the scenes to the public, which changed the way fashion is consumed, admired and understood by the public.”

When she was a Disney starlet, brands wouldn't lend their clothes to Zendaya, so Roach instead dressed her in vintage pieces from a thrift store he ran in Chicago.

Since then, he's embraced “method dressing,” dressing Zendaya in a webbed dress for a Spider-Man premiere and a wet sand-inspired dress for the Dune premiere in Venice. Zendaya describes him as her “fashion soulmate, historian and constant inspiration.”

Roach, who now also walks the red carpet, is invited front row at Fashion Week shows and has his own legion of fans – more than 1 million followers on Instagram – who follow him on the street for selfies.

He's releasing a book next month called “How to Build a Fashion Icon.” It acts as a kind of DIY guide to self-confidence, peppered with personal anecdotes and inspirational quotes from women including Oprah Winfrey.

He writes about his success in the book: “Nothing fell into my lap, and certainly nothing came easy to me.” Even though I didn't see anyone who looked like me who had achieved what I wanted, I kept set my eyes on the prize with determination and belief in myself that I could do it.”

But you won't find the term stylist in it. Instead, Roach referred to himself as “the world’s only pictorial architect,” a job title he trademarked. “I could never be just a 'stylist,'” he writes. “I always do things my own way, with my own style… For me, an 'image architect' delivers a moment – the boldness and drama of a look, complemented by a woman (or anyone, for that matter). be) who knows them.” Value.”

He is also “the only pictorial architect in the world” who is technically retired. Last March, he announced he was leaving the industry in a now-deleted Instagram post. “The politics, the lies and false narratives have finally gotten me!” he wrote. “You win… I'm out.” Eighteen months later, Roach is busier than ever. “I’m the most retired retiree,” he told the New York Times in May.

At times, this behavior earned him the reputation of a diva. But as a gay, black man who grew up in one of Chicago's poorest neighborhoods and one of four siblings raised by a single mother, Roach has managed to break into an industry that is notoriously difficult to succeed in be – a world in which a people-pleaser is unlikely to triumph. Roach describes himself as “an example of an unlikely Cinderella story, from someone who grew up with uncertain odds but did it anyway.”

“He knows his worth,” says Daniel Rogers, a fashion journalist at British Vogue. “He fought hard to maintain this position: refusing to speak to journalists unless they mentioned his name in a headline, and refusing to be a background figure in the success of others. He brings real fashion capital – and entertainment – ​​to an often staid celebrity landscape.”