Law Roach Explains Why Retirement Gave Him ‘So Much Power’

Roach’s upcoming book How to Build a Fashion Icon: Tips on Confidence, out Oct. 1, is not, as convention might dictate, a memoir. That was certainly what people expected after his much-vaunted retirement last year. Instead, he defines the book as self-help. “If all these famous, beautiful women are saying that they found confidence or even more confidence by working with me, I thought how great it would be to bring that to the masses,” he says. The book is dedicated to Zendaya, who he tells me is his “fashion soulmate” in addition to being “my muse, my little sister, one of my biggest advocates, if not my biggest advocate. She’s my therapist sometimes. Our relationship has gone beyond stylist-client. She’s one of the few people who can tell me when I’ve done something stupid.”

With Zendaya by his side, the self-described “little street kid from Chicago” climbed the ranks despite not going through the traditional internship and assistantship paths. Growing up, he learned “how to survive and how to hustle, and I put that into this career that I wanted to pursue.” Trips to the “junkyard” of thrift stores with his grandmother helped sharpen his vision. He loved the feeling of “limitless possibilities” they offered. “At the time, high fashion didn’t seem possible to me,” but he pursued Tom Ford’s Gucci and John Galliano’s Dior. “Galliano Dior’s haute couture shows were a dream. I remember going to my first haute couture show. I won’t tell you what it was, but I thought, ‘This isn’t haute couture.’ To me, haute couture is about showing off, being fantastical and dreamy.”

He also had a degree in psychology, which he says was invaluable. “I tell anyone who’s ever worked for me that this job is more psychological than anything else. You have to pay attention to nonverbal cues and what shapes and colors make people feel best, even without them knowing it.” It also helped him “read the atmosphere and the psychology of everyone else, beyond the client. Who are the gatekeepers and who is the person who can be your ally when you’re pushing for a certain look?”

When Roach began styling Céline Dion in 2016, headlines about her unexpected looks for Vetements and Off-White made people see the beloved pop diva in a whole new light as a fashion girl. “People were like, ‘You’ve changed her so much,’ and I was always like, ‘I’ve never changed her,’” Roach says. “All you saw when we started working together was who she always was inside. I don’t think anyone ever just gave her permission or authority to be that way. She was always this girl.“Dion, he says, is a true fashion lover, keeping binders full of tear sheets. “She wanted to try everything on, and I was like, ‘Oh, I see you. I know who this girl is.'”

“We started playing and she told me not to hold back, to bring her what she thought was cool, and then we saw the change. She could be in haute couture looking very lady one day, and then it could be streetwear. She was the first star to wear Demna’s Balenciaga, Alessandro Michele’s Gucci. And those were the things she bought. Nobody was lending her those clothes at the time,” he notes. “I didn’t change Céline Dion at all. I just helped her express what had been inside her for so many years.”

I have a few questions for Roach about the red carpet trends that have exploded in popularity over the past few years. What does he think of the press tour “dressing methods” that have become de rigueur for every blockbuster movie with Barbie Down Mean“We’ve always done themed costumes before it even had a name,” she says. “When you have someone like Zendaya, who’s not afraid to be literal and take risks — Joan of Arc at the Met Gala — it’s fun and entertaining and brings joy to people. I think one of the biggest differences for me between Barbie and Tashi Duncan,” Zendaya’s character in The contenders“Have we known Barbie for, what, 60 years? I thought what they did was really great and beautiful, but to use that same dressing method to introduce a character that nobody knows for the first time and give her a personality and make people care about her before they even see the movie is, I think, a testament to how powerful dressing method can be as a promotional tool. I just hope that studios start to appreciate stylists who can do that well on a larger scale.”

Then there’s the other end of the spectrum: celebrities who say they don’t use stylists. When I express some doubt about that statement, she says, “There are people who say they style themselves, and just like you said, what does that mean? Who calls the coat rack? Who does the returns? Who makes sure you have all the right shoes and who’s also your point of contact? It’s all part of the job. There are people who have great style and make a lot of the decisions about what they wear, and I think that’s great. Those are the people who are the best clients because they’re great collaborators, but I think it’s a little unfair when people say they do everything themselves, because I know they don’t. Yes, there are people who have great relationships with designers and can FaceTime with them. But the bigger picture is that when celebrities decide to hire stylists, they’re also choosing to work with a small company, and sometimes a small minority- or women-owned company, and they’re putting people to work and helping them feed their families. It’s a way to maintain that ecosystem, and if someone hires me as a stylist and pays me, I hire and pay my assistants. There’s a bigger picture to it than just choosing a dress.”

What’s the biggest misconception about his profession, I ask? He answers without hesitation: “That it’s easy, glamorous, and honest. It’s hard work and it doesn’t always pay the best. I’ve been fortunate to always have a big business, but there are a lot of stylists who work with celebrities and can barely pay their bills. We saw that a lot when COVID came around. A lot of people in the industry didn’t come back after that. But people think it’s glamorous and everyone’s making millions of dollars and studios are paying you these exorbitant fees and you’re making money off of all these different things. That part isn’t as real as people think, and it’s a lot of anxiety and stress. You have someone who’s going to go out and be seen and judged by millions of people around the world, and all these people have a platform and a voice and they can say negative, nasty things.”

While he seems busier than ever, how has retirement been treating him? In addition to giving him the chance to write a book, he says it’s given him perspective. “Working the way I did, and becoming who I became, put me on a pedestal that I never asked to be on. Being able to write this book, I feel like I’ll be able to be tangible in a way, to reach more people than I ever could through just working. It gives me another way to use my voice, which makes me so happy. Retirement has given me so much power.”

During my decade of styling, “I felt like I was working every day. I felt like I never had the option to say no. When I retired, I realized I didn’t know who I was outside of being a stylist/image architect or working with these people. I don’t think I really had my own identity. It brought me peace and happiness and this power to say, ‘I can do whatever I want.’ I was like, ‘Oh my God, I’ll never be able to style anyone again. They’ll think I’m a liar. They’ll say, ‘Oh, you never retired, it was a publicity stunt,’ and all these things, and I didn’t. I really wanted to quit. I didn’t even want to work with Zendaya. She just wouldn’t let me!”

So, like Michael Corleone, was he pulled back in? “I was done. I was done-done. I wanted to go back to my house in the country and just be done with fashion, but after I mourned it and had this rebirth, I thought, ‘I can do whatever I want, whenever I want.’ I went back and played Naomi (Campbell) on the carpet in Cannes and at the V&A opening. I came in and did one thing with Megan (Thee Stallion) that ended up in the Renaissance Tour movie. I can say yes to things that I think are important or special, like working with (entrepreneur and investor) Mona Patel, who no one knew who she was, at the Met Gala, because that story meant so much to me.”

In the meantime, he has explored various avenues: bit parts on television, developing a book into a potential series. And he is grateful that Zendaya did not allow him to completely leave his previous position. “If I had completely retired, we would not have had a Mugler moment for Dune press tour. We would not accept all methods of dressing “Challenges” she says. “What I do brings joy to people and I don’t want to deny that. I love seeing people’s faces and their comments about how it’s given them something to talk about at work and something to discuss. I’m glad my work is able to do that.”

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