Law Roach is more than Zendaya’s stylist; he’s a manufacturer of viral moments and a master manipulator of public perception.
The theme of the 2019 MET gala, Notes on Camp, inspired a string of iconic moments ranging from Lady Gaga shedding an enormous fuchsia dress revealing fishnets to Jared Leto carrying a lifelike reproduction of his own head.
But none are remembered with as much awe as the moment Zendaya took to the carpet in a commodious Cinderella-inspired blue dress.
The dress was selected by Roach – a self-identified ‘Image Architect’ – along with all of Zendaya’s most iconic fashion moments over the years.
The artist recently sat down with Metro.co.uk before launching his new book, How to Build a Fashion Icon, as a part of the finale of Résidence CÎROC which saw CÎROC take over beloved London hotspot The Standard, transforming some of its rooms and spaces into immersive fashion experiences.
Dressed impeccably and wearing the long, sleek wig the 46-year-old has become known for, he describes how creating a viral moment like the Cinderella dress is about more than just picking clothes: ‘If people think about stylists, they think, “Oh, you’re just running out and grabbing a dress and some shoes and accessories,” right?
‘But mine – what I did – was more deep than that, and more detailed than that. I really thought that I was doing things that were really comparable to what an architect did,’ he shares, explaining his decision to trademark the term Image Architect a decade ago.
‘I did research and built a blueprint and made sure that the right contractors – meaning hair and makeup and and all those things – were put into place, so that the whole would be greater than the sum of the parts, right?’
Undeniably regal, Zendaya was born to turn heads regardless of her clothes, but in the right outfit? She glows like the only sun in a dim universe.
Roach understood this intuitively when he first met the Challengers star when she was just 14, quickly becoming her stylist and creative partner. He began putting her – then only a supporting actress on Disney Channel – on red carpets she didn’t necessarily belong on, certain that the cameras would recognize the same sparkle he magnified with the outfits he chose for her.
He was right, and as photos of Zendaya in striking high fashion looks began to populate the front page of publications and spread on social media, leading roles for the young actress began to pour in.
The pair created an artistic relationship so symbiotic – if not conflict-free (‘We actually had an argument last night. Family stuff.’) – that their careers grew in direct proportion to each other.
He speaks of her with reverence: ‘She’s everything to me. She’s my muse and my fashion soulmate and my constant collaborator, and my little sister and sometimes the big sister. She’s where my flowers grow.’
However, not every look the pair has dreamed up has been a hit. Many criticised the actresses’ Challengers press tour outfits (an array of tennis skirts and even tennis ball-themed pumps, helping define the Hollywood trend of ‘method dressing’) as feeling forced, for example.
But Roach doesn’t see this criticism as a risk of the trade, but a welcome phenomenon.
‘I think fashion should be fun and I think fashion should be both conversational and polarising, right? And that’s what I always try to do in my work, and especially with Zendaya,’ he explains.
‘We’ve always wanted people to love it, and some people to hate it, and some people to just automatically understand it. And some people not understand it. Yeah, but it gets people talking.’
Perfection is the enemy of true idiosyncratic expression, according to the stylist, who is warm and friendly in person.
Gesturing animatedly, he explains that clothes should appear loved and like they belong to the wearer in a spiritual sense: ‘I mean, on certain things, on red carpets, clothes need to be as perfect as possible, right? But there also needs to be some life in it, you know? There has to, it needs to be the…’
He pauses, choking up, disclaiming: ‘I’m very emotional when I speak about clothes.’
He takes a moment and then continues: ‘It has to feel alive and like it’s a part of the whole narrative, it has to be the words to the story. And sometimes those words aren’t always going to be as fluid. You know, sometimes those words need to be interpreted, and I think fashion should be allowed to do that.’
To say that a dress is wearing someone, not the other way around, is a common idiom for a reason. Too often in Hollywood a celebrity is overshadowed by bold fashion choices that make them look more costumed than styled.
For Roach’s clients, this is never a problem. Every one of them appears more themselves after seeking his expertise – this was perhaps most strikingly true of Celine Dion, who he began working with in 2016, triggering a fashion renaissance for the singer that was front page news globally.
Roach explains how he accomplished this: For him, how his client looks is secondary to how they feel, and he refuses to practice his art form in any other way.
‘I think the biggest compliment I’ve ever gotten in my career is that none of my clients look like each other. I never had an aesthetic that I was pressed on and pushed on to my clients. I was figuring out exactly who they were, who they wanted to be, what made them comfortable, and what made them uncomfortable,’ he says.
It’s this kind of self-actualisation through fashion as an art form that Roach hopes people will glean from his book, something he considers to be his service to the world.
And his advice is far more accessible than one might think, given his affiliation with design houses like Mugler and Alexandra McQueen. One of Roach’s primary points in the book’s pages is finding a single piece of clothing, or a few, that you ‘identify with.’ Something that: ‘Makes you feel beautiful, because what it does is it triggers your mood. It triggers your perceptions.’
He also advocates for wearing these outfits as often as possible, dismissing as ‘tacky’ anyone who would criticise outfit-repeating. He himself often wears the same nylon A-line skirt (‘I’m obsessed with skirts right now’) because it always makes him feel beautiful.
He continues: ‘I always say, if the Duchess can wear something again, if Kate can wear something again, why can’t you?’
If this sounds anti-couture to you, you’d be right. Roach is unconcerned with the norms of the fashion world and even actively tries to subvert them, as he’s done throughout his trailblazing career.
A southside Chicago native, Roach was an outsider in an insular and privileged fashion world, but his talent and results were so undeniable doors started to open for him pretty early on, working with clients like Celine Dion, Anya Taylor-Joy, Hunter Schaffer, and Ariana Grande. He quickly and inarguably became the most famous stylist in Hollywood and beyond as he generated viral fashion moment after viral fashion moment.
Despite this success, Roach shocked the world when he announced his retirement from styling in 2023, seemingly at the peak of his career. For a few days, the fashion space was in an uproar, unable to believe that Roach would leave the very industry he reshaped.
He explains the decision almost a year later: ‘I didn’t know who I was outside of being Law Roach the image architect, Law Roach the celebrity stylist. I went through a really dark period of, you know, just trying to figure out who I was and how else I could be of service to the world.
‘I thought this book would be a way that I could still be of service to people, but masses of people, and give them all the things that my celebrity clients said I brought to them – and affordably.’ He laughs.
By the time Zendaya wore the now iconic Cinderella dress at the 2019 MET gala, she was one of the world’s biggest stars, largely because her work with Roach put her on the map and got people saying her name.
On that night, after emerging gracefully from the back of a limousine, she slowly made her way towards the entrance to the iconic museum, cameras flashing all around her like tiny explosions.
Then, Law Roach stepped forward, dressed as her fairy godmother.
In a moment that encapsulates the pair’s long artistic relationship and grabbed the world’s attention, Roach theatrically waved a wand. The already memorable dress expanded as light began to creep up from the hem, eventually illuminating the whole of the dress.
As the dress lit up, so did Zendaya’s face. And for Roach, that’s the point of it all.
While he might not be styling anymore, it’s inevitable that whatever the artist does next will shine as brightly as the stars whose careers he’s so deftly shaped.
How to Build a Fashion Icon: Notes on Confidence from the World’s Only Image Architect is out on October 10.
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