At this point, Law Roach’s name is as synonymous with fashion as a classic red lipstick is to beauty. The self-described ‘image architect’ is the mastermind behind some of the most famous A-listers to have emerged in the 21st Century (Céline Dion, Ariana Grande and Kerry Washington to name but a few). Of course, it’s his work with actor Zendaya that has made the former vintage broker a household name, after the pair began working together in 2011 when the actor was a Disney child star. As Roach describes, they’re the Jordan and Pippen of fashion. ‘We don’t miss,’ he recently told the New Yorker.
And then came his now groundbreaking retirement. In 2023 the stylist took to Instagram to announce that he was stepping back. ‘If this business was just about the clothes I would do it for the rest of my life but unfortunately it’s not!’ he wrote in a post on Instagram. ‘The politics, the lies and false narratives finally got me! You win . . . I’m out.’ The news triggered a tsunami effect in the fashion industry with fans questioning why a gamechanger, seemingly at the peak of their career, would step away from a job that ‘a million girls would kill for’. Naomi Campbell commented on the post 'Law I won’t let you !!!! We don’t quit .. strived to hard [sic]', while Valentino's former creative director Pierpaolo Piccioli simply wrote 'No way.'
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During a Q&A discussion with ELLE UK’s Editor-in-Chief Kenya Hunt on Monday evening in London, ahead of the release of his book How To Build a Fashion Icon: Notes on Confidence, the stylist opened up about that viral Instagram post and his decision to retire.
‘It was right after the Oscars Vanity Fair Party,’ he explained. ‘When you’re really good at your job, people think you keep the clothes under your bed. They call you at 4am and they’re like “well, she’s going to such and such and she needs a dress”, but it’s 5am on a Sunday… When you’re good and you make things happen, you give the client and their teams the sense that anything is possible. To keep up with that, you make anything and everything possible. It’s a never-ending cycle.’
Roach continued, noting that being a stylist can often feel like a ‘thankless job’. ‘You never feel as appreciated for the amount of work you put into it,’ he continued. ‘In the last couple of years, after my nephew died… I started to see the things that weren’t quite right and didn’t feel right.'
The stylist and entrepreneur recalled that day after the 2023 Vanity Fair post-Oscars party when a client, her publicist and a publicist from an unnamed brand called to chastise him. 'At first I [was] defending myself,' he remembered. [The discussion] was about the Met Gala and the Gala was nine weeks away at that point. I was like “Why am I doing this? I change people’s lives with fashion.” I said, “You know what? Get someone else to do it.” I got on a plane to Miami as I was walking in a Hugo Boss show and that’s when I wrote the [Instagram post]. Everything hit me at one time. No matter how big I got, or how successful or how known my name or work was, these people felt I had to answer to them. I couldn’t take it anymore.’
The stylist added that his retirement post came at a time when he’d suffered a family tragedy and he felt unable to mourn in the way he wanted to amid the work pressure. ‘I was also sick of dealing with the politics of the fashion industry and the movie industry and all of these things,' he admitted. 'I wrote [the post] because I really wanted people to leave me alone and stop calling my phone…
While announcing his retirement felt freeing, to an extent, it also brought on a period of mourning for the person he was and the career he'd created. 'I thought Who am I if I’m not him? If I’m not Law Roach, the image architect, the stylist, if I’m not on red carpets and doing 10 people at the Met Gala, then Venice and the Grammys and all of these things… then who am I? That person almost had to die so that the new me could be born.’
Roach, who grew up in Chicago, Illinois, added that when you come 'from nothing, every opportunity to you feels like the last opportunity'. Fearful of missing out on a career-defining moments, he said the pressure makes you feel like 'you have to take it, you have to say "yes".' He recalled a memory, also referenced in his book, when his uncle died and he subsequently asked his cousin to move the funeral to accommodate a client fitting.
‘I thought how f*cking terrible and selfish was I to ask my cousin, who was grieving the death of her father, to accommodate me? I felt like sh*t when I remembered that, but that’s how caught up I was in the career. Nothing else mattered. I don’t regret working like I did, but I do regret some of the situations that came out of it.’
How to Build a Fashion Icon: Notes on Confidence from the World’s Only Image Architect
Elsewhere in Roach’s discussion with ELLE UK he discussed his approach to fame and the celebrity status that has come with success and notoriety. Crediting his fellow stylist Rachel Zoe, who similarly stepped back from celebrity styling in 2014, for exposing the experts behind a celebrity’s style for the first time, he revealed that he knew what was necessary in the world of Hollywood to ensure his name would receive the recognition it rightfully deserved.
‘I understood – because I love money – that more opportunities and income would come if you started to be a little bit more public facing,’ he began. ‘I started to do television, two seasons of America’s Next Top Model, and then I went onto do three seasons of Legendary… [fame] was planned because I didn’t want to carry garment bags for the rest of my life. I thought I had such a big personality that I could use that to create more opportunities for myself. And it also gave me a way to separate me from my clients.’
![law roach and zendaya](https://cdn.statically.io/img/hips.hearstapps.com/hmg-prod/images/gettyimages-1347328049.jpg?resize=640:* "UK Special Screening of "Dune"")
On his most famous client, Zendaya, he added: ‘I love Zendaya – she will always be my sister. She’s actually the one who really kept my from retiring. But I didn’t want to be known as Zendaya’s, Celine Dion’s or Ariana Grande’s stylist for the rest of my life. I wanted my own identity so I had to think ahead and think about moving to be whatever this is I am now.’
Reflecting on where he finds himself now, post-retirement, he noted: ‘I’m so happy. I didn’t even know that this type of happiness and power were possible. I can say “no” whenever I want and to whomever I want and not feel guilt or shame or pressure… I feel in control of my life.’
Roach emotionally explained that he feels ‘so grateful’ because he has lived all of his dreams out already. 'Anything I’ve dreamt about as a stylist in the fashion industry, I’ve lived it,' he reflected. 'I’ve dressed so many clients – all the award shows we dream about doing, I’ve been to so many countries, I’ve done music, I’ve done sports, I’ve done film, I’ve done everything… and one day I woke up and thought I need to dream more dreams because I’ve lived them all, which is such a blessing.
‘It was time to figure out what the next set of dreams would be and start to actively start pursuing those.’
The ELLE Collective x Law Roach Q&A was hosted and organised by Résidence CÎROC at the London hotspot The Standard.
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Katie O'Malley is the Site Director on ELLE UK. On a daily basis you’ll find Katie managing all digital workflow, editing site, video and newsletter content, liaising with commercial and sales teams on new partnerships and deals (eg Nike, Tiffany & Co., Cartier etc), implementing new digital strategies and compiling in-depth data traffic, SEO and ecomm reports. In addition to appearing on the radio and on TV, as well as interviewing everyone from Oprah Winfrey to Rishi Sunak PM, Katie enjoys writing about lifestyle, culture, wellness, fitness, fashion, and more.
