Stylist Icon Law Roach Listens to Critics. Just Don’t Come for Zendaya.

Law Roach is no stranger to controversial looks. Whether the renowned celebrity stylist and image architect is showing up bulge-first to the 2023 CFDA awards or dressing his longtime client Zendaya in ostentatious tennis couture for her Challengers press tour, Roach is unafraid to take risks on the red carpet.

That confident conviction extends to his larger body of work. Last year, Roach shocked the fashion and entertainment industries when he announced he would retire from styling to pursue his own ventures. And though he still works closely with Zendaya (and will occasionally pop up to style a friend and client like Celine Dion for her surprise appearance at this year’s Grammys), navigating uncharted waters has been tricky.

“I’m figuring it out!” Roach tells The Daily Beast’s Obsessed over Zoom, laughing to himself. “As far as my style and the way I want the world to see me, it’s changing a little bit. I think that’s okay.” Roach is promoting his latest gig outside the world of styling, a new E! Network reality show called OMG Fashun, which he’s hosting alongside megawatt multihyphenate Julia Fox. While this is far from Roach’s first foray into reality television, it’s certainly his most exciting. The series is a design competition that pushes for sustainability in the fashion industry through outlandish, upcycled looks that viewers could easily replicate and remix at home. (Think Project Runway for the Brooklyn club kid scene.) It’s the perfect addition to Roach’s portfolio, which already boasts a slew of outrageous and exciting styling decisions and branding tactics that have made him as famous as his A-List clients.

Despite all of that fame and recognition, Roach is amiably humble. His small voice livens up and practically floats through the Zoom window when we discuss OMG Fashun and Fox, whom he credits with creating a work environment where he felt he could be authentically himself. If Roach has had trouble nailing down exactly who he is and where he wants to be, it would be hard to know just from listening to him speak. He talks about his career and next moves with the brazen self-assurance of someone unafraid of making mistakes, an attitude he partially attributes to his success. “If there is any critique [online] that I somewhat agreed with, I take that, and use it for the next go-around,” Roach says.

If Roach is concerned about critiques ahead of Monday’s Met Gala, you’d have no idea. A mention of the infamous party—and Zendaya’s imminent return to it—only excites him. Ahead of OMG Fashun’s two-episode premiere May 6, Roach spoke with The Daily Beast’s Obsessed about his career longevity, his relationships with Zendaya and Julia Fox, the internet’s obsession with his work styling Zendaya for the Challengers press tour, and what the two besties might have planned for the Met Gala red carpet.

It was funny, I started OMG Fashun just a few hours before I found out I had a 102-degree fever—

Oh!

But regardless, watching the show felt like the best kind of fever dream. It’s a blast, one that blows any kind of stuffy idea of sustainability into something absurd and colorful. Is that why you were interested in coming on as a co-host?

Can you text me everything you said? I want to plagiarize your description. [Laughs]. I wanted to come in and be myself, and bring the quick-wit humor and tough, tough critiques that I’m known for. I think Julia was amazing at setting the tone of what the show would be about. The environment she created was so fun and so pleasant. But I wanted to come in and be authentically me and give her and E! Network 125 percent of myself.

I think you can feel that authenticity in the way that you judge these designers, who you call “disruptors” in the show. I imagine being authentic with people who are new in the industry and trying to get a leg up can be tricky, but you’re balanced between criticism and genuine advice.

Ooh, am I?

You don’t leave someone without something to chew on.

Oh, yeah, I tell you that to build you up! [Laughs]. I think it would be a disservice to these young talents if I wasn’t completely honest with the way I feel and the emotions that their particular garment evoked for me. I want to feel something. And sometimes what I feel isn’t the best. But it comes from a place of love and wanting everybody to be a winner, wanting everyone to walk away from OMG Fashun and use this as a stepping stone to build a real, true, sustainable career.

And the fashion industry is notorious for gatekeeping from emerging designers.

The same type of critique I would give an emerging designer is the same type of critique I gave Pierpaolo [Piccioli] when he was at Valentino. So…everybody can get it! That’s just who I am as a creative and someone who digests a lot of fashion. If I was soft and didn’t have a real, honest opinion, it would give those kids a disservice.

In creative industries, that’s something you need: Someone to toughen your skin. But your approach to judging feels like a more modern, considerate version of what we used to see on America’s Next Top Model and Project Runway. Did you consider those shows before filming?

Well, I was actually on Top Model, I did the last two seasons.

That’s right, the Rita Ora seasons! Oh, I was a watcher.

Yeah! My train started many, many years ago. That was almost 10 years ago.

How time has flown.

I also judge from the lens that my work has been judged. I have been critiqued over the years by millions of people. I’ve been able to walk away from that still feeling like I made the right decision, and still having the same amount of confidence, while also learning. Sometimes it takes another set of eyes or another opinion to show you something that you missed.

I had millions and millions of people around the world judging every single thing I just did with Zendaya for the Challengers premiere. Some people hated it, some people thought it was too costumey or too literal, or just too much!

Screw those critics, her Loewe tennis ball heels were inspired.

I listen to those, and if there is any critique that I somewhat agree with, I take that and use it for the next go-around.

How much of this feels like work and how much of it feels like having fun with your friends? We’ve seen you become so close with the people you work with that I imagine those relationships make the job feel less like work.

Zendaya’s my annoying little sister. We’re going on our 13th year working together, we’ve grown up with each other. She’s different. That’s family no matter what. Yeah, we fight, whatever. What I do love about Julia is that she does not take herself seriously. She gives you the agency to make fun of her and vice versa, and the work environment she creates is just fun, easy, and encouraging. She knew me from other things that I’ve done but not personally, and I was skeptical. I was a little nervous to know exactly what I was walking into.

She created this atmosphere of joy and humor—the most appropriate-inappropriate things. It felt good every single day. I was excited to go on set and see what [she was wearing]. She led that show and did it in a way that was so inviting for me.

That joy translates to the show. I only had a few episodes to watch before talking with you, and all I wanted to do was watch more.

You wanted to binge it, Coleman?

I’m dying to!

That’s so good to hear. I wish I had a script and read everything you’ve said. You have my sentiments down pat.

You say that, but I think the show and your reputation speak for themselves. What has it been like for you to go from someone who frequently works behind the scenes to becoming a superstar yourself?

To be quite honest, I’m figuring it out! I know who I am at the core of me—I’m a super confident person. As far as my style and the way I want the world to see me, it’s changing a little bit. I think that’s okay. I’ve encouraged that with my clients and other people I’ve come into contact with out in the world: Be able to explore and be able to make mistakes. I think I make mistakes. I’ve had some horrible looks on the red carpet—CFDA awards, whatever! But I’m not afraid to try.

That’s the fun thing about fashion, you don’t have to limit yourself. Some people create a uniform, they wear the same thing every single day, or the same color, and I think that’s great. Then you have someone like Julia Fox, who is so unpredictable and so beautifully insane with the choices of clothes she wears. As individuals, we should have the liberty to wear whatever we want. There may be a few more mistakes down the line that people get to talk about and judge. It doesn’t move me either way.

Welcoming mistakes is an important part of being a creative. If you’re such a perfectionist that the work won’t allow for that, it only makes the work suffer.

Yeah, and it makes you suffer. It makes you miserable. Everybody takes a bad picture now and again, it’s just how it is.

There are hardly ever any bad pictures that come out of the Met Gala, which is coming up Monday. And can you leak any info about what Zendaya might have planned as one of this year's hosts? Just a little tidbit.

Zendaya is making her return—her comeback to the MET. It's been five years. I’ll be in attendance as well. You know how we feel about dressing on theme: I think it’s important. Outside of the context of what the theme is, the world really enjoys watching. In the climate that we live in now, a break that feels like some type of fantasy and joy is really needed. For us to just have such a minute moment to bring some of that is important. It’s just more fun!

More celebrities are finally attending with looks that are trying to be on theme. You love method dressing, going big with a theme to make it even broader on the red carpet. Is that something you think has been successful at this venue lately?

I do think that the MET has been camp ever since the theme was Camp [in 2019]. I would love to see people not just come and try to have the biggest dress, or the loudest color, but to research and dig deep into this year’s theme [“The Garden of Time”], what it means, and why it’s happening. I think that would be really beautiful. And I love beauty.