Law Roach Is The Word

All month long, Bustle’s annual The Entertainers Issue is celebrating the performers and creators who lit up our screens and beyond in 2026.

Law Roach has, quite literally, changed the way we talk about fashion. Over his decade-plus in the public eye, he’s added “image architect” to the lexicon and, thanks to his work with longtime collaborator Zendaya, put “method dressing” — the increasingly prevalent practice of extending a movie’s storytelling through an actor’s off-screen looks — on everybody’s lips.

“I don’t think I set out to do that,” he says, in a speaking voice that’s surprisingly softer than what you hear on TV. “I set out because I had a partner who was leaving television to become a movie actress, and I was doing what I’ve always done: everything that I could possibly do to help her be as successful as she could be.” Now, for plenty of fashion heads and cinephiles alike, movie press tours are (almost) as anticipated as the movies themselves. “It’s just something that started growing and growing, and then we started to see that people really appreciated it.”

Though Roach famously announced his retirement from celebrity styling in 2023, he’s somehow more of a red-carpet firmament than ever: He’s continued working with Zendaya, among a few other select clients, and just last month announced a new one: Kim Kardashian, who wore a sparkling Yves Saint Laurent by Tom Ford dress from the Fall/Winter 2004 collection to the opening celebration for the new Lucas Museum of Narrative Art in Los Angeles.

Taking a step back, however, gave Roach more room to become a television fixture. For the last few years, he’s been an alternating judge on RuPaul’s Drag Race (plus its All Stars edition) and, since 2025, a principal judge on Project Runway, where his sharp commentary at times has left contestants and even his fellow judges a little stunned. (Which, for the record, he stands by: “I think what you saw in the edit was great,” he says cheerfully.) But the 48-year-old doesn’t even need to say a word to let you know what he’s thinking. Recently, a clip of Roach at Paris Fashion Week became a viral meme thanks to his Miranda Priestly-level stare.

On his YouTube channel, he’s putting on another kind of show, taking fans behind the scenes at photo shoots, runways, and awards shows with intimate mini-documentaries that offer the fullest picture of his life yet. “When I retired a few years ago, what I figured out is that I didn’t have a lot of memories of all these really amazing experiences I had, these places I had been,” he says. “So I thought I would start to document a little of that, not only for other people to see but for me to keep a visual record of my life.” It’s a reminder that, while he made his name toiling in service of other celebrities’ red-carpet wattage, this is a star in his own right.

On his quick wit:

It definitely had to come from school, because kids could be cruel, right? And with the last name Roach — you would have to think of all the things that I had to go through and being bullied. But also, culturally, playing the Dozens is what we call it — cracking jokes on each other is just part of what people do at school. You have to learn how to be savvy with words. So I think that’s where it came from. I always had a big personality, but the career I chose didn’t always allow me to show that personality because what I do is basically behind the scenes. My career being in such a different place now gave me the courage to do it, I think.

On ideas for his own reality show:

I would love to do a docuseries that is also a competition series — follow my life to find the next image architect. People don’t really see the tough parts of it. The early mornings, the late nights, the chasing the FedEx, the managing the assistants. I think people would be intrigued to know how much hard work goes into creating just one look for one carpet.

On whether styling careers can be more sustainable:

I don’t think it can be. I think if it could be, somebody would’ve figured it out already. It is a high stress, high frequency, multifaceted, very disciplined profession — you have to be disciplined, to be successful at it. Because not only are these people’s images in your hands, but you also have to run a business, and keeping a business sustainable is tough.

On working with Kim Kardashian:

It’s a relationship that’s building. Kim has always had an affinity for vintage and archived clothes — she’s been doing it for years. And I think we have that love in common. She’s a great collaborator because she’s like a blank canvas when you get to create with her. Even though she’s done everything, it feels like you’re doing something new or fresh. She makes you feel that way, because what she wants from you is your perception of who Kim Kardashian is. She doesn’t want somebody else’s take on it. She wants to know how you see her and what you see her wearing and how she’s wearing it. That’s really interesting and fun.

On what he looks for in a new client:

I just have to be inspired. There has to be a story to tell, or there has to be a need. That’s it. And they have to have somewhere to go — I can’t do the job if they don’t have anywhere to go.

On his creative process:

It’s a lot of imagination. The first Dune, I had only seen the trailer. You give me a little something to imagine, and I can take it from there. Even for The Greatest Showman, I knew what that movie was about, so it was kind of easy for me to research and ideate and dream about what the wardrobe should be. I’m just a crazy little kid that dreams a lot, so that’s how it happens, really. It’s literally all in my brain. I save things on Instagram that I will go back and reference, but for the most part, it just stays in my brain.

On seeing a final look on the red carpet:

It’s euphoric. It is my drug. I don’t do drugs, so I don’t know how to say that in the right way, but whatever drugs may feel like is what that feels like in my imagination. With [Zendaya’s] angel-wing dress from Matières Fécales — I saw that dress two years ago. I don’t even know if they had made [The Odyssey] yet, but I knew that movie was coming, so I asked them to hold the dress. It makes me feel good when I keep those promises to people. It makes me feel good that I’ve been able to be a man of my word.

On his career advice for people-pleasers:

The most powerful thing that you can possess is just not really giving a f*ck. I know it sounds much easier said than done, but once you are able to achieve that? I don’t care about being polarizing because I just don’t care. In my professional life, my work speaks for itself. So whatever people think about me personally, it really doesn’t affect that. And if it does, then those are the people I shouldn’t be working with anyway, right? When you really understand that, what’s to be lost?