He’s laying down the law.
Zendaya’s longtime stylist, Law Roach, has blacklisted the “big five” fashion houses from the “Challengers” star’s wardrobe after they initially refused to dress his “fashion soulmate” early in her career — and he kept “all the receipts.”
On an episode of the fashion podcast “The Cutting Room Floor,” Roach, 45, recalled how Chanel, Dior, Gucci, Valentino and Saint Laurent would “all say no” to Zendaya, 27, telling him to “try again next year” and calling her “too green,” per The Hollywood Reporter.
“When I said, ‘If you say no, it’ll be a no forever,’ that rang true for a long, long time,” said Roach, who has been styling the “Dune” actress since she was just 14 years old.
“By the time she had got to American Vogue, she still had never wore any of those designers — she still hasn’t,” he added, clarifying that in editorial, she has occasionally worn one of the sworn-off labels.
“She still has never worn Dior on a carpet. She still has never worn Chanel on a carpet. She has still never worn Gucci on a carpet — any press, any appearance, never. Never,” continued Roach, who says he still has “receipts” from the days of rejection.
“The first time she wore Valentino in public is when she had a contract.”
And the powerhouse pairing has always had each other’s backs. In the interview, Roach remembered when, early in his career while Zendaya was also a budding starlet, she would advocate for her beloved stylist.
“She was always the one advocating for me and making sure I was in these rooms that people thought I didn’t belong in. Even as a young girl, I’m talking about 16, 17 years old,” he explained.
“We’ve sat in boardrooms with clients and companies and CEOs and they would try to make me invisible and she would say, ‘Law has something to say,’ or someone [would] try to talk around me and she’s like, ‘Oh, well he just asked you a question,’ and it was like those small, little things that always when someone would try to take the power, she would hand it right back to me.”
While Roach retired from styling in 2023, he told The New York Times that he “can’t say no” to Zendaya, who served as a Met Gala co-chair wearing archival John Galliano this year.
“We also refer to our relationship as ‘big ideas, small details,’” he told The Times, likening it to him writing a script and her doing rewrites.
“I come in with, ‘You should wear 14 dresses, and you should change, and you should have a wig on and take it off so your hair should fall down!’ And she’s, ‘No, no, no, no. We’re going to do two dresses, and I’m going to keep the same hair.’”
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