While fashion lovers were reeling from celebrity stylist Law Roach’s announcement on Tuesday that he was “retiring,” the man himself was gearing up for a pivot.
On Wednesday evening, a day after Roach suddenly disclosed his news on Instagram with little explanation, he made his runway debut during the Boss Spring/Summer 2023 show in Miami. He also opened up to Vogue about what retirement truly means for him and in a series of tweets addressed rampant rumors that his announcement was because of a rift with Zendaya, one of his most famous and longstanding client relationships.
Roach told Vogue he isn’t retiring from the fashion industry, just from a certain aspect of it. “What I’m retiring from is the celebrity styling part of it: the being in service and at [the] service of other people. That’s what I’m retiring from.”
Roach said he made the decision because he feels his styling career has plateaued. “I’ve done everything I wanted to do in this career,” he said. I’ve received all the awards, the accolades, I’ve changed people’s lives … And I just feel like, I’ve had enough, you know.”
Burnout also informed his decision. Roach explained that he has had a tendency to be a workaholic and to put himself on the back burner for his clients, a pattern rooted in a background that includes going to bed hungry as a child. “If you’ve ever felt that feeling, it never goes away,” he said.
While his debut in the Boss runway show may hint at what’s to come during this transition, Roach also indicated he’s still figuring out what the next chapter will hold. “This just happened yesterday,” he told Vogue. “I’m soul searching, and I’m speaking to people that I trust, like Edward [Enninful, editor-in-chief of British Vogue], and I just have to figure it out. But I’m so excited that today I get to release.”
Notably, Enninful was among many who commented on Roach’s retirement post, writing, “You will always have a home @britishvogue ❤️.”
As far as the Zendaya of it all, Roach made no indication that his decision to step away from celebrity styling was based on still unconfirmed rumors that Zendaya will soon become an ambassador of Louis Vuitton. In fact, the dynamic duo is “forever,” according to the first in a series of tweets he posted Wednesday. In a second tweet, Roach wrote, “She’s my little sister and it’s real love not the fake industry love.”
In a final and third tweet addressing the matter, he used a gif of a familiar scene from “The Color Purple” of sisters Celie and Nettie hand-clapping in a field of flowers, captioning the tweet, “Literally me and Zendaya…”
Roach’s unprecedented talent will be missed on the red carpets (or will it?), but we’re glad to hear that he is molding a career that better meets his needs both creatively and physically.
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