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Who What Wear
When image architect Law Roach is behind a look, it's 10s across the board. The man himself talks us through some of his most iconic career moments thus far to working with #tomdaya, Megan Thee Stallion's SNL double-duty debut and the Disney show that connected him to Celine Dion.



Director and Cinematographer: Clarence Fuller
Editor: Jai Love
Production Swing: Anthony Lavino
Sound Mixer: Helian Zhang
Production: Production Squad
Senior Video Producer: Stephanie Romero
Associate Video Producer: Kellie Scott
Hair Stylist: Antoinette Hill for MMG
Makeup: Tiffany A Lucio
Executive Director, Creative: Alexa Wiley
Graphic Designer: Natalia Sztyk
Executive Director, Entertainment: Jessica Baker
VP, Social: MacKenzie Green
Transcript
00:00The way you know you've created an iconic look is that people wear it on Halloween.
00:08It becomes a Halloween costume.
00:09Hey, what's up? It's me, Image Architect Law Roach,
00:11and we're going to go behind the scenes with who, what, where.
00:19Aria was so excited, and she looked so beautiful that night.
00:23I remember just her being nervous and excited all at the same time,
00:28which everyone is when you go to the Met.
00:29It's a lot of cameras.
00:31The thing about the Met is that all the nerves and everything is just getting there,
00:36and once you're there and you walk up the stairs and you go into the actual ceremony,
00:40it's over so fast, but just the anxiety of getting ready and making sure it's,
00:45and being on time is the stressful part.
00:48I love when I get the opportunity to be a part of someone's first
00:52because I think that's a memory that no one will forget,
00:55and then Ariana is so iconic.
00:57Like, we'll revisit that look for years and years and years.
01:00There'll be a retrospective of her career and her life,
01:04and you'll see that dress and other dresses and maybe some ponytails, you know.
01:09I always tell her, like, I feel like her ponytails should be in the Smithsonian.
01:15The theme for that year was camp.
01:17What's more campier than a Disney film?
01:21But it was a real story in that sometimes Zendaya calls me her fairy godbrother
01:26or godmother, depending on how I'm acting that day.
01:28The story was that she was leaving Disney, and this was before Euphoria premiered,
01:35and so it was kind of her shedding, not shedding her Disney image,
01:40but just moving into more of her, because, you know, Ru is totally different from KC,
01:46like way, way different from KC.
01:48And so that was to pay homage to her career as this Disney princess.
01:54We knew when Euphoria premiered that people would get to see a whole nother side of Zendaya the actress.
02:01And a lot of people didn't see this, but she actually lost her glass slipper at the top of the
02:05stairs.
02:06So that was, like, the final hurrah and paying homage to Disney,
02:11which gave her the start of her career.
02:13So this, I'm really proud to say this was actually one of the first viral fashion moments.
02:21I got a call from my manager at the time.
02:23Really casually, she said,
02:26Oh, Celine's team called, and she wants to meet you.
02:30You know, I was like, Celine who?
02:31Like, Celine Dion.
02:33I said, who?
02:35She said, Celine Dion, fool.
02:37So I went to the Billboard Awards to meet her.
02:43I waited for her in her dressing room.
02:44She came in the dressing room, and she said,
02:47I've been following your career because my kids watch KC Undercover, and you dress KC.
02:56What that outfit and that image did was disrupted the way people think about and thought about Celine.
03:04Like, we were used to this very glamorous beads and sequins and rhinestones and the voice and the personification of
03:14the diva.
03:15And to see her in streetwear, and she was wearing this Vatmont tribute, Titanic tribute sweatshirt, and just some jeans
03:24and a sandal and a bag.
03:25And I think that it really kind of messed people up.
03:29It's like, oh, wait, like, Celine Dion's a real person, you know.
03:32I did it because Celine Dion is one of the coolest people I've ever met in my life.
03:38And her knowledge of fashion and construction and couture and designers is so vast.
03:46And I learned so much from working with her.
03:49And when I found out who she really was, was on the inside, not the image that we had all
03:55created of her on the outside.
03:57I'm like, of course you would want to wear this sweater.
04:00Of course.
04:01Kerry Washington at the Vanity Fair party, she was wearing Zuhair Marat couture.
04:05I love this collection.
04:06The collection was based on Egypt and Egyptian goddesses.
04:10And when I think of Kerry, I think of her in that way.
04:12When I saw it, I just thought it was so amazing.
04:14It was encrusted and it just, it just made me feel like this is something that Cleopatra would have worn.
04:19There was a little pushback because I think someone else said that it's too costumey.
04:24But I'm like, it's a moment, you know what I mean?
04:26Like, and don't let other people's fears or, you know, or something that makes someone else uncomfortable.
04:35Don't let them project that onto you.
04:37She ended up wearing it and she called me the next day.
04:39She was like, you were right.
04:40She's like, as soon as I walked through the door, everyone was saying how great I look.
04:44Everyone was saying that the dress, that it was so interesting and so beautiful and she looked so regal.
04:49And that night, Tracee Ellis Ross actually wore something from that, from that collection as well.
04:54Here are these two, you know, goddesses, queens, if you will, in the same party, in the same collection.
05:01Point of the story, the more of the story is that I'm always right and whoever tells you different is
05:07always wrong.
05:09She was wearing custom Armani Privé.
05:13That was one of the things, COVID was such a traumatic, devastating time for the world.
05:21Looking back at it, it was a couple things that came out of it that ended up being beautiful moments,
05:27right?
05:27One being the entire world was going through the exact same thing at the exact same time.
05:35And we all got a chance to just sit still.
05:39Second, like myself and her entire family got to literally be in that room so close to her when she
05:49won her first Emmy.
05:51And it was just so much love and joy and excitement.
05:56And we were all so proud and we got to like run up and hug her and just wrap our
06:01arms around her and like surround her with love the entire night.
06:05And had it not been in lockdown, we wouldn't have shared that moment with her the way we did.
06:10It was, it's one of my fondest moments of being around her.
06:15I looked an absolute mess.
06:17Everybody else had on black and here I am with this like rusty orange like tracksuit.
06:22I don't know what I was thinking, but I also didn't think that I would, you know, you take it
06:27for granted.
06:27She's sitting in front of a little computer screen and, you know, I didn't know that it was capturing as
06:32much as it did.
06:33But still, you know, wrong outfit, but right time.
06:37And I'll always remember that moment.
06:40So I got the call from Sam, the creator and director of Euphoria, Sam Levison.
06:48He asked me, this was all in like heavy, heavy lockdown.
06:53So I never got a chance to sit with him.
06:55Everything was done from Zoom and a bunch of conversations.
06:59It was great.
06:59It was, it was, it was challenging for that reason.
07:02You know, I wasn't able to physically be in the room with her or around her.
07:06But it was also, I felt so creative and for that look to come out and to get the type
07:11of love that it got was, was really incredible.
07:14I'm super proud of that because I got to add costume designer, you know, to my resume.
07:20And I think that dress will become my icon because I think that film is something that people will go
07:25and reference, you know, 20, 30, 40 years from now.
07:29And for me to have a little small piece of that legacy, it makes me really proud.
07:34I, I've been actually dressing Tom for a few years now.
07:38I think Tom is the ultimate movie star and, you know, he, he works and he promotes the film and
07:44then he kind of disappears for a while, which is really great.
07:47He has still a mystique around him that people are still trying to figure out, I think, and, and what's,
07:52what makes him so appealing to people.
07:54And before him and Zendaya's relationship was public, when you get to dress the two leads from a major, a
08:02major movie, it's always a big accomplishment.
08:04It's a lot of work, but it's a, it's a big accomplishment.
08:07And Emma Watson wearing Alexander McQueen, our relationship is really new.
08:12I am a firm believer that the universe puts you in people's lives exactly at the moment you're supposed to
08:17be there.
08:17She said, you know, would you consider working with me?
08:19I'm like, would you consider working with me?
08:21Emma is iconic on her own.
08:25She has a, a way to, of describing, you know, the feeling of things that she likes.
08:31And I think I, I style from an emotional place and I think she wears clothes from an emotional place.
08:37And she's also really a champion for trying to help fashion become more sustainable.
08:43And I think that's one of my biggest profiles.
08:45The easiest way to become or do something that's sustainable is to wear clothes that someone else, someone else has
08:51already worn.
08:52It's the easiest way.
08:53It's a no brainer, right?
08:54You know, go to a thrift store, a consignment show or a vintage shop and, and buy something that already
08:59has a life and, and, you know, continue to give it a life and give it away to someone else.
09:05Hand it down or even resell it.
09:07So I think that, you know, that really brought us closer.
09:10Well, I've done SNL a few times.
09:13One thing I will tell you guys about Megan Astaire that you might not know is that she is the
09:19nicest, sweetest, most patient person I think I've probably ever met.
09:26And Saturday Night Live is nerve wracking.
09:30And when someone is that nice, it makes you want to work extra, extra hard for her.
09:34I think she did incredible.
09:35I think she looked incredible.
09:37The picture you saw was her walking into 30 Rock and a full PP Pink Valentino look.
09:45That was a tough one.
09:46That night Zendaya was being honored as CFDA's fashion icon.
09:51So we felt like that it had to be amazing, especially after Rihanna's look.
09:57Rihanna is kind of, you know, and, you know, we know that we could never top, top Ree, but we
10:04wanted to be a close second.
10:05And I also wanted to be young and we chose red because red is always, to me, is the color
10:11of power.
10:12So there has that body and that, those abs and, you know, why not?
10:16It was the night to really go for it.
10:18That look has become iconic.
10:20And I say it because the way you know you've created an iconic look is that people wear it on
10:29Halloween.
10:30It becomes a Halloween costume.
10:31So if you have never done anything or worn anything that has become a Halloween costume, you are not iconic.
10:44When it comes to American fashion, that is the top of the top.
10:50And, you know, for me to be the first ever stylist to be recognized, you know, I'm overjoyed and then
10:57I'm nervous because I have to give a speech in front of these people that I look up to and
11:04grew up wanting.
11:05And, you know, me coming from, from where I came from, like, most of these clothes weren't affordable.
11:13And now, like, these people know my name and I'm friends with some of them.
11:17And it's just, it's just the biggest thing of it is that I hope that I am an example that
11:25any and everything is possible.
11:27If you really stick to the core values that, that you're taught by whoever raised you, you know, work really
11:35hard, be kind to people, treat people the way you want to be treated.
11:38I've impressed and, and done things and, and hopefully shifted culture a bit where that the CFDA is recognizing me
11:47and honoring me with this award that no one else has gotten previously.
11:52So it's, you know, I'm just, I don't know how to feel.
11:55I'm happy.
11:56So, hey guys, thanks for tuning in and let me know which of these looks were your favorite.
12:01Comment down below.
12:02Comment down below.