Law Roach clarifies his retirement plans.
The celebrity stylist abruptly announced he was quitting his day job in a shocking Instagram post earlier this week, with fans speculating the straw was an incident involving Zendaya at the Louis Vuitton show during Paris Fashion Week earlier this month.
In a video clip that has gone viral on social media, Roach appears upset after an exchange with his superstar client, who sat in the front row and waved at the seat behind her, apparently suggesting that Roach sit there.
Roach — who also counts Priyanka Chopra, Hailee Steinfeld, Hunter Schafer, Celine Dion, Ariana Grande and more as current and former clients — addressed the moment and further explained her decision to ditch the celebrity style in an interview. with The Cut released on Friday.
He revealed that he and the “Euphoria” actress were late to the Vuitton show and arrived with “a lot of anxiety” because “Zendaya is really respectful and she doesn’t like people having to l ‘to wait for”.
Since Vuitton employs several other female ambassadors — including Sophie Turner, Emma Stone, Ana de Armas, Alicia Vikander and Chloë Grace Moretz — who all received prime perches, Zendaya only got one front-row seat, leaving Roach without a place.
“Even for years, I’m still used to sitting next to her. And so, in my mind, my place was next to her. So when I got there and it wasn’t no, you know, it wasn’t a problem, but there was no one to tell me where my actual seat was,” he explained, adding that looking at the clothes side by side has become the routine of the duo.
“And so the seat behind her, when you see her turn around and touch the seat, she wasn’t the one who told me to sit there, she was the one who said to me, ‘That’s Darnell’s seat”, who is his assistant. I’m not going to sit in Darnell’s seat,” Roach said, referring to the viral video.
“It became very difficult because it made people think Zendaya wasn’t looking after me and making sure I was looked after.”
Roach said after the show, he and Zendaya went to the after-party and stressed he had “no beef” with LVMH, Louis Vuitton’s parent company.
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In the long-running interview, Roach also discusses his past run-in with Dior (also owned by LVMH), who he says didn’t credit him with the clothes he helped design for Anya Taylor-Joy – “Ne don’t erase me,” he said — along with comments he allegedly made to Priyanka Chopra Jonas about his height, his reputation as a “diva,” the racism he faces in the industry and more.
Roach has confirmed that he will not be dressing any clients for the upcoming Met Gala, although he has outfitted several stars for the Oscars this season. He also revealed that he will soon be named creative director of a shoe brand and is working on a book, among other projects, and will continue to collaborate with Zendaya in some capacity.
As for his many other clients? “They’re going to find a new stylist.”
In a statement shared with Page Six Style, Roach said, “For me, fashion has always been a love, not a job. I spent so much time and energy nurturing that love and it became my way of communicating with the world. I don’t plan on stepping away from it completely, I’m just going to take some time to step away from the celebrity style and focus on myself for the first time in almost a decade.