Law Roach just put his retirement from styling on pause for a special client and an equally impressive pull.
On Wednesday, May 15, the image architect returned to the red carpet arm-in-arm with supermodel Naomi Campbell. Roach and Campbell coordinated for the second day of the Cannes Film Festival in black, sequined Chanel looks: a shimmering collarless jacket and pants for Roach, and a vintage dress with sheer striped panels for Campbell.
Law Roach (left) and Naomi Campbell walked the red carpet together at the Cannes Film Festival for the premiere of Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga.
Law Roach excels at making intentional pulls from the fashion archives, and the supermodel's shimmering dress wasn't an exception. Campbell originally debuted the exact same dress she wore to Cannes on the Chanel couture runway in 1996. (Talk about a dress with a story.)
While she originally wore her Karl Lagerfeld design with a black slip underneath, her redux styling for the flashing lights of Cannes included nothing but black briefs beneath the skirt's sheer tulle panels. She also dialed up her beauty by a few degrees, wearing her hair in voluminous curls instead of a slicked-back pixie crop. Exaggerated drop earrings coordinated with the gown's dripping pearl straps.
Campbell's vintage gown featured a semi-sheer, sequin-covered skirt and strands of pearls dripping from her shoulders.
Campbell originally wore the same gown on Chanel's couture runway in 1996, albeit with different styling.
Based on Roach's styling history, Chanel is a surprising designer for the stylist to wear. In a recent interview with Recho Omondi on the Cutting Room Floor podcast, Roach listed Chanel among five other luxury brands who would not dress his star client Zendaya for her early red carpets. As her profile rose, Roach and Zendaya deliberately avoided the brands that had rejected them in the past. “When I said, ‘If you say no, it’ll be a no forever,’ that rang true for a long, long time,” Roach said. (Other brands on the list included Dior and Saint Laurent.)
Since announcing his retirement last year, Law Roach has made some exceptions. In addition to styling Zendaya, he has also dressed Celine Dion and Campbell (pictured here).
Roach has spent the past several months dressing Zendaya and Zendaya only. The pair took over the international fashion circuit this winter in spring with back-to-back press tours, first for Dune: Part Two, and then for Challengers. Both tours showed off the pair's knack for "method dressing" and their knowledge of deep fashion history, turning the red carpets into an opportunity to revisit revolutionary pieces from Mugler, Givenchy, Vivienne Westwood, and Carolina Herrera.
Now, Roach is in a new, seemingly-not-retired era, promoting his Max styling competition series OMG Fashun and working with a select number of extra clients (like Campbell). Whoever he and his clients want to wear, it looks like he can make the pull possible.
