Law Roach Just Said He’d “Absolutely” Try Acting, and the Fashion World Is Already Casting Him in Its Head

Law Roach has spent the last decade and a half making other people look like stars. Now he is openly flirting with the idea of becoming one himself.

The self proclaimed image architect, the man behind Zendaya’s most jaw dropping red carpet transformations, told Variety this week that he would “absolutely” give acting a shot. And in true Law Roach fashion, he delivered the admission with a wink and a perfect one liner.

“When a director sees something for me,” Roach said Thursday night at the third annual InStyle Imagemaker Awards in Los Angeles. “I want to try everything. If I’m terrible at it, at least I tried.”

When Variety wondered whether the A list actors he has dressed over the years could help him land a role, Roach had the room laughing: “I’ve also worked with some of the greatest singers of all time, but that doesn’t mean I’m going to try to sing.”

The Awards Night That Started It All

The conversation happened at the Imagemaker Awards, held October 15 at a private residence in Los Angeles, an evening honoring the stylists, groomers, hairstylists, makeup artists and costume designers who shape Hollywood’s image. Roach was one of the night’s honorees, presented with the women’s stylist award by Heidi Klum, his co host on Project Runway, who called him “a little bit of a magician.”

Fueled, by his own admission, with “a lot of tequila,” Roach closed the night with a speech that was equal parts hilarious and heartfelt, built around his personal motto: “The universe protects and provides.” It was classic Law Roach, and within days, the acting admission was making the rounds online.

He Is Not Exactly a Newcomer to the Screen

Here is the part people forget: Law Roach has already been on screen. He has made cameo appearances as himself in The Devil Wears Prada 2, this year’s long awaited sequel to the 2006 fashion classic, reuniting Meryl Streep, Anne Hathaway, Emily Blunt and Stanley Tucci under director David Frankel. He also picked up “walk on” roles in Running Point, the Kate Hudson Netflix sitcom.

Roach is credited with turning the movie press tour into a fashion event, building entire red carpet narratives around the films his clients star in.

But those were fun. This is different. What Roach wants now is for a director to look at him and see a character worth writing for, not just a stylist having a laugh in a cameo.

The Resume Nobody Talks About

It is easy to think of Law Roach as just Zendaya’s guy, and to be fair, that partnership alone would be a career. Lawrence “Law” Roach, 48, born in Chicago on July 20, 1978, started out selling vintage finds from the trunk of his car before opening his boutique, Deliciously Vintage. His big break came in 2011, when he styled a 14 year old Zendaya for the premiere of Justin Bieber’s Never Say Never. They have been inseparable on the red carpet ever since.

But the client list reads like a who’s who of modern celebrity style: Celine Dion, whose public image he completely reinvented; Ariana Grande; Hunter Schafer; Megan Thee Stallion; Anya Taylor-Joy. Just recently he named Kim Kardashian as a new client, dressing her in a sparkling vintage Yves Saint Laurent by Tom Ford gown from the Fall/Winter 2004 collection for the opening of the Lucas Museum of Narrative Art.

And then there is television. Roach served as a primary judge on HBO Max’s ballroom competition series Legendary (2020 to 2022). He joined RuPaul’s Drag Race as a judge starting with season 17, and Project Runway starting with season 21, where he is also an executive producer. Before all that, he cut his teeth as a judge on America’s Next Top Model.

The Trend He Created by Accident

Roach is widely credited with pioneering “method dressing,” the now unavoidable practice of choosing red carpet looks that tell the story of the movie being promoted. Zendaya’s press tours for Dune and Challengers were masterclasses in it, with ensembles that directly referenced each film’s aesthetics, from a wet sand inspired gown to tennis whites reimagined as couture. Press tours used to be promotion. Under Roach, they became theater.

“I like that people are doing it, whether they give me credit for it or not,” he has said of the trend’s explosion, adding that he loves giving audiences “five or 10 minutes a day to look at something and enjoy it.”

It is not hard to see why a director might want some of that theatrical instinct in front of the camera.

For now the spotlight finds Roach on the red carpet. If a director calls, he says he is ready.

The Retirement That Wasn’t

Of course, this would not be the first time Law Roach announced he was done, only to come back bigger. In March 2023 he stunned the fashion world with an Instagram post announcing his retirement from celebrity styling, writing “You win. I’m out,” citing burnout and the politics of the industry. He never fully walked away though. He kept working with Zendaya, and in April 2025 he formally returned to styling.

Since then he has been busier than ever. In 2022 he became the first ever winner of the CFDA Stylist Award, a category the organization created specifically to honor him. He published his book, How to Build a Fashion Icon: Notes on Confidence from the World’s Only Image Architect. And just last month he was named ASOS’s first ever Stylist in Residence.

So What Would Law Roach the Actor Look Like?

Here is the fun part. Roach is not pitching himself as a leading man. He is not begging for a script. His pitch, if you can call it that, is refreshingly honest: he will show up, try everything, and if it goes badly, at least he tried.

There is already precedent. His Devil Wears Prada 2 cameo put him inside one of the most fashion literate films ever made, essentially playing himself in a world he helped define in real life. His reality TV judging stints on Project Runway and Drag Race prove he knows how to hold a camera’s attention, deliver a line, and think on his feet under pressure.

For a man who has built his entire career on the idea that clothes tell stories, stepping into a role and letting someone else tell his story through a costume might be the most natural pivot of all.

The Bottom Line

Law Roach told Variety he wants a director to see something in him. Given that he has spent fifteen years teaching Hollywood how to look at people, it might be the easiest casting call in town.

As he likes to say: the universe protects and provides. Hollywood, take note.

Related: The full InStyle Imagemaker Awards 2026 red carpet story, Zendaya’s latest Louis Vuitton Paris Fashion Week moment, and Kendall Jenner’s candid Kardashians confessions.