How to Find Your Personal Style on a Budget, According to Law Roach

Few people have had a year like Law Roach. After a stellar display at the 2023 Oscars where he styled five women—Hunter Schafer, Kerry Washington, Hailee Steinfeld, Eve Jobs, and Megan Thee Stallion—the celebrated image architect announced that these were, in fact, “his final five,” and he would be retiring from celebrity styling, effective immediately.

Roach’s styling career is one for the history books. His work with his first celebrity client, a 14-year-old Zendaya, launched them both into the upper echelons of the fashion industry, and served as an impossible-to-ignore launchpad for her post-Disney career. Then there was his time with Céline Dion, when the pair foraged for archival treasures in the singer’s own closet and reintroduced her to the world as the Best Dressed Human of 2017.

His time with Zendaya and Dion, as well as Anne Hathaway, Ariana Grande, Anya Taylor-Joy, and more, secured him the CFDA’s first-ever Best Stylist award last year. So… now what? First up is a partnership with The Runway at T.J.Maxx, a natural pairing for the self-proclaimed Maxxinista. As for the rest, he has some ideas.

Below, Byrdie spoke to the recent retiree about what excites him in this next chapter, how he learned to style on a budget, and more.

His Advice for People Who Want to Get Into Styling

“Go to med school. It is a really, really, really tough job. But my advice would be to find someone who you respect and try to intern with, assist them to learn their structure and their process. I think all stylists have different processes. So find one person and research them and learn as much as you can about them. And not only about them, about the industry, because there’s more to it than just putting a pretty girl in a pretty dress. There are so many things that happen before and after that look that you see on social media.

“Be a student of a game and be willing to work for free or a little bit of nothing to get however much experience that you can get. And be ready to work. I feel like I worked every day for the last eight years for my business to become successful. My business never turned off. We worked through Christmas holidays and vacations, but I was happy to do it because I wanted to be the best that I could be.”

Why He Loves Fashion

“I feel like every superhero has a costume, and we all need to figure out what our costumes are, but also from the place that it can constantly change, right? Your superpowers can change. I just think clothes are very powerful and when we finally tap into the power of fashion it helps us in our lives, period. Because if you put on your favorite outfit, your favorite jacket, your favorite whatever, you look at yourself before you leave out to go to work or wherever you’re going and you’re like, ‘I look good, but also I feel good.’ You can conquer the world. And there’s no way you can have a bad day in a good outfit. I’m sorry, it’s just not happening.”

What He Learned From Balling on a Budget

“The interesting thing a lot of people don’t know is when I’m hired to do certain things, I still have a budget. And one of my biggest kinds of flexes is that I’ll never go over budget. I had to live that way for so long that it comes natural to me. So people are like, ‘Oh, you work with these people, and you don’t have a budget.’ For the most part, a lot of things we do, campaigns and such, there is a budget. I’ve always felt that I had a jump on other people in that way because again, I came from an environment where we didn’t always have a lot. Going somewhere like T.J.Maxx afforded me one of my very first pieces of luxury. It gave me pride and made me feel like I was one of the cool kids, but in a way that I still was able to pay my rent.”

His Tips for Finding Your Own Personal Style

“Take your time. Don’t rush it. Don’t go out and buy a lot of things that you saw online or your favorite celebrity’s wearing. Just take your time. Finding your personal style is an evolution. It’s nothing that you can do in a small amount of time, in my opinion. And go to places like The Runway at T.J.Maxx and do it within what you can afford. Buy good staple pieces and buy things that could last for years and that you’ll live in and that you’ll wear a lot. I think that culture of, ‘Oh, I’m just gonna buy it. I’m gonna take a picture and I’m never gonna wear it again.’ That’s so five years ago.

His Favorite Trend for Spring

“I’m really excited to see bold, bright colors, to be honest with you. Even if you are wearing all black, when you see somebody else with color on you it gives you joy, right? It’s just like, ‘Oh, I wish I’d wore something bright today.’ We’ve been having a really tough weather in LA. It’s been raining for the last couple months. So the sun is out, I wanna see people in color when I travel. I just came back from India and you could just imagine the colors that I was able to see. Like, just women walking on the street with these beautiful, bright saris. Color is what’s super exciting for me.”

What He Looks Forward to in This Next Chapter

“I’m excited for trying things. I’m excited to do things well. I’m excited to fail. I’m excited to just experience something different. I’m excited to be creative in a different type of way. I’m really excited for collaborations, and I’m excited to see what’s the next chapter with me and T.J.Maxx. I’m excited for everything. I wake up every morning and every day feels like a new day and a new chapter.”