Introducing the Stylist Sessions, a series of conversations in which Vanity Fair’s style correspondent, José Criales-Unzueta, unpacks the details, strategies and Easter eggs on red carpets with the leading stylists. First up, "image architect" Law Roach breaks down his strategy for Wicked: For Good star Ariana Grande.
“I’ll say this as humbly as possible,” Law Roach tells me from a car on the way to the airport days before the 2026 Golden Globes—he’s flying to do a shoot abroad before returning to Los Angeles for the ceremony. “I think that I have some of the greatest fashion moments in the last decade.”
That’s a fact: Zendaya in a vintage Mugler robot suit for the premiere of Dune: Part Two (or in that Balmain dune-like molded leather ensemble for the Venice Film Festival premiere of Dune). Hunter Schafer wearing a white feather as a top to our very own Vanity Fair Oscars party back in 2024. Bella Hadid in a Tom Ford-era Gucci gown at the Cannes Film Festival in 2022.
This 2026 awards season, Roach is back with one of his earliest superstar clients, Ariana Grande, whom he styled way back when for her Dangerous Woman world tour in 2017. “I’m really grateful to be working with Ariana again in this time of her life 10 years later,” Roach says. “To be with her at this part of her journey is just incredible. I’m so grateful for that.”
Grande’s style has evolved from the 2024 release and press tour of Wicked, the first installment of the two-part adaptation of the beloved musical. Namely, Grande is wearing a bit less pink, and has donned an assortment of spectacular vintage finds: An orange Bob Mackie frock first worn by Carol Burnett, a black gown made by Adrian Adolph Greenburg, known mononymously as Adrian, who was most famously the costume designer behind the original Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer film The Wizard of Oz. She’s also matured from pop superstar into a blockbuster-starring, Oscar-nominated actor in front of our eyes. Grande has lots to celebrate, and Roach has been dressing her for every moment, from the stage of Saturday Night Live to the Critics Choice Awards and beyond.
Law will dress her again for the Golden Globes this weekend—and we caught up while he was on the way to the airport to unpack his stylist’s playbook. Spoiler alert: It was the evening of Tuesday, January 7 when we spoke on the phone, and Grande did not have a dress for the Globes just yet. “I don't have a dress. We have dresses, we have options,” Roach said, cool as ever.
José Criales-Unzueta: How do you approach awards season when dressing someone like Ariana Grande? A second Golden Globe nomination, a possible second Oscar nomination… It’s such a big moment.
Law Roach: For Ariana and this Wicked: For Good press tour and into award season, it was a little bit different for me because someone else did it last year. [Grande was styled by Mimi Cuttrell last year]. I’ve worked with Ariana in the past on tours and music videos, so I watched as a fan from the sideline that first go round. I just wanted to take everything and build on it and put my touches in it. For me, it’s all about storytelling. You saw her wear the Gilbert Adrian piece from the 1950s. Him being a costume designer for the original The Wizard of Oz, and him being such a Hollywood icon and her being nominated for these amazing awards and stepping into being this amazing actress—it’s just about storytelling. It’s [about] the story that I want to tell and the things I want people to take away from the clothes and the experience.
Speaking of storytelling, when we’re talking about someone like Ariana, who has such a prolific career as a musician, which you’ve also been part of, and is now switching over to the acting side. Do you think about dressing her any differently? What is the nuance between Ariana, the pop star, and Ariana, the actor?
There’s a time and place to be an actress, there’s a time and place to be a pop star. There’s a part of Glinda that will forever, I think, live inside of Ariana. She trained for that role her entire life, almost, so it’s keeping those things in mind and the small little nuances that separate or help create those characters.
Could we talk about the vintage component of Ariana’s wardrobe? I love that she’s been wearing so many iconic pieces, whether it’s things we as the public know, like Bob Mackie, or that we don’t. How did you land on vintage as a strategy, where did that come from?
Well, I started my career selling vintage. That’s what I did before I became a stylist. So that’s something that I’ve always brought with me. It’s always been my toolkit, per se. It just happened to have gotten super popular in recent years.
I would say you helped popularize it.
Thank you. That’s just always with me. And I love that. I think it’s just a fun way to storytell. And it’s also just beautiful to incorporate these things that have been around for years and maybe belonged to someone else, like her and the Carol Burnett dress, for example. It’s just those little tie-ins.
I think it’s fun to drop little Easter eggs and things like that, it’s entertaining. I just think for me, it’s my only talent. It is my art... Ariana is a singer, she’s an actress. For me, I’m a stylist and that’s the way I get to communicate with the world. I want it to be as entertaining and as memorable as possible. What I learned, especially when I retired, is that people really enjoyed the work and it gave them something to talk about and it gave them something to drop into group text. And it’s a conversation starter, but it also keeps the conversations going. That really just brings me joy.
I remember when you posted that you were retiring, many of us were wondering what that meant for fashion in general. I’m curious how that moment changed the way you approached styling and clients altogether. Did that change your strategy?
I think it gave me this sense of agency over my life. It let me put things into perspective and gave me the opportunity to understand the power in saying no. That short break changed a lot the way in which I do business and how I want the rest of my career to look like.
So many of the conversations around styling and awards season we have now, like celebrities wearing vintage or pulling straight from the runway, I think, stem from what you were doing before that moment. What do you make of seeing your impact or influence on other stylists’ work?
I think it’s fun. I’m a fan of fashion and red carpets and the chaos of it and all that. I just happen to know what the behind the scenes look like, which isn’t that glamorous. I’m just a fan of it, so I just love it in general. I love the effort. I love the research.
I think that’s another thing; returning and coming back [to working] made me really, really appreciate it more because I think I had so many clients and I was doing so many things and I really get a chance to step back and to appreciate it. Now I’m grateful to be working with Ariana again in this time of her life 10 years later from when we first did Dangerous Woman and the tour.
When fans noticed that you were back working together it felt like a moment. I’m curious if you felt a bit of that love and that energy.
Yeah, I did. I think one of the most iconic looks is the Giambattista Valli at the Grammys [2020], which was kind of the last time [we worked together]. And so for us to come back and it’s just like, wow, bam, we’re back doing this.
How do you choose what happens when or which dress goes where?
For me, the best dress always wins. No matter what it is, no matter who made it, it’s always the best dress that will, for me, always win. I love the goosebumps. And when that happens, that is my drug. It’s like when that dress goes on and you get those goosebumps, you know that that’s the one and that’s the dress and that’s what we’re wearing to this place at this time.
More generally about your career, how now do you approach styling different people for different things? You have Zendaya, you have Ariana. What’s the Law playbook that differentiates them?
Them. I think one of the greatest compliments I’ve always gotten throughout my career is that none of my clients look the same. I believe in never changing anyone, but just aiding them and becoming the best version of themselves when it comes to fashion. And that’s been my goal, to always listen, to pay attention and to make it known that it’s a collaboration. Everything that Ariana’s worn is still very Ariana, and it’s not Zendaya, and it’s not Celine Dion, and it’s not this person or that person. And I’ve always taken a lot of pride in that and it’s a lot of work because every single dress is chosen because there’s something about it that reminds me of the client. And it makes the job harder because a lot of people can just go and just get a lot of clothes, and there’s a lot of people whose clients all look the same. Whether it’s good or bad, it’s just like, oh, you can see that person’s hand in it. And I don’t think that’s fair. I think women are so dynamic and amazing and they need to shine as their individual selves and not become a part of this thing.
This idea of “method dressing,” of dressing an actor in relation to the character and film, is something you, I think, helped define. I think of Zendaya with Challengers, Dune, and Spiderman—those moments are the blueprint for method dressing. What do you make of that becoming so popular?
You know what? I think we’ve always done that. Even back with The Greatest Showman. It’s just recently gotten a name, but again, it’s entertainment, it’s fun. It’s showmanship. It’s more than just picking out a pretty dress. It’s telling the story. Again, it’s the only way I can communicate. And it’s just fucking fun.
Back to Ariana, Glinda, and the color pink. How do you negotiate with having a short brief and playing with it when it comes to dressing someone?
The thing about it is that you haven’t seen that much pink this time because seeing the second movie and seeing how Glinda grew as a person and as a character, you see how her choices are a bit more sophisticated. And so that’s what I wanted to show in the clothes. I wanted to show a maturation of that. It hasn’t been a lot of pink, and if it’s been pink, it hasn’t been like, here’s a pink dress. There’s been a take.
You’ve also popularized this horserace of getting the runway look first, who gets to wear the collection first. I remember when Zendaya wore that Loewe gray dress with the metallic plate, it was only a week after that show.
I mean, I’ve had things coming right off the runway into my suitcase. Actually, you know what was a good one? Zendaya for Dune wearing that in Roksanda, and she wore it before the show. I was going to see the collections before the shows. I’m grateful that these designers and these houses trust me enough to be like, “Okay, I'm going to let you see the collection before it happens and you can take this look.”
Do you text the designer or call the PR? What does getting the look actually look like?
Oh I will call you in the middle of the night. I have no shame.
Why would you? It’s a win-win.
Yeah, we all understand the metrics of it.
Final question: Since we’re talking before the Golden Globes, what teaser can you give me, and what can we expect to see from Ariana there?
What’s crazy about that is I don’t have a dress yet [laughs].
I’m screaming.
Yes. I don't have a dress. We have dresses, but right now there’s options, but there’s not a selection.
And you know what? We all can’t wait to see.
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