A Day After Announcing 'Retirement,' Law Roach Walked the Runway for Boss

Shortest retirement ever...?

Law Roach broke the (fashion) internet on Tuesday with a post announcing he was "retired".

The image architect renowned for his work with a range of celebrities, most notably Zendaya (giving look after look after look), wrote that his "cup is empty" from "the politics, the lies and false narratives." The next day, though, the 44-year-old appeared on the runway at Boss' Spring 2023 show in Miami.

Shortest retirement ever? Not completely.

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In an interview with Vogue's Luke Leitch at the Boss show, Roach clarified he's not retiring from fashion, just from a specific part of it.

"I'm not saying I'm retiring from fashion. I love fashion. I love the businesses, and I love being creative. What I'm retiring from is the celebrity styling part of it: the being in service and at service of other people," he said.

Rather than a play for attention, he wielded the public's attention and stirred up conversations about the fashion industry and how its racist tendencies can hurt the mental health of Black people and people of color. An outpour of support came from the likes of British Vogue's Edward Enninful, Harper's Bazaar's Samira Nasr and Naomi Campbell who wrote: "We don't quit... strived too hard." (Campbell was also Roach's cast mate at Boss.)

"It's been overwhelming the amount of love," he told Vogue. "Because I also work and live in a bubble, in which my clients are my priority, more so than my own health and happiness. In my mind, you know, I was doing this [making his statement of retirement] just to relieve some pressure for myself, right? I was riding in the car and I made a decision. I said: 'You know what, I've done everything I wanted to do in this career. I've received all the awards, the accolades, I've changed people's lives…And I just feel like, I've had enough,' you know? So that Instagram post wasn't a PR stunt. It was really me giving myself the grace to say: It's okay. You can do something else."

Right now, the CFDA Award-winning stylist said he's focused on soul-searching. "I'm speaking to people that I trust, like Edward [Enninful], and I just have to figure it out," he explained to Leitch. "But I'm so excited that today I get to release. The Boss team has been really supportive of me: sensitive and kind. I really appreciate that and it makes me want to do the best job on the runway that I possibly can do."

At the Boss show, he strutted through the waterside runway with a fierce walk that matched his fierce styling. Campbell, Khaby Lame, DJ Khaled and Pamela Anderson walked, too. The front-row was equally star-studded, with folks like Maluma, Suki Waterhouse and Tiffany Haddish in attendance.

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Even without all the answers, Roach said he's changing how he's thinking about his legacy. The possibilities are plentiful, and he seems to already be sifting through the best options.

"What I plan on doing is other things," he told Vogue. "Like what I'm doing with Boss. I also plan on teaching: I want to be more involved with people who look like me who want to figure out how to have the opportunity to do things that I've done, right?... I want that to be my legacy, a legacy that I really helped change people's lives — and not just the celebrities' by putting them in the best dress, you know?"

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