Earlier this month, Law Roach, the veteran image architect behind many celebrities’ looks like Céline Dion, Ariana Grande, Zendaya, and others has recently taken to his Instagram page to post about his gesture of putting aside $25,000 to help rebuild small, Black-owned businesses that have been affected by the lingering protest against police brutality and racial justice in the wake of the deaths of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery, and other Black Americans.
“There was so much happening, and is still so much happening, in our world, in my culture and in my city, in Chicago. I just felt like I had to do something,” Roach tells Fashionista, over the phone from Los Angeles. “I’m a big believer in that there’s this huge global issue, then there’s a U.S. issue — I can’t solve the big problem, but what I can do is focus my efforts, my time, my energy and some of my money to a smaller microcosm of a big issue and start there, make change there.”
Meanwhile, his original post, from June 1, was in response to reports of Black-owner businesses that got damaged or looted amid the mass protests. “I wanted to say: ‘If that did happen, you have someone to help you rebuild. You have someone to support you,'” Roach says. He had someone on his team working on finding a partner that was “a true non-profit, someone that had the 501(c)(3) status, so that if people did donate, it would be tax-deductible.”
This development has then led him to partner with the Chicago-based organization Rebuild the Hood and officially launch the fLAWless Fundraiser on Wednesday, June 24. Its main goal is to offer financial relief to small, Black-owned fashion and beauty businesses based in Chicago, “with a focus on those that did not have insurance or were denied coverage,” according to its website.
“I just wanted to make sure that I did it the right way, something where the money could be traced back,” Roach explains of working with Rebuild the Hood. “Because I knew I would lean on my friends, people I worked with and clients for the money. I wanted to make sure there would be a true trail of where their money went and how it helped someone.”
In less than 24 hours after Roach had shared the link for the fundraiser, it was most of the way to its $100,000 goal, with contributions from actor Jaleel’s Jamil (a client) and designer Christian Siriano (a frequent collaborator).
“That first initial post three weeks ago was out of frustration and love. Right away, people were like, ‘I want to support. Send me the link. How do I donate?’ I was literally overwhelmed — I know I say that jokingly a lot, but the amount of support I got so quickly… It’s so beautiful,” he says. “To think that people believe in me enough to contribute to something I believe in is really beautiful.”
The next step for the fLAWless Fundraiser, Roach explains, is “to do what I set out to do, which is help a few businesses — however many I can, depending on need — rebuild.” Beyond that, he emphasized on the importance of everyone, from himself, to the people who contributed to the fund, to the general public, making sure to support Black-owned businesses regularly. Roach has personally made an effort to make a daily patronage to Black-owned restaurants, and has recently discovered Black-owned home brands, like Estelle Colored Glass, that he’s excited to shop.
“Even in my own business, I’ve been really fortunate to build a reputation as a celebrity stylist and image architect that really seeks out and helps push smaller brands and independent designers to the mainstream and to elevate those businesses,” Roach says. “I’ve been really proud of that, but looking back, I didn’t really do that enough for Black designers and Black-owned brands. For me, that has to be something that I push more to the forefront.”
“I’ve done really well to elevate a few brands, especially in 2019 — with Peter Do, Christopher Esber and a couple of other ones,” he continues. “In hindsight, I wish I would’ve made a little bit more effort to make sure that I did that for Black designers.”
Other stylists can make a similar effort by “paying more attention and deliberately doing things you know will positively affect whoever that is,” Roach says. “If you’re paying attention, you’ll see where the deficit is, you’ll see where things need to be changed. Then you’ll just focus your time, energy, resources, love, sweat, tears to moving whatever that is forward.”
