Dear Gossips,

The Hollywood Reporter released one of my favourite issues of the year this week: The Power Stylists List. THR has been doing this since 2010, a decent amount of time, but also not an eternity either. And there are still a lot of people out there, usually the ones who yell the loudest online, who still don’t get that styling is WORK, that for celebrities, what they’re wearing is part of the job…and part of life. As you’ll note when you read through the Power Stylists package, the stylists and their clients talk about clothing as a form of expression, sometimes a way to communicate how they’re feeling, sometimes in service of a bigger goal, and sometimes in tribute to an idea or a person or a movement or all of the above. In other words, it’s a story.

For example, one of the outfits Jason Bolden put together for Michael B Jordan was inspired by Sidney Poitier. Yara Shahidi’s Met Gala look was an homage to Josephine Baker. When Simu Liu started working with Jeanne Yang, it’s because they both connected on their goal to, through fashion, challenge the “stereotypes and misconceptions that have often been attached to Asian men and wanted to help shatter them” and “show the world what an Asian leading man in Hollywood looked like”. If you recall, Simu’s red Versace suit at the Oscars was one of the best of the night.

As for the Stylist of the Year? For the second year in a row, well, who else could it be?

Law Roach, of course.

After all, how many times did Zendaya melt down the internet in the last 12 months with one bomb look after the other? And Venus Williams too, the ultimate Oscar goddess. I was, however, hoping for some tea here with Law…because as I’ve been saying where Anya Taylor-Joy is concerned, her style hasn’t been quite as electrifying as it was when she and Law were working together. She’s not mentioned though, and it remains a mystery why that collaboration ended.

Money likely wasn’t a factor for Anya but it can be for some. I interviewed an actor a couple of years ago and we were talking about how amazing they looked on the press tour for their movie after being “image architected” by Law and they were like… OMG, he’s the best, and to work with the best you have to pay top dollar.

Well, yeah. His fee is his fee. He’s a multi-year Stylist of the Year. He’s Law Roach, the person who has had a major hand in giving us some of the most iconic looks over the last decade from Zendaya to Celine Dion to Lewis Hamilton and more. Why wouldn’t that be worth the most, right?

Here are some other stylists featured in THR’s Power Stylists issue.

Yours in gossip,

Lainey

Michael B Jordan Gossip

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