Law Roach is giving insight on one time when Zendaya wore dreadlocks to Academy Awards in 2015.
The celebrity stylist, associated with many Hollywood A-listers and who has been close friend to the actress since her teens, recently reflected on the style and fashion choices of Zendaya’s appearance at Oscars when she was 18.
At the time, Fashion Police co-host Giuliana Rancic drew criticism for saying Zendaya looked like “she smells like patchouli oil or weed,” Roach shared during the Teen Vogue Summit.
Though the stylist doesn’t say Rancic’s name during the panel discussion, he said these “really awful comments” made by “this TV personality” actually led to important conversations.
“Fashion has the ability to make political statements, and I think that we should use fashion to express ourselves and what we agree with and what we disagree with, what’s going on in politics, because it’s our voices that should make a difference,” the stylist continued.
“That one instance went on to actually change the way Black people’s hair was accepted in schools and the workplace. So although we did not set out to make this big statement, because of the events that happened, The Crown Act was actually birthed from that incident.”
The Crown Act, which stands for Creating a Respectful and Open World for Natural Hair, was created in 2019 to “ensure protection against discrimination based on race-based hairstyles by extending statutory protection to hair texture and protective styles such as braids, locs, twists and knots in the workplace and public schools.”
Roach added, “It was something that we were just doing and didn’t know that it would happen that way. But we are grateful that it did because it really created a global conversation of what’s appropriate for Black people’s hair, especially Black women.”
The Challengers star responded at the time, saying she was “glad it was a learning experience for you and for the network.”
