After speaking with Law Roach about his favorite things, one item stood out to me: the Hanes sweatpants that he receives every Christmas and birthday. I called him up again to hear more about how this tradition started, and to answer the question: What do you get for someone who has everything?
The whole story is that I think I probably first got them at Walmart, to be honest. It was just like, I wanted to grab something comfy, but I don’t know why I did it. But I know when I started styling, people would always be so intimidated about buying me something because they’d be like, “Oh, well, what do we get you?” Everybody in my family’s always so nervous around the holidays or my birthday about what to get me.
And I’m not expecting people to be able to afford the things that I really want or the things I can’t buy myself. So to make it simple, I said, “I actually really love a gray sweatsuit from Hanes.” Easy, simple. And that just became the uniform around the holidays when I’m with my family. I always just have on an oversize zip hoodie and some sweatpants and some white or black athletic tube socks. I’m going to be so grateful and appreciative of those things that are really affordable and actually really simple. It’s become almost like a comfort thing. Some people have on their holiday pajamas. For me, it’s always the sweatsuit. I’ll cook in it. I’ll fall asleep on the sofa in it. They became loungewear and pajamas.
I don’t always wear the hoodie with the sweatpants. The hoodie is my comfort thing when I want to feel like I’m getting a hug. But the pants I wear out. I throw those on all the time — with a pair of Margiela Tabis, a great coat, and a Birkin or a Chanel bag. I always get compliments. People are like, “Oh my God, you look so cute. I love your pants.” I’m just like, “This is literally an XXL Hanes sweatpant, pulled in real tight, knotted, folded over a couple of times at the waist.” Because I think style has nothing to do with how much money you have. It’s just your own, personal thing, something that you’re born with, or you cultivated over the span of your life. Everything doesn’t have to be expensive.
I like to layer, so I’ll wear the sweatpants under stuff. I wear a lot of thobes, the ethnic dress that men wear in the Middle East. I’ll wear them under that with a gray shoe, either sneakers or a loafer. And then, sometimes, I’ll just wear just my bag, or I’ll wear a denim jacket, or something cropped on top of it, so it creates this layered look. I’m a bag boy, so it’s always maybe a Birkin or an oversize Chanel bag or my Louis. There’s always a designer bag in the mix somewhere.
As for colors, it’s usually gray or black. I think I’ve gotten blue ones before. But it’s always that dark gray or the heather gray, and then black if they could find it. But I feel like gray is always there; they always have the gray ones. I’ve been wearing these pants for over a decade. I celebrated ten years in styling, so probably longer than that — maybe 15 years.
I think people enjoy giving them to me because they know it really makes me happy. We’ve all said this to somebody: “What do you give the person that has everything?” And so I just took that out of people’s heads. “Just buy me sweatpants and socks from Target or Walmart, and I’m happy.” My 11-year-old niece gave me some for my birthday. Everybody knows, “Oh, that’s what Uncle Law loves.” Or, “That’s what Law likes.” So it’s easy, simple, it doesn’t break the bank. And it’s very personal.
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