Did Zendaya’s viral hair moment at the 2015 Oscars give birth to the CROWN act? Law Roach thinks so

Law Roach talks about the lasting impact of Zendaya wearing fake locs on the 2015 Oscars red carpet.

Some may remember how Zendaya, then best known as a Disney star, appeared on the red carpet at the 2015 Academy Awards dressed in a white off-the-shoulder Vivienne Westwood dress and with flowing faux curls in her hair. The look was elegant yet culturally significant, marking the beginning of Zendaya’s emergence as a true tastemaker — just not in the way she or her longtime stylist Law Roach initially thought.

At the time, Giuliana Rancic, a host on E!’s “Fashion Police,” caused a stir when she said on TV that Zendaya looked like she “smelled like patchouli oil or weed.” Her comments were well received and, according to Roach, sparked the movement that led to the CROWN Act.

Speaking about that moment nearly a decade later during the Teen Vogue Summit on Nov. 23, Roach explained why he’s ultimately glad that moment happened.

“This incident actually changed the way black people’s hair was accepted in schools and the workplace,” he said during a panel discussion, according to People magazine. “Although we didn’t set out to make this big statement because of the events that happened, the CROWN Act actually grew out of that incident.”

Following Rancic’s comments, Zendaya didn’t hesitate to call out the veteran host via Instagram.

“There is a fine line between the funny and the irreverent,” she wrote in a lengthy post at the time.

“Someone said something about my hair at the Oscars that amazed me,” the Emmy winner added. “Not because I was happy about rave outfit reviews, but because I was confronted with ignorant insults and pure disrespect.”

She continued: “To say that an 18-year-old young woman with curly hair must smell like patchouli oil or ‘grass’ is not only a huge cliché, but also outrageously offensive.” I don’t usually feel the need to respond to negative things respond, but certain comments cannot go unchecked.”

After identifying how many people in her personal life, including her father and brother, wear locs, Zendaya also identified how many extremely well-respected and successful people wear locs, including Harvard professors, authors, and director Ava DuVernay.

“There is already harsh criticism of African-American hair in society, without the help of ignorant people who judge others based on the curls of their hair,” she said, adding that she wore her hair in sections that night to encourage black people to wear it to remember “Our hair is good enough.”

Rancic immediately faced backlash over her comments, and the next day she even apologized on air, admitting, “Something I said last night crossed the line.”

As theGrio previously reported, the actress recalled her reaction to Rancic in an interview with W Magazine in 2021.

“This is how change happens,” she shared. “And it got me thinking, ‘How could I always have a lasting impact on what people see and associate with people of color?'”

In the years since those comments, the CROWN Act, led by Adjoa B. Asmoah in collaboration with Dove and several others through the CROWN Coalition, was created and first passed in California in 2019. The CROWN Act, which prohibits discrimination based on a person’s personal identity such as hair texture or hairstyle, was passed in the U.S. House of Representatives in 2022. Versions of the law now exist in 27 states. Most recently, Puerto Rico, a US territory, passed the hairstyle discrimination law in July.

As for “Fashion Police,” that moment also sparked a losing streak for the show that ended later that year. The show, in which hosts scrutinized what celebrities wore on the red carpet, was unable to resume following Rancic’s blunder, host Kelly Osbourne’s exit in response to the incident and the death of longtime co-host Joan Rivers Legs come.

Since the show ended, celebrity fashion coverage has become more inclusive. Instead of harsh and often insulting criticism, fashion journalists and red carpet presenters today often focus on what goes into a star’s look, its potential cultural relevance, and the production of celebrity design teams and stylists that go into creating a look.

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