Rick Roy on Dressing Characters, Not Celebrities
Fashion29 September 2026
AuthorIsabella Pettitt
PhotosImages © Daniel Joseph
Costume designer and stylist Rick Roy talks Bollywood, celebrity culture and the art of dressing a character — from fighting fashion’s obsession with fame to finding himself unexpectedly in front of the camera.
A
bout eight months ago, at the very beginning of Cherub Magazine, I met Rick Roy on the red carpet at London Fashion Week. Admittedly, I wasn't as familiar with the guest list as I probably should have been, but I remember looking at him and thinking: who is this fabulous man?
His metallic, diamanté-covered glasses glinting under the flashing lights of the media wall, he was warm and immediately funny, joking about his dyslexia as he desperately tried to punch his Instagram handle into my phone. We kept in touch after that first meeting, and when the opportunity came to interview him properly some months later, I was thrilled when he agreed.
For those less familiar with the world of Bollywood, Rick Roy has spent more than two decades creating some of the looks seen across Indian film and fashion. A costume designer and stylist, his work has dressed major names including Vidya Balan, Sonam Kapoor, Akshay Kumar and Malaika Arora, with credits spanning Tumhari Sulu, Housefull 2 and Gabbar Is Back. More recently, his career has begun spilling beyond costume and styling altogether, taking him in front of the camera and increasingly into the British fashion and entertainment world.
For Roy, dressing a character isn't simply about making somebody look good; it's about making us believe in who we're looking at.
You’ve described yourself as a “big, pink-haired gay designer” and said that people have sometimes assumed your work must be as glamorous as you are. Do you ever feel like you’ve had to prove that being visually expressive yourself doesn’t limit the kind of designer you can be?
Rick Roy: Lol, yes, that’s pretty much me — except my hair colour keeps changing depending on what I’m feeling at the time! And yes, I’ve had to prove myself multiple times throughout my career, and honestly, I still have to at times.
I think as a technician in the film business, you mostly end up getting slotted into a box. I guess it’s also human nature to judge a person’s capability based on what they visually present and slot them into boxes. I do present myself as this flamboyant, larger-than-life, glamorous person, so I guess in a way it’s fair for people to think of me as all that. But professionally, I feel like sometimes I’m put in a box based on my appearance. And I hate boxes.
So yes, I’ve had to constantly prove to people that I’m more than what they believe I am, and that I can do more than they think I can do. And thats okay, it’s always fun to shake things up and show people different facets of yourself, and you also discover them for yourself. It’s fun to change people’s perception of who you are and what you’re capable of. Isn’t that the nature of an artist anyway? I would hate it if I was just one thing and one thing only.
You’ve said that your priority when costume designing is always the character, even when you’re dressing a huge star. Is there a particular actor or project where you really had to fight against the audience’s existing image of that person to make us believe in somebody completely different?
Rick Roy: Yes, it happens very often, in varying degrees. There’s always a struggle for the actor to retain an existing image versus breaking it and creating a character that will surprise the audience. The struggle to do that varies depending on the actor. [The] most intelligent, professional ones understand the process and are excited to be the character they’re playing rather than hanging on to “an image” of themselves. Some don’t, and it also depends on the level of ego, lol. Some are super nice and fun, and some are egotistic and a pain in the ass.
I have a film coming out where the lead is a gorgeous actress known for being very, very sexy and glam, and the character she is playing in the film is totally the opposite of that: a very simple, traditional, middle-class girl. Plus, the film is set in 2007, which makes it a bit of a period film, and we literally had to make her look believable as that girl.
It was a huge task to completely transform her and make her unrecognisable. That was the challenge, and we managed to do it. It also depends on the support system and the conviction of the director. If your vision matches the director’s and you’re on the same page, then the process is easier.
You’ve spoken quite openly about feeling that fashion has become less individualistic, particularly when celebrities are all pulling from the same brands. What do you think we’ve lost by becoming so concerned with looking “right”?
Rick Roy: Absolutely. It’s sad to see how no one is interesting anymore. They’re all the same mould, trying to look like each other to fit into a clan and a narrative of what’s “cool” in that clan, decided mostly by Instagram. It’s simply sad.
It’s also very sad to see stylists not coming up with ideas that are individualistic to their clients and simply putting out the same racks of clothes for all their clients. A stylist’s assistant literally told me one day, “We call for pieces and take the same to everyone’s place, starting from A-list to B-plus to B-list. Whatever they keep, the rest goes to the next person.” It’s simply sad.
In India, and especially Bollywood, there’s a serious lack of individual style and exciting visual storytelling through style. Look at Law Roach, Mel Ottenberg and Enrique Melendez, and what they do with their clients. Styling is so phenomenal and so individualistic. I would hope for that diversity to be there in India as well.
You recently said that Indian Fashion Week can feel more concerned with which celebrity will generate the most attention than with the clothes themselves. After attending London Fashion Week, did you come away feeling that fashion can still exist independently of celebrity?
Rick Roy: Oh, absolutely, and IT SHOULD. Celebs should only be a marketing gimmick for the brand, and it should remain that and that only. What’s important is the craft, the designs and the garments themselves. When you move from that and focus on who is attending what show, you’re disrespecting the craft, the craftsman and the designer. Sadly, it happens a lot in the Indian fashion scene.
The conversation is always about which celeb is wearing the outfit or attending the shows, rather than the clothes themselves being the centre of attention. Designers, publicists and marketing agents need to understand that yes, publicity is important for the brand, but what’s more important is bringing focus to the collection and the garments. In fact, a lot of the time, celebs overshadow the actual show and the clothes themselves.
I would say a great balance I see in this context is at Schiaparelli shows. The clothes are the conversation, and the celebs there are simply the wearers of those fabulous pieces created by the master himself, Daniel Roseberry. The clothes are the main hero, not the people wearing them.
You’ve worked in an industry where a costume can become iconic, while the person who designed it can remain almost invisible to the audience. Do you think costume designers receive enough recognition for how much they shape the way we remember a film?
Rick Roy: Honestly, a lot of the time we still don’t get the recognition that we deserve, but it’s definitely better. Us designers are at least known now. A few decades back, designers weren’t even considered artists in films, or even important for that matter.
And one designer changed that: Manish Malhotra. He is literally the king of Bollywood fashion. He is brilliant as a designer and has this unparalleled vision for creating iconic film costumes. He has done it for decades and still rules Bollywood. I’m a huge fan of him.
He brought so much to movies as an artist and a technician, and literally single-handedly changed the way the industry saw us designers. Whatever recognition and status we enjoy today as designers and creative artists is, in a major way, because of him.
You were originally brought onto Rob & Romesh Vs to style, before unexpectedly ending up in front of the camera yourself. After spending so long helping other people construct how they appear on screen, what was it like suddenly having no control over how the audience would see you?
Rick Roy: It was truly a fantastic experience. The team that does the show is super organised and absolutely great. It was too much fun to see yourself do what you do every day, but on camera, and realise how crazy and sometimes hilarious the process itself can be.
I honestly am not a shy person, so it was super easy for me to be in front of the camera. I have acted before, but this was totally unscripted, so it was a very different experience. I didn’t feel awkward, and Rob and Romesh are actually hilarious as people, so it was very easy dealing with them as a stylist and also being on camera with them.
You work across both costume design and styling, which can look quite similar from the outside but have very different purposes. Do you think people misunderstand the role of a costume designer, and what do you wish audiences understood about the work that goes into creating a character through clothing?
Rick Roy: Yes, people do get confused a lot. Even though the distinction is very clear between the two jobs, it does kind of get confusing and jumbled up as one for people, since both are basically to do with clothes.
Styling is, broadly, putting a look together for a person for events and other personal things, where you’re essentially creating a look for a person to create a statement and an impression for that person individually.
While costume designing or styling a film, you’re doing pretty much the same thing, but for the character that the individual actor is playing. It’s not the person playing it, but the character in the movie that you’re dressing. The point is to create an impression on the audience and convince them that this is the character, and make them forget who the actor playing them is.
You know, honestly, I don’t care so much about making anyone understand the hard work part, as long as I can convince them of what I want them to see in the characters. That’s that. In fact, I don’t want anyone to know anything that goes on behind the scenes. I just want the audience to see and enjoy the character on screen and come out of the movie believing that the character was real. That’s my award, and that’s cinema, isn’t it? We make people believe a story that may or may not be real.
You have such a strong personal sense of style, but costume design isn’t necessarily about making someone look fashionable or even beautiful. Have you ever created a look you personally disliked, but knew was completely right for the character?
Rick Roy: Lol, so many times. I personally love beautiful things in life. I love watching cinema that is beautiful and stylish, and it doesn’t have to be glamorous or rich. It can be set in any world, but it has to have a sense of aesthetic and cinematic beauty to it. I love that kind of visual storytelling, where you know the familiar world, but still there’s a little bit of something that’s only for the screen.
But I have done movies with directors who had a very different vision for their film because they visualised the film differently from me. The world of the movie was dark and gritty, and they felt everyone needed to look more gritty. I don’t honestly like doing that stuff, but I ended up doing a few of those films.
I love challenges, so I did take it up, and I created those characters and that world convincingly for the audience because that was the brief given. But I personally do not like it.
What’s next for Rick Roy? Is there something you haven’t done yet, whether in costume, fashion, acting or something completely unexpected that you’d really like to explore?
Rick Roy: OMG, so much, lol. I’m always excited to think of what to do next, but it’s not always related to work. I’m thinking of going to Amsterdam!
On the work front, I have four movies coming out in the next few months. Very Anne Hathaway kind of a year I’m having, lol. So I’m super excited for that — lots of red carpets, premieres and screenings, and wearing fabulous looks myself.
I’m most likely going to be back for London Fashion Week, which I absolutely love attending. Lots of fun things ahead 😍
