When Law Roach gives you high praise, you know you’re on the right track, sartorially speaking. 

“I think that Doechii is doing a really good job of playing all these characters and making us fall in love with not just the music, but her personal style,” the self-described “image architect” said on the 2025 Fashion Trust U.S. Awards red carpet. And he’s right: If anyone’s to be crowned 2025’s rising fashion star, it’s the Swamp Princess. Of course, she won’t have gotten there without her dedicated stylist, Sam Woolf. (He, too, received a shoutout from Roach at the Awards.)

The duo first worked together at the 2023 Billboard Women in Music Awards, for which Woolf dressed the Florida-born rapper in a floor-length, Jeremy Scott-era Moschino dress. The “synergy” between them was undeniable, he says, and the duo’s been locked in ever since. 

“I really had no idea [what to expect] going into it, but I did know from that first job I did with her that she was a star and she had every element to be a superstar,” Woolf tells Fashionista.

More than two years into their partnership, Woolf and Doechii have found their groove, establishing a truly collaborative relationship dependent on feeding off each other’s ideas. “We’re inspired by each other,” he shares. “I’ll say one thing, which gives her an idea about something else, which gives me an idea about something else.”

Take, for example, the 2025 Grammy Awards. She had a lot to celebrate that night, like winning “Best Rap Album” (the third woman in Grammy history to do so) and being a top contender for “Best New Artist.” But it was her on-stage performance that was undoubtedly her most memorable moment of the evening: While rapping “Catfish” and “Denial is a River,” Doechii (and her dancers!) owned the stage wearing custom Thom Browne.

The duo’s goal was to create their version of a “Thom Browne army,” Woolf reflects. “We had been wearing Thom Browne for the last few months, prior to the Grammys, and it was a brand that Doechii really loved and felt connected with her aesthetic and the music. You always see these images of Thom Browne and this Thom Browne army in the gray uniforms, walking through the streets of New York, and we wanted to recreate that on stage.”

It felt refreshingly unexpected. “What hip-hop or rap girl is doing that?” Woolf adds. “You don’t often see people in hip hop, especially rap girls, approaching it in such a high-fashion way and performing the way she does and dancing the way she does in such a non-performance look.”

For every appearance — be it on stage, the red carpet or at fashion week — it’s never just about the clothing itself, but also about what type of character Doechii wants to embody. Once she has a personality figured out, Woolf steps in to help bring that vision to life.

“The references are never super specific to one person — it’s made up of a few different things, whether it could be a pattern or an era of time,” he explains. “Like, Motown is something we typically reference, which is just a general aesthetic.”

For Woolf, Doechii’s sartorial turning point came in December 2024 at her self-choreographed performance on Stephen Colbert’s “The Late Show,” during which she and her dancers wore head-to-toe Gucci. Her style streak continued the next day at her viral Tiny Desk concert, where she wore a white Willy Chavarria jacket, collared shirt and baggy pants.

“That was the perfect mix of fashion, music and creativity that all came together perfectly and really solidified her as one of the next biggest stars that’s going to rise out of music […] and fashion,” he says of those two appearances. “People started to see that — they saw the future of Doechii through those things.”

From there, the performer’s fashion run speaks for itself: She was the chameleonic best-dressed MVP of Paris Fashion Week’s Fall 2025 season, sitting front row at Schiaparelli, Chloé, Haider Ackermann’s Tom Ford debut and Acne Studios. (Before heading to the French capital, she made her runway debut closing DSquared2’s Fall 2025 show in Milan.) Other high-fashion placements include Valentino, Casablanca, Miu Miu, Maison Margiela and Vivienne Westwood.

But it’s not just big European luxury houses who are eager to work with Doechii and Woolf. The duo are supporters of indie and emerging designers as well, including Christopher John Rogers, Tolu Coker, NoSceneGirls and Brandon Maxwell. Woolf is always keeping tabs on buzzy new labels in consideration for future collaborations. “Sustainable” designer Hodakova, for instance, is one he considers a rising talent to watch. Woolf also looks at graduate collections from fashion schools like SCAD, Parsons, London College of Fashion and IFM Paris.

“I do love the idea of mixing emerging designers with high-end, well-known houses,” he explains. “And I love looking at student work, because it’s really cool and fresh. They have a brand new set of eyes. They haven’t been in this for 20 years, creating four collections a year.”

Woolf will even consider fan designs: At the 2025 California Frost Fest on Saturday, she performed a set in a custom button-adorned outfit by fan and emerging designer Handsomegirly. Back in February, the designer posted on social media, “Hello I made the most beautiful matching set with matching headband,” and followed up, “It’s a dream of mine for Doechii to wear my set.”

Ask and you shall receive.

“Doechii and I saw it, and I got it for Doechii,” Woolf says of the collaboration. “I saw that piece and I thought it was super cute and I thought it was very Doechii and I was like, ‘Let’s try this.’ She made a custom piece with Doechii in two days. And I think that’s really special. It gives some young designers a platform to grow.”

Plus, supporting young talent conveys a message to Doechii’s fans: “It shows people that you don’t have to be in couture just to be cool,” Woolf notes.

When asked if it’s conclusive that Doechii can already be considered a fashion It girl, Woolf didn’t hesitate with his response: “She’s definitely a fashion It girl.”

What’s next on the agenda? Fashion icon. “I think It girl, icon and legend are three different things,” the stylist says. “I definitely think she’s a fashion It girl right now. We’ve created that phenomenon around her, and I think we’re on the way to being a fashion icon.”

Her upcoming attendance at the 2025 Met Gala offers the perfect opportunity to get her closer to that status. The dress code is “Tailored For You” (a nod to the “Superfine: Tailoring Black Style” exhibit, which explores the influence of Black Dandyism), which lends itself well to Doechii’s natural inclination for suiting and a preppy aesthetic.

“We were really excited because the theme was perfectly in line with everything we’d been working with and the world we created,” Woolf teases. “It’s one of the biggest red carpets in fashion, so we’ve just been thinking about how to interpret it in a new way that was different from what we’ve been doing.”

Be it on the Met steps or a paparazzi shot heading to the recording studio, Woolf hopes that across every Doechii look lies a common thread of authenticity. That, he says, is the most important part of it all.

“I don’t think it’s about creating a trend, I really don’t,” he says. “The trend should be yourself: Wear what makes you feel good, and do what makes you feel happy. I hope that’s what [Doechii] is giving to young girls and boys through her fashion, to be authentic to themselves.”

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