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Lesa Milan, star of “The Real Housewives of Dubai,” credits Beyoncé as an inspiration for her fashion business success.
In 2016, Milan launched her fashion brand Mina Roe, catering to pregnant women because she felt there was a lack of trendy maternity items on the market, notes WWD.
“I love that Rihanna was out there with her bump, being sexy and bold because that’s what Mina Roe has always been about — celebrating your pregnancy rather than hiding it,” she told the outlet in 2022. “You can still add that fashion twist and your own personal style to your bump. I think that’s the hole that we filled with Mina Roe.”
Milan had ambitious goals for her brand from the start, launching it with the support of just one female employee. In an interview with radio station Hot 97, she shared how she initially reached out to entrepreneurs and celebrities, hoping they would wear Mina Roe. Ultimately, her breakthrough came through building connections with stylists.
“I started out reaching out to the celebrities myself, but I got nothing back,” she said on “Hot 97.” “They would just ignore it, and then if they didn’t ignore it, it would be like a manager requesting like $50,000 or something for them to wear my stuff. And I was like, ‘I can’t afford that. That doesn’t work. I can’t pay them to wear my stuff. So what can I do? Because I don’t have the budget.’ So I said, ‘You know what, the stylist, I need to go through the stylist because it’s very difficult to find trendy clothes that fit and are comfortable. And I’m sure they would appreciate Mina Roe.’”
Taking this approach, Milan reached out to stylists or their agents, sending illustrations of talent wearing Mina Roe’s dresses. This ultimately led to her connecting with Ty Hunter, Beyoncé’s celebrity stylist at the time.
“He reached out and he’s like, ‘OK, Beyoncé’s gonna choose the ones she likes.’ And I was like, ‘Beyoncé is gonna choose it herself?!,’ And she chose five pieces, and we’ve only seen her being photographed in two different dresses,” Milan said. “It was so major. It changed my brand forever. The Beyoncé effect. We went from unknown to known overnight… Beyoncé put me on the map.”
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