Lesa Milan Responds to the "Unwarranted Attack" on Her Mina Roe Brand
The Real Housewives of Dubai entrepreneur had a lot to say following the drama at the Season 1 reunion.
On the first season of The Real Housewives of Dubai, we've gotten to know a lot about Lesa Milan and her impressive Mina Roe clothing brand. But on Part 1 of the Season 1 reunion, the integrity of Lesa's brand was questioned by Caroline Stanbury — and Lesa had a lot to say in response.
Following the episode airing on August 31, Lesa took to Instagram to say her piece. "I’ve worked extremely hard to be who I am and where I am today," she wrote. "I’ve done so with a lot of grit and a lot of grace. For many years, I’ve 'moved in silence' with my brand [Mina Roe] which took a lot of discipline but I did so mainly out of fear. I always said 'People can’t attack what they don’t know' and I wanted people to shop my line because they genuinely loved my work. I wanted to keep my head down, work extremely hard and clap myself in private for all my wins.
"Like many new businesses Mina Roe started out as a one ‘woman’ band; I was the designer, admin team, box packer, customer service agent and SEO/marketing ‘specialist’ (I use that term loosely because I literally got my training from YouTube and trial/ error lol). It was a slow start, I made a lot of mistakes and I started an online business in a region at the time where online shopping was non-existent so we really struggled to make sales.
"Eventually I remodeled our business plan and the brand grew through selling wholesale in the Middle East, Singapore, Australia and New Zealand.
"Beyoncé, Khloe Kardashian, Serena Williams, Mila Kunis, Gigi Hadid, Megan Fox, other ladies from the Real Housewives, Jen Lilley, April Love Geary (to name a few) and so many other amazing moms across the globe have connected with our brand over the years which really set us apart from our competitors and I’m eternally grateful for that.
"I have always been the sole designer of Mina Roe and still the chief designer of the brand to this day, but as mentioned numerous times in interviews, on my social media pages, we used outside creatives for the first time and this makes up a whopping 5% of our entire collection.
"My decision to share my business on the show, was 1 to promote it on a big platform, 2 to overcome my fear and 3 to inspire women (especially moms) that you can have everything you manifest and work hard for.
"I say all of this to say, Mina Roe which now has over 25 employees was not built over night and now that I’ve overcome this fear and unwarranted attack on my business. I plan to use this as fuel and I’m just getting started!" She added the hashtags It's go time and Black girl magic.
In the June 1 episode of RHODubai, Lesa opened up about being a Black woman behind such a successful venture. "As a Black woman, I feel it’s so important, because there are very few of us that are really successful and doing amazing things in this city," she said.
