I constructed MenStyleFashion from nothing. I didn’t have traders. I didn’t have mentors. I didn’t have trend royalty rolling out the pink carpet. I had a laptop computer, a imaginative and prescient, and the center to stroll into the lion’s den of menswear as a lady with an opinion. Over a decade later, in 2025, nothing has modified. The misogyny remains to be thick. The discrimination remains to be uncooked. And the silence from the highest? Deafening.
At Pitti Uomo this week, I used to be insulted. Referred to as a freeloader. Judged by Italians who assumed I didn’t belong as a result of I didn’t match the mould of what a lady in menswear is meant to be—silent, supportive, and candy. I’m none of these issues. I by no means have been. I communicate, I critique, I name out hypocrisy. I dare to imagine I belong in a world that wasn’t constructed for me. And that makes individuals uncomfortable.
Coco Chanel
Coco Chanel as soon as mentioned, “A lady ought to be two issues: who and what she desires.”
She knew the warzone of enterprise. She was cornered in the course of the warfare—vilified, ostracized, underestimated—however she didn’t keep down. She renegotiated her contract as a result of she knew her value. The boys may need owned the paperwork, however she was the model. With out her, there was no Chanel. That’s the sort of readability I carry into each trend corridor I enter.
And but, right here I’m, in 2025, being handled as if I’m asking for scraps. I didn’t crawl into trend. I stormed in carrying killer heels and refused to bow. I created one of many first impartial digital platforms devoted solely to males’s trend—from a feminine perspective. There are fewer ladies on this area than you possibly can depend on one hand. However as a substitute of being celebrated, I’ve been systematically sidelined.
This trade doesn’t know what to do with somebody like me. I’m not controllable. I don’t worship manufacturers. I query them. I name out lazy advertising, unoriginal designs, faux sustainability claims, and exclusionary practices. And worst of all, I communicate the reality—loudly.
Male Violence
For the final yr, I’ve skilled male violence in a kind simply as vicious as fists: reputational sabotage. Males making up lies. Males slandering my title behind closed doorways. Males attempting to kill my credibility in boardrooms, again rooms, and on-line. Males too cowardly to confront me nose to nose. These aren’t simply critics—they’re calculated bullies, utilizing whispers to poison wells I constructed myself.
However I’m not damaged. I’m constructed for battle. I at all times have been.
I used to be bullied as a woman. Pushed round, laughed at, instructed I used to be too loud, too completely different, an excessive amount of. However that lady become a lady who constructed an empire of favor with zero assist from trend’s internal circle. I didn’t simply crash the social gathering—I arrange my very own stage, constructed my very own lights, and curated my very own present. I created MenStyleFashion not as a result of the trade let me in—however as a result of they by no means would.
That’s why the therapy I acquired at Pitti Uomo cuts deep. It is a place the place males parade in borrowed garments, pretending to be visionaries. However the second a lady like me stands her floor, asks for solutions, and challenges choices made with out course of or transparency—I’m labeled impolite, aggressive, troublesome. These labels are weapons. And I see them for what they’re: concern.
Why Do They Worry Me?
They concern ladies like me as a result of I shine a highlight on their cowardice. They concern ladies like me as a result of I’ve received extra integrity in my pink stilettos than their entire PR departments. They concern ladies like me as a result of I don’t want their approval to do what I do.
Style loves to speak about inclusion. However inclusion, with out motion, is ornament. It’s a hashtag. A press launch. A photograph op. The second an actual lady reveals up—fierce, opinionated, skilled—they need her out. Behind all of the lights, this trade remains to be a spot the place the principles are written by males, enforced by cliques, and guarded by silence.
This week I used to be instructed I wasn’t allowed in a restaurant at Pitti. I used to be dismissed with out purpose. I used to be denied entry whereas others waltzed in. No apology. No clarification. Only a man with energy making up guidelines. This isn’t about meals. That is about erasure. That is about controlling who will get to be seen, who will get to be heard, and who’s allowed to take a seat on the desk.
Nicely, I’ve had sufficient.
As I’ve mentioned many instances and I’ll say once more:
“If not now, when? Bullying in trend should be uncovered, and I’m a sufferer. I received’t keep silent.” — Gracie Opulanza
I used to be created by God to struggle this very factor. To show bullies. To remind ladies they’re not alone. My platform has at all times been a voice for the misunderstood, the underestimated, the misrepresented. I didn’t want permission to begin. And I don’t want permission to proceed.
Style Trade Worry Of Highly effective Girls Is Shameful
To the style trade: your concern of highly effective ladies is embarrassing. Your makes an attempt to erase me solely amplify me. Your cruelty is the explanation I’ll hold going. You possibly can’t cancel what you by no means created.
To the ladies studying this: don’t anticipate the trade to validate you. Don’t shrink to suit. Don’t allow them to tame your voice, your imaginative and prescient, your hearth. Be disruptive. Be loud. Be unignorable. Like Coco. Like me.
To the lads who’ve tried to discredit me, management me, or bully me—thanks. You made me stronger. You jogged my memory I’m a menace. You proved my work is harmful to those that concern change.
That is my public reminder that I’ll by no means tolerate bullying in trend. Not in direction of me. Not in direction of anybody. I’ll expose it. I’ll write about it. I’ll struggle it.
As a result of I’m not reduce from the identical material.
I’m reduce from the material you possibly can’t sew, the thread you possibly can’t hint, the resilience you possibly can’t replicate. I’m stitched collectively by God, laced with grit, and tailor-made for reality.
I’m Gracie Opulanza. And I’m nonetheless standing.
