When I met Myuse founder Raia Gomez during the Monaco Grand Prix, she was standing inside a styling station hosted by The Pop Up Hotel and The Paddock Journal. Her outfit ushered in an unexpected jolt of nostalgia: She was wearing a vintage Michael Schumacher flag repurposed into a halter top, paired with Frame x Alexandra Leclerc trousers. The look perfectly bridged motorsport history and modern-day Formula One.
Gomez belongs there, which is remarkable when you consider where the story begins. Growing up in Manila in the 1990s, Gomez was obsessed with fashion and Formula One. “When I got home from school, the two websites I immediately checked were style.com and formula1.com,” she says.
Traditional Filipino success stories tend to follow a predictable route of stability and conventional milestones. Gomez’s career unfolded differently—moving across industries and continents from Manila to New York, and now London.
“I’ve personally always felt that being Filipino is an advantage,” she tells me. “It gives us a different perspective and unique insights, combined with our deep empathy.”
A new Formula One
There was a time when fashion and Formula One occupied separate universes. Today, the paddock has become the new runway, with luxury brands entering the sport in unprecedented ways.
“It’s become more than just a race weekend,” Gomez says. “It’s become this cultural moment where speed and style converge.”
“It’s become this cultural moment where speed and style converge”
This convergence is the driving force behind Myuse (pronounced “muse”), her fashion assistant and travel styling platform that brings her worlds together.
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The art of the paddock look
Like many journalists moving between events, I arrived in Monaco with a wardrobe crisis—lacking the range for Monte Carlo’s most important weekend. Gomez stepped in. For my first look, she selected a handmade checkered set by Overlap Studios.
I asked her which Grand Prix the outfit belonged to. “Silverstone,” she answers immediately.
For qualifying day, she styled me in shorts from the Formula One collaboration with Off Season and a jacket made from upcycled airbags.
“[I chose it because] I think it fits your personality,” she says. “It [also] feels extra appropriate, given where you are and the work that you do.”
Her styling philosophy focuses on uncovering identity rather than constructing a character. When asked if styling is about revealing who someone is or who they want to be, she refuses the binary.
“It’s really a combination of both.” She adds, “I think the look feels authentic when you can tell the person wearing it feels comfortable and moves confidently in it.”
“An outfit can look like a costume when the person doesn’t quite feel like themselves.”
Taking up space
The tagline for Myuse is simple: Be your own muse.
Standing in Monaco, surrounded by luxury brands and racing teams, it was difficult not to think about the young girl in Manila refreshing those two websites after school. When she talks about the next generation of Filipino creatives, she says, “There is space and opportunity for everyone.”
“There is space and opportunity for everyone”
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And while that door is opening for the diaspora as a whole, Gomez is proof that it swings widest for Filipina women, who are uniquely equipped to reshape the creative landscape. Having grown up in the cultural melting pot of the Philippines, they possess a rare ability to act as cultural sponges, absorbing the world around them while masterfully retaining the essence of their own identity.
There is something comforting about hearing a Filipino accent cutting through the noise of Monaco on a race weekend. This is a place that, historically, wasn’t built for people like us.
But perhaps that is exactly what Formula One and fashion represent today. The old facades are finally cracking, and we are no longer just watching from the sidelines.
We are at the helm of it. We are taking up space. And we are doing it in style.