Meghan Markle hard launched her new interiors brand last night, both returning to her lifestyle blogging roots and joining a long line of celebrity homeware ventures.
Called American Riviera Orchard, so far it consists of an Instagram account, a holding page and the tagline: By Meghan, the Duchess of Sussex. Established 2024.
In the promo video, the Duchess can be glimpsed arranging flowers, preparing food in a rustic chic kitchen, and hovering in a doorway in a Grace Kelly-esque ballgown.
In the trademark documents, dug out by the sleuths at People magazine, suggest her new venture will be focused on homewares for the kitchen.
American Riviera Orchard will sell “books, tableware and tablescape goods, table linens, and servingware” including cutlery, kitchen linens, napkins and napkin rings, placemats, tea and coffee services, and drinkware including decanters.
There will be cookbooks and recipes, as well as a smorgasbord of delicacies that reads like a Redwall feast such as jellies, jams, marmalades, fruit preserves, nut butters, fruit butters, dairy and non-dairy spreads, oils, and tahini.
In short, everything you would need to cook up a chic royal feast and serve it to your loved ones.
Here’s what else we know so far:
The name: American Riviera Orchard
Her chosen brand name appears to invoke her beloved home in California.
Markle and her husband, Prince Harry, have settled in Montecito, an exclusive enclave in Santa Barbara that’s earned the nickname of the American Riviera for its Mediterranean climate, beaches, and wineries.
They live in a $14 million (£10.9 million) nine-bedroom mansion filled with Hermes cashmere blankets and Soho House rosewater candles (more on that later).
Its sprawling grounds that include a chicken coop, rose garden and olive trees.
It’s unclear whether they have their own orchard, but this could be artistic licence to suggest the bounties of nature —and a fruitful commercial endeavour.
The logo: royal connections
American Riviera Orchard’s logo is an embroidery style monogram with an intertwining of an A and an R, in an ancient graphic tradition that invokes heritage and nobility.
In heraldic tradition, monarchies have a royal cypher formed from the overlapping initials of the sovereign, which can be found stamped everywhere from building’s to state documents.
In the Victorian era, it became trendy for the European aristocracy to have their own monogram and have it stamped on silverware and embroidered into napkins.
Perhaps the brand will include some contemporary monogrammed table linen in Markle’s favourite tasteful neutrals.
It’s a savvy aesthetic for an American ex-royal looking to trade on their romantic caché to an Anglophile audience.
The precedent: welcome to The Tig 2.0
This is not Markle’s first lifestyle rodeo.
Before she met her prince, she ran a successful blog named The Tig where she shared tips on food, travel, fashion and beauty.
It was named for Tignanello, her favourite Tuscan red wine.
American Riveria Orchard, then, could be a nod to the new terroir she has transplanted her family.
Alongside The Tig, Markle was a brand ambassador for British member’s club Soho House while she lived in Toronto during the filming of her TV show Suits.
Although now dogged by complaints of tired decor and lacklustre service, Soho House was hot property at the time.
Meghan met Harry for their first date at the Dean Street outpost of the club, and she hired Vicky Charles, former head of design at Soho House to oversea the refurbishment of Frogmore Cottage in 2019.
She remained loyal to the brand after their relocation, lighting Soho House candles in her Montecito home when she welcomed a journalist for her 2022 interview with The Cut - where she also teased that she would be getting back on Instagram.
Markle has also created a bestselling cookbook before, called Together: Our Community Cookbook, to raise funds for the kitchen set up by survivors of the Grenfell Tower fire.
And of course, the Duchess joins a long line of celebrity women who have founded a shoppable lifestyle brand.
Gwyneth Paltrow pioneered the trend with Goop and its Californian woo, Rihanna has Fenty Beauty, Reese Witherspoon has Draper James to channel Southern charm, and even Blake Lively had the short-lived Preserve.
The launch: an auspicious date
While some royal watchers have opined that this is a shameless cashing in on the frantic speculation over her sister-in-law, the launch was clearly pre-planned to coincide with a very important date for the House of Sussex.
March 14 is the anniversary of Harry and Meghan’s ‘freedom flight’ where they fled the UK for a new life America.
The launch video underscores the romance of this narrative with its choice of song: I Wish You Love by Nancy Wilson.
Wilson was a Black jazz singer from a working class background who rose to fame as an entertainer, and was also a divorcee just like Markle.
While the song sings of heartbreak, the lyrics also work for a homewares brand marketing a relaxing hostessing experience in sunnier climbs: ‘And in July a lemonade / To cool you in some leafy glade / I wish you health, and more than wealth / I wish you love’.
All this is the tablesetting for an intriguing new interiors venture.
