What is American Riviera Orchard, Meghan’s mysterious lifestyle brand?

To the jazz sounds of Nancy Wilson’s 1960s song I Wish You Love, the Duchess of Sussex emerges from the kitchen of her California mansion in a sneak peek introducing her new lifestyle brand.

Although little was revealed in the 16-second long video, an Instagram account for Meghan’s new brand has already amassed hundreds of thousands of followers online.

The American Riviera Orchard brand features a gold-colored shield, with the word “Montecito,” the name of the exclusive town where Meghan, Prince Harry and their children live near Santa Barbara, known as the “American Riviera.”

A post on American Riviera Orchard’s Instagram account features a short, grainy, retro-style video showing hands arranging flowers, Meghan stirring a pot in the kitchen, and a woman in a ballgown standing at the end of a long colonnade.

It’s still unclear what exactly it sells, but Internet sleuths tracking pending trademark applications in the United States have discovered that American Riviera Orchards plans to sell cookbooks and household items, such as decanters and kitchen linens, as well as foods such as jams and jellies.

Some have been speculating whether the placement of certain items in the teaser video will also be part of their new line in the coming months. In the kitchen behind Meghan we can see some elegant bowls and a glass jug.

The sense of mystery in the video is very deliberate, says Lindsey Imler, digital marketing specialist at Intero Digital, based in Columbia, Missouri.

He’s “very low-key,” she says, and “very attractive,” playing on the fairy-tale perceptions Americans have of curious foreign royals. This has sparked a flurry of Google searches from people wondering what she’s doing now.

Professor Pauline Maclaran, professor of marketing and consumer research at Royal Holloway, University of London, says the duchess appears to be turning to her former brand The Tig, which closed following her engagement to Prince Harry.

When it ended, Meghan, better known as a former Hollywood actress than a lifestyle influencer, had more than 3 million followers on Instagram.

“I would see this as a much more domestic goddess market,” Professor Maclaran tells BBC News, “with these new majestic connections now and, you know, promoting elegance.”

The video “evokes a heritage” that “ties back to the royal look,” he adds.

She says the “domestic goddess in the kitchen” image, similar to that of Martha Stewart and Nigella Lawson, seems to speak directly to American shoppers.

Kerrie Kelly, who has worked as an interior designer in California for 30 years, agrees that the promotion seems to be “rooted in history, or more European in terms of aesthetics,” but still has a healthy dose of California “easy and happy”. chic added to the mix.

Meghan appears to be marketing a “sense of domestic bliss,” leaning into her role as wife and mother. Ms Kelly says she wouldn’t be surprised if Meghan’s company included, for example, a children’s clothing line or a nursery collection. Her husband could also later appear in marketing materials, something consumers would likely expect from a lifestyle brand.

The brevity of the launch video hasn’t stopped critics from ridiculing the brand. Some have joked that the 10-syllable American Riviera Orchard sounds like the names of children born to Hollywood celebrities.

Commentators have also begun making comparisons to Gwyneth Paltrow’s Goop company and products sold by celebrities like Kim Kardashian and Reese Witherspoon.

The American journalist Elizabeth Holmes, who wrote a best selling book on royal fashion in 2020, says royal watchers have assumed Meghan’s “next chapter” would likely include bringing back Tig’s website “in some form.”

Since returning to the US, Meghan “has had a kind of relaxed, Californian, sophisticated ease,” Ms. Holmes says.

The launch came just days after her sister-in-law Catherine, Princess of Wales, had to address a photoshop mishap in the United Kingdom, which stoked public curiosity about the royal’s private life.

Digital marketing specialist Lindsey Imler finds the “juxtaposition” in media attention between the two real women interesting. Both have recently been cautious about sharing information about their daily lives.

“For a long time Meghan was, you know, the negative one and Kate was the positive one and now it seems like there’s been a noticeable change” in recent days, she says.

The launch has sparked some public speculation that the lifestyle brand could be reneging on an agreement with the Royal Family not to use its royal titles, HRH and HRH, for profit.

So far, the company has not used the titles. When they left their role as royals, they were instructed to uphold the values ​​of the Royal Family, and so far the limited information available about the new brand appears to follow that guidance.

In theory, Buckingham Palace could complain if Meghan’s products are seen as competing with those sold through her own Royal Collection website, but it is too early to say whether any conflict may occur.

With additional information from Daniela Relph