Meghan Markle’s socialite friends are helping her roll out her first product under her new America Riviera Orchard brand: strawberry jam, for which only 50 jars have apparently been produced.
Fashion designer Tracy Robbins and Argentine socialite Delfina Blaquier posted images of the jam on their Instagram Stories Tuesday, The Telegraph reported. The labeling also shows the jam was made in Meghan’s hometown of Montecito and the jars are being sold as part of a limited edition that could make the product pretty pricey.
Neither Robbins nor Blaquier mentioned a price in their posts, and American Riviera’s website doesn’t have any information about how to order the jam. But celebrities like LeBron James and Julianne Moore have sold limited editions of honey bearing their names through the Flamingo Estates luxury lifestyle brand. Each jar of LeBron James or Julianne Moore honey sold for the extravagantly high price of $250.
With L.A.-based Flamingo Estates possibly serving as a source of inspiration for Meghan’s American Riviera Orchards, it’s fair to wonder whether the Duchess of Sussex is thinking of also charging a high price for her jam, while promoting it as an ultra-exclusive celebrity product.
One thing, though, with the James and Moore honey: 100% of the profits went to charity, Architectural Digest reported in 2022. While Meghan and Prince Harry’s Archewell Foundation shows that they are committed to philanthropic endeavors, the renegade royal couple also need to launch some successful businesses and earn some money, so they can continue to live like multimillionaires in Montecito.
Meghan’s friends certainly want consumers to think that paying any price would be worth having something associated with the globally famous American duchess. Their promotion even makes the suggestion that duchess labored to pick the strawberries and make the jam herself, so it therefore tastes all the better.
Robbins, the wife of Paramount Pictures president and chief executive Brian Robbins, shared a photo of Meghan’s jam, resting in a bowl of lemons, The Telegraph reported. She captioned the image: “Breakfast, lunch and dinner just got a little sweeter.”
In another post, Robbins highlighted the privilege of having one of Meghan’s jar, whose label indicates it is no. 17 out of 50 jars produced, The Telegraph reported. She wrote: “I absolutely love this jam so I’m not sure I’m sharing it with anyone. Thank you M.”
Brian and Tracy Robbins have become friends of the Sussexes and flew the couple to Jamaica with them in January to attend the local premiere of “Bob Marley: One Love.”
Meanwhile, Blaquier, who is married to Prince Harry’s polo playing friend Nacho Figueras, shared a photo of a piece of toast, smeared with Meghan’s jam, next to a jar that is no. 10 out of 50 produced. According to The Telegraph, her caption read: “Strawberry jam makes me happy. And I love your jam.”
The launch of the American Riviera Orchard is part of Meghan and Harry’s latest effort to rebrand themselves and get world consumers excited about them as media moguls and luxury lifestyle influencers. Harry is producing a new Netflix series on professional polo — a sport long associated with wealth and high society — while Meghan will appear in a Netflix show on cooking, gardening and entertaining.
Production has begun on both Netflix series, with a camera crew reportedly following Meghan and Harry around on Friday, where Harry played in a charity polo match near Miami to benefit his Africa-based Sentebale foundation.
The Daily Mail’s columnist Richard Eden also reported that production had begun on Meghan’s cooking show, though filming isn’t taking place at her and Harry’s Montecito estate. Instead, the show is being shot at another property in Montecito, Eden reported.
With last month’s announcement that Meghan was launching American Riviera Orchard, fashion and branding experts noted the mouthful of a brand name and questioned whether the TV actor-turned-duchess wants to start the next Goop or be the next Martha Stewart.
Others remarked that the brand’s gold logo seems designed to exploit Meghan’s royal connections, while her company’s possible line of products — jams, tableware, linens — seem similar to what tourists can find at gift shops at British royal palaces.
Another report by the Puck newsletter suggested that a major inspiration for American Riviera Orchard is the “decadent lifestyle accouterments company” Flamingo Estate, which is based out of a lavish Spanish-style estate in the hills above Los Angeles.
But “‘inspiration’ is perhaps a generous term,” Puck writer and influencer industry expert Rachel Strugatz reported. That’s because Meghan “appears to be all but trying to re-create Flamingo Estate,” Strugatz said.
Flamingo Estate’s home and beauty products have become “the status symbol du jour for a certain kind of California in-crowd,” Strugatz reported. The brand has been known to sell a nine-pound bag of manure for $75 and a 6.5-ounce jar of dried strawberries for $80. Flamingo Estate also has marketed such extravagantly priced, celebrity-branded products as the $250 honey, bearing the names of James, Moore and Will Ferrell.
The trademark applications for American Riviera Orchard show that a potential grab-bag of products could include a lot more than jam, but also candles, nut butters, dried fruits, cook books, cosmetic brushes, yoga mats and a number of other wellness-related items, Puck and other outlets reported. Trademark filings also indicated that Meghan might also try to sell salad dressing, personal journals, cocktail napkins, letter-openers and stationery, garden tools like hand trowels, decorative string lights, and pet supplies, including pet leashes and collars, Vanity Fair reported.
