[et_pb_section fb_built=”1″ _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_row _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_column type=”4_4″ _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_text module_class=”custom-post-title” _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” header_font=”Black Han Sans|700||on|||||” header_text_align=”center” header_font_size=”46px” header_letter_spacing=”4px” custom_margin=”25px||5px||false|false” custom_padding=”0px||0px||true|false” hover_enabled=”0″ global_colors_info=”{}” sticky_enabled=”0″]<\/p>\n
[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text module_class=”credit-name” _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” text_font=”Black Han Sans|||on|||||” text_text_color=”#000000″ header_4_font=”|||on|||||” header_4_text_align=”center” text_orientation=”center” custom_margin=”||0px||false|false” global_colors_info=”{}”]<\/p>\n
Words by Natalie Hammond <\/strong><\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_image src=”https:\/\/flatplan-plus-content.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2024\/04\/GettyImages-1798542086-2.jpg” alt=”Jennifer Aniston” title_text=”GettyImages-1798542086-2″ force_fullwidth=”on” _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”][\/et_pb_image][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”]<\/p>\n Meghan Markle\u2019s wardrobe has already gone through several \u2018eras\u2019, perhaps most notably \u2018Duchess\u2019, \u2018Montecito power player\u2019 and this year\u2019s \u2018polo wife\u2019. But with the launch of American Riviera Orchard, Markle\u2019s brand with a tantalising insignia logo whose inaugural product is an artisan batch of strawberry jam – not to mention the announcement that she\u2019s going to be making a return to TV, with a non-fiction series dedicated to celebrating the \u2018joys of cooking, gardening, entertaining, and friendship\u2019, according to Deadline – it\u2019s her next era that might be her most interesting yet. And the woman who\u2019s reportedly just been hired to usher her into this chapter, to essentially give her a lifestyle-guru glow-up to rival Gwynnie\u2019s? Jamie Mizrahi.<\/p>\n From America\u2019s number-one thirst trap, Jeremy Allen White, to the actor quietly emerging as best dressed woman in (and pap-shot queen of) New York City, Oscar-winning Jennifer Lawrence, Mizrahi\u2019s current roster of clients reads like a who\u2019s who of who looks good in Hollywood. She\u2019s an obvious choice for Markle, whose wardrobe, understandably, has been through something of an identity crisis because of her CV. Markle\u2019s role as a series regular on Suits, the fast-taking legal drama where she played whip-smart paralegal Rachel Zane, then as a senior member of royal family in what might be the most unusual career pivot on the planet, as unbelievable you might say as a reality television star becoming President, means that she essentially switched from dressing for the red carpet to Royal Ascot, ditching the cocktail dresses for tights-at-all-times and fascinators.<\/p>\n Arriving in Montecito, Markle\u2019s wardrobe immediately underwent something of a vibe shift, moving away from the formal dress coats, boxy leather handbags and stiletto-heeled suede pumps towards something that, if you had to put a name on it for a mood board, is more like \u2018Californian CEO\u2019, with a lot of expensive creamy shades courtesy of high-end designers that she couldn\u2019t necessarily wear on repeat as the Duchess (Valentino, Ralph Lauren, Carolina Herrera, Loro Piana etc). Four years later – post the most incendiary television interview of this century (Oprah), and also post the most toe-curling autobiography of all time (Spare) – and she\u2019s poised for another reinvention, this time as the founder of American Riviera Orchard, which, despite having a name that doesn\u2019t have anywhere near the promise of woo-woo health, wealth and happiness as Goop, could absolutely have the power to position her as the next lifestyle mogul of the West Coast. <\/p>\n It\u2019s no wonder, then, that she\u2019s turned to someone like Mizrahi, who is practised in the art of taking a celebrity\u2019s wardrobe and giving it a very specific USP. Exhibit A: Adele, who she\u2019s been styling for the past few years. With the singer\u2019s blockbuster residency in Las Vegas, Mizrahi had her work cut out for her. How do you captivate the audience, night after night, with looks that are spectacular but also capture your client\u2019s personal style? How?! By finding a winning formula and sticking to it religiously. Adele wore a long black gown for 34 performances, from a sequined column that twinkled under the stage lights (Valentino) to velvet corset wizardry (Vivienne Westwood), 17 of which were actually custom-made for the singer. If that isn\u2019t the definition of signature style – an often-elusive concept in the world of celebrity – I don\u2019t know what is, frankly.<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text module_class=”custom-quote” _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” header_2_font=”Libre Bodoni|||on|||||” header_2_text_align=”center” header_2_text_color=”#333333″ header_2_font_size=”40px” header_2_line_height=”1.2em” global_colors_info=”{}”]<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”]<\/p>\n Mizrahi has worked a similar kind of magic with other clients, giving each a look that\u2019s specifically engineered, distilling their essence, as it were, into clothes that feel like the best version of them. For Nicole Richie, it\u2019s the kind of delicious boho glam that feels as 2024 as it does 2004 (in a great way), with plenty of voluminous gold pleats and \u2018challenging\u2019 shades like chartreuse thrown in for good measure. Jennifer Lawrence\u2019s mood board, meanwhile, must have centred around the minimalist\u2019s ultimate icon Carolyn Bessette-Kennedy, with the kind of effortlessly cool off-duty looks that incorporate oversized leather blazers that look vintage (they\u2019re not, they\u2019re Bottega!), lived-in denim and lots of The Row, as well as some lo-fi references to keep the people happy like Vans.<\/p>\n At this critical juncture for the Duchess – and with method dressing practically a prerequisite whenever a celebrity is promoting something (see, Zendaya for Challengers, Cynthia Erivo for Wicked, Margot Robbie for Barbie) – Markle has made a very savvy choice as she prepares to embody American Riviera Orchard.<\/p>\n There\u2019s likely a lot she wants to keep from her existing look. After all, Markle\u2019s no stranger to sending a certain kind of message with her clothes – and she\u2019s also friendly with key fashion industry players like Clare Waight Keller, who designed her wedding dress under her tenure as creative director of Givenchy. In fact, for a recent lunch with the designer at Cipriani, Markle wore an outfit that some would consider a snapshot of her current wardrobe: a turtleneck, a high-waisted pair of trousers, aviator shades and a luxuriously soft cashmere wrap coat by Max Mara. It\u2019s the kind of soft power serve belonging to the business elite who no longer believe in pencil skirts and Spanx. Of course, \u2018founder\u2019 is just one side of her public-facing personality. The other is going to high society events like last weekend\u2019s polo match, where, presumably, she\u2019ll be brushing shoulders with her future customer base. Presenting her husband, Prince Harry, with a trophy, she wore an ivory sundress with a keyhole cut-out at the waist. Interestingly, it wasn\u2019t from a luxury designer label that commands a four-figure price tag but a contemporary brand based in LA, Heidi Merrick. <\/p>\n In actual fact, Markle practically owns a capsule wardrobe from Heidi Merrick, including a pair of sunglasses that she\u2019s been wearing on repeat, a georgette blouse and a silk blazer. (Merrick confirmed via email that the polo match dress completely sold out after it was seen on Markle.) Could she be giving her fans a taste of the kind of brands she could potentially be stocking at American Riviera Orchard (Goop carries a range of different designers, as well as its in-house offering, G. Label by Goop)? Possibly. As a brand that\u2019s native to California – Merrick was born and raised in Santa Barbara – it certainly ticks a lot of the boxes you\u2019d expect. Another could be Malibu\u2019s Bleusalt, from which she owns several basics, including a long crew-neck dress made from 95% TENCEL\u2122. Both sit in the \u2018contemporary\u2019 bracket as opposed to luxury, with prices generally sitting below the \u00a3500 mark, as does St Agni, based in Byron Bay, Australia, which she recently wore to put a very good spin on the LBD.<\/p>\n If the rumour is true, Markle only hired Mizrahi, who hasn\u2019t confirmed the appointment, as late as last month, which means we\u2019re probably unlikely to be seeing the fruits of their collaboration just yet. For now, we\u2019ll have to be satisfied with the jam, lushly packaged with an individually written label signifying it\u2019s a batch of 50 – and keep ourselves occupied with the big questions, like will she finally – finally! – be tempted out of skinny jeans?<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_divider color=”#111111″ divider_position=”center” divider_weight=”2px” module_class=”custom-divider” _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” custom_margin=”0px||0px||false|false” custom_padding=”0px||0px||false|false” global_colors_info=”{}”][\/et_pb_divider][et_pb_text module_class=”credit-texts” _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” text_font=”|||on|||||” text_orientation=”center” global_colors_info=”{}”]<\/p>\n Photo: <\/b>Getty<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][\/et_pb_section]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Mizrahi has worked a similar kind of magic with other clients<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":2490,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_et_pb_use_builder":"on","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2489","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-feature"],"acf":[],"modified_by":"kschwarz","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/grazia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2489","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/grazia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/grazia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/grazia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/grazia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2489"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/grazia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2489\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2498,"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/grazia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2489\/revisions\/2498"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/grazia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2490"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/grazia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2489"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/grazia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2489"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/grazia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2489"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Meghan has made a very savvy choice as she prepares to embody American Riviera Orchard<\/h2>\n