In these days of darkness we must take delight where we can find it, and one reliable source is the Duchess of Sussex. In her latest venture, Meghan, who occupies the tricky position of having a large platform and not enough to fill it (see also: Brooklyn Beckham), launched a new lifestyle brand that, she promised in a short video, would be “beautifully weaving together everything I cherish – food, gardening, entertaining, thoughtful living and finding joy in the everyday”. The brand American Riviera Orchard is dead. Long live the new brand, As Ever.
The duchess and her husband, Prince Harry, have to do something and good luck to them, but it’s hard not to study the rollout of As Ever for signs of the widening gap between Meghan’s self-image and how the rest of the world sees her. “‘As ever’,” writes the duchess on Instagram, “means ‘as it’s always been’ or some even say ‘in the same way as always’,” the “some” in this sentence apparently referring to the dictionary definition of a two-word phrase that no one has ever had trouble understanding.
It’s ridiculous, of course, as is the hello-little-people tone adopted by the former royal highness, in keeping with the general attitude of the famous towards the unfamous – namely, one of stating the bleeding obvious as though sharing the key to existence. Still, I find myself sympathising with Meghan, who in her Instagram post and its accompanying video faces the stark challenge of having to pad out thin material. “This is what I do,” she says to camera, “and I haven’t been able to share it with you for the past few years, but now I can.” What is the “it” here, and what has stopped her from sharing it? (It may involve jam, as did her previous brand, which she launched by sending “limited edition” jars of preserve to, among others, Kris Jenner, Mindy Kaling and Tracee Ellis Ross, who apparently also got a fresh bag of lemons.) Anyway, whatever the content, she hints darkly at some “whispers” abroad that forced her to jump the gun and share news of As Ever before she was ready – because “I wanted you to hear it from me first”.
The fact there is no story here makes Meghan’s insistence that she is getting in front of the story all the more enjoyable, but the more curious aspect of the announcement is the “you” to whom she refers and the idea she clearly has of her audience. The celebrity lifestyle space is crowded, ferocious and notoriously fickle, littered with the carcasses of former brand leaders such as Chrissy Teigen. Target and Bloomingdales distanced themselves from the star around the same time as she was accused of, and later apologised for, cyberbullying a woman called Courtney. The space is also dominated by market leaders such as Gwyneth Paltrow and Rachel Zoe.
Meghan is a minnow in these waters, but of course has her own secret weapon she isn’t shy about using. In the new video, she deploys good old Harry to hold up the cameraphone and drop a few posh tones – “Is this thing on?” – to remind us that, even if As Ever isn’t royal, exactly, it is at least royal adjacent. The new name is clearly a reach for something classier and more timeless than its predecessor, American Riviera Orchard, which sounded like a range of scented gift baskets you’d find at a discount shopping outlet, or the pair’s charity arm, Archewell, a play on their son’s name. Both brands have an aspirant lower middle-class vibe about them, which it would be rude to point out were it not for the fact that Harry and Meghan trade on class as part of their branding.
What they are selling isn’t poshness itself, which strictly speaking should entail low-comfort, hole-in-the-elbows, bad cooking and draughty houses, but – much like Trump and his performance of “billionaire” – a kind of ersatz poshness they imagine might appeal to the peasants. It’s a hard one to get right and, with the new brand name, Meghan seems to have changed course in the direction of, say, a Calvin Klein perfume or something a bit more abstract and upmarket. Although for my money she was on to more of a winner with the obscure and personalised brand name The Tig, her first attempt at lifestyle content that had to be shelved when she started dating Harry. As she explained at the time, The Tig was derived from an abbreviation of her favourite wine, tignanello, and had about it the confidence of something genuinely felt rather than a brand name that has been kicked through a comms team.
Which brings us to the duchess’s understanding of audience. Discounting the forfeiture of sympathy that comes with money and privilege, there is something akin to pathos in the video that I find painful to watch. Meghan’s aw-shucks, I-know-you-love-me tone assumes not only goodwill but abject fandom on the part of an audience which, I suspect, is at least 50% made up of those who regard her not only critically but with downright derision. It is hard to witness. “Sending lots of love,” she signs off with noblesse oblige and an almost charming dedication to what she imagines we think of her.
Emma Brockes is a Guardian columnist
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