Meghan Markle has embarked on a new business venture: investing in a new fashion brand.
The Duchess of Sussex, 43, recently invested in Sesta Collective, a mission-based handbag brand that she has used on and off over the past few years.
Meghan told The New York Times this week that she likes to search online for brands she loves and can support, and that's when she came across Sesta Collective.
“I spend a lot of time looking for brands on Google,” she says. “When people are searching or reading about things online, I try to find great new designers, especially in different regions.”
Sesta Collective's signature basket bags are hand-knitted by women in Rwanda, who the brand says are proud to pay 500 to 700 times the average wage in the country, before being finished in Italy and put on sale in stores.
Markle first picked up the company's drawstring bucket bag during a dinner date with her husband, Prince Harry, Gwyneth Paltrow, and Cameron Diaz at a sushi bar in Santa Barbara in May 2023. The bag quickly sold out.
“We had the highest single-day sales we've ever had,” Sesta Collective co-founder Erin Ryder told The Times. Ryder and her partner Courtney Weinblatt Fasciano reached out to Meghan to thank her for her support, and earlier this year she became the brand's first outside investor.
Markle recalled that when she carried a Strathberry midi tote bag to an engagement in 2017, the bag quickly went out of stock (in just 11 minutes).
That moment “changed everything I thought about putting together outfits ever since,” she said.
“At a time when I'm in the spotlight globally and people are paying attention to every detail of what I'm wearing or not wearing, I'm supporting designers that I'm really close friends with and smaller, high-profile brands that don't get the attention they deserve. That's one of the most powerful things I can do, and that's simply by wearing earrings.”
Meghan's new brand venture comes as her own lifestyle brand, American Riviera Orchard, hits store shelves soon.
Meghan soft-launched her new business in March with an Instagram page and website, but has not announced when an official launch will occur, though it is expected to be in the autumn.
Over the past few months, Meghan has teased the debut of three products that will be sold under her new brand: strawberry jam, raspberry jam, and dog biscuits, which are rumored to also include a rosé wine.
Meghan is also working on her latest project with Netflix, a cookery show that “celebrates the joys of cooking, gardening, entertaining and friendship.”
The Duchess will curate the series, with Leah Harriton as showrunner and Michael Steed as director.
The series is produced by Sony Pictures Television's Intellectual Properties and is executive produced by The Duchess of Harriton, Archewell's Chanel Pisnik, and IPC's Aaron Seidman and Eli Holtzman.
