Meghan Markle, the Duchess of Sussex, has returned to Instagram with the launch of the lifestyle brand ‘American Riviera Orchard’.
The Instagram account for the brand already has 212,000 followers, despite the only image being of a handwritten golden logo on a white background.
Following the increasingly popular ‘breadcrumbing’ marketing trend, Markle was careful not to reveal too much about the brand.
In an elusive Instagram post on her main page, she released a grainy video with images of flowers, clips of her cooking, and a shot of her in a long floor-length gown. A song by Nancy Wilson – ‘I Wish You Love’ – plays ominously in the background.
The caption reads “The Duchess of Sussex has returned to Instagram alongside launching a website for her new brand, American Riviera Orchard”.
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Whilst Markle has not revealed what the brand will sell, an application to the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office shows that it will be flogging several “goods and services” including tableware, cookbooks, cutlery, napkin rings, and coffee and tea services.
The advert’s nature echoes the ‘tradwife’ subculture that has become popular on social media sites such as TikTok and Instagram in recent years.
At the lighter end of the spectrum, the tradwife trend features women finding joy in daily domestic tasks traditionally associated with women such as baking, household crafts, and gardening. A darker side of the trend has tradwife influencers talking about the importance of submitting to your husband and only acting in a way that is traditionally feminine.
Hannah Neeleman of Baellerina Farm, one of the movement’s most popular influencers has more than 8.8 million followers.
She regularly posts clips of her baking whilst caring for her eight children. She capitalises on her ample following by selling products from the farm to her worldwide audience.
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