Meghan Markle is a minority shareholder in a booming handbag brand, Cesta Collective, she said in a new interview.
Talk to THE The New York Times Following her recent visit to Colombia with Prince Harry, Meghan revealed that she spends much of her time “Googling” fashion brands and carefully curating her wardrobe to showcase her friends and lesser-known designers.
The interview is Meghan’s second this year and the first in which she’s opened up about her style and approach to fashion since her 2022 Netflix docuseries, Harry and Meghan.
Cesta Collective specializes in bags woven using a basketry technique used by artisans in Rwanda. The baskets are shipped to Italy, where they are transformed into handbags in limited quantities, sold on the company’s e-commerce site.
Diego Cuevas/Getty Images/Eric Charbonneau/Archewell Foundation
Cesta was founded by designers Erin Ryder and Courtney Fasciano. The two remain the company’s only full-time employees and discovered they had a royal fan in Meghan when the Duchess carried one of their bags to a private dinner in 2023.
During her recent tour of Colombia, the Duchess carried a Cesta “Panna” crossbody bag upon arriving in the city of Cartagena. The bag retails for $750.
The royal became the brand’s first outside investor shortly after she split from the monarchy in 2020 and moved to the United States with Prince Harry.
“I spend a lot of time Googling brands,” Meghan told the Times in an interview Wednesday announcing his investment. “When people search for things online or read articles, I try to find great new creators, especially in different territories.”
The Duchess’s passion for fashion is well known. Before her marriage, she ran a lifestyle blog called The Tig, which regularly posted about fashion.
After Meghan got engaged to Harry in 2017, she discovered just how powerful interest in her fashion was, after a brand of handbag she wore to one of her first engagements saw a surge in sales.
Over the years, she’s decided to use this to the advantage of her friends in the fashion world and brands that don’t get as much coverage as she thinks they deserve.
“When I know I’m in the spotlight and people are paying attention to every detail of what I’m wearing and what I’m not wearing, I support designers that I have great friendships with and small, emerging brands that haven’t gotten the attention they should,” she said. “It’s one of the most powerful things I can do.”
Eric Charbonneau/Archewell Foundation
Newsweek contacted the duchess’s representatives by email for comment.
The interview also revealed that Meghan owns between five and ten brands that she has invested in. At least one of them is vegan coffee brand Clevr Blends.
Speaking about her venture capital activities, Meghan said that “investing in these activities helped me align with this chapter where I’m investing in myself.”
The Duchess launched her own lifestyle brand, American Riviera Orchard, earlier this year, but has yet to officially announce a product range associated with it.
James Crawford-Smith is Newsweekroyal journalist, based in London. You can Find him on X (formerly Twitter) at @jrcrawfordsmith and read his stories on NewsweekThe Royals Facebook page.
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