One wonders if the same Netflix employees who should have been vetting Karla Sofia Gascon’s social media for toxic, racist tweets before promoting “Emilia Perez” were similarly negligent in checking whether Meghan Markle could use “As Ever” as a replacement name for her lifestyle brand, after her original name, American Riviera Orchard, became mired in trademark issues.
The day after Meghan announced that she was changing her brand’s name to As Ever — and partnering with Netflix to release her new As Ever line of jam and other home products — the aspiring lifestyle guru and American Duchess of Sussex has been hit with new claims that her second-choice name is already in use, according to the Daily Beast.
It turns out that there’s a small but beloved New York City-based clothing brand called As Ever, and its owner, Mark Kolski, took to Instagram Wednesday to thank “old friends” and long-time customers for their “outpouring of support and concern regarding recent events around our namesake brand.”
“We are aware. We are not affiliated,” Kolski said on his @asevernyc Instagram account, referring to Meghan’s social media announcement about her new As Ever brand.
Kolski said his “family-run” venture, reworking vintage military clothing into hip, casual women’s fashions, began in 2015 “as a side hobby” with his wife. His As Ever brand became “official” in 2017, “and I started manufacturing,” Kolski said. After thanking several women for being instrumental in the creation of his brand, Kolski wrote that his company is still grateful to be making clothing in New York and New Jersey.
Among the hundreds of people who expressed support for Kolski’s “real As Ever” brand, a number said they hoped that he and his company have a lawyer and would either consider suing Meghan or filing a complaint with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. “Sue her, please,” one person said.
“Don’t let them take your name just because she thinks she is a superstar and can get everything she wants,” another said, while yet another opined: “It doesn’t surprise me 1 bit that you existed years before Meghan’s grand. Does she never research? Honestly, the entitlement is off the scale from her.”
Another added: “As an OG @asevernyc groupie this is not ok. Stay strong.”
The “chaotic” rebranding of Meghan’s lifestyle brand from American Riviera Orchard to As Ever comes two weeks before the release of her highly-anticipated Netflix lifestyle show, “With Love, Meghan” on March 4, the Daily Beast reported. Meghan’s team would not comment on the record to The Daily Beast about the New York company’s name. However a source said. “The Duchess of Sussex’s brand will not be making clothing.”
But adding to the allegations that Meghan “stole” this clothing company’s name, the mayor of a Spanish town on the island of Mallorca has raised concerns that the logo for her new As Ever company bears a striking resemblance to her town’s official coat of arms. The logos for both the former TV actor’s company and the town of Porreres both feature a palm tree flanked by two hovering birds.
Francisca Mora, the mayor of Porreres, located in Mallorca’s rural heartland, told a local newspaper that the likeness between her town’s coat of arms and Meghan’s new As Ever logo is “surreal,” the Daily Mail reported. Mora also said the town was considering whether to take legal action against the California-based Duchess of Sussex.
“They are the same, except the birds are a little different and they used different colors, but they are nearly identical,” Mora told the Daily Mail. “I don’t know if she visited some agritourism sites and saw the coat of arms, because the photo on her website is taken from Mallorca,” the mayor also said.
As the Daily Beast noted, Meghan’s latest controversy, “with a small, chic, artisan producer and its fans,” is the last thing that Prince Harry’s wife needs as she tries to recover “a sense of authenticity” after abandoning the American Riviera Orchard brand.
Warren Johnson, a consumer marketing expert with W Communications, told the Daily Beast Monday that the last-minute name change from American Riviera Orchard to As Ever telegraphed “inauthenticity,” adding: “You wouldn’t catch Kim Kardashian doing this.”
On her Instagram, Meghan said in a video that she was changing the name because it had “limited” her to using only products sourced locally from the Santa Barbara region. American Riviera is known as a nickname for that section of the California coast where Meghan and Harry settled in 2020, after stepping away from being senior working members of the royal family.
Meghan also claimed that she had “secured” the name, As Ever, in 2022 and explained why the name is so meaningful to her. The name “means as it’s always been,” she said. “This new chapter is an extension of what has always been my love language, beautifully weaving together everything I cherish — food, gardening, entertaining, thoughtful living, and finding joy in the everyday.”
But Meghan’s video message didn’t address trademark problems with the American Riviera Orchard name, even though it seems likely that the trademark disputes played a role in her making “the 11th-hour” name change, as the Daily Beast said.
As recently as November, Meghan’s brand was hit with a “protest” from Harry and David, the famed Southern Oregon gift-box company, which said that the name American Riviera Orchard was too similar to the trademark given to their “Royal Riviera” brand of pears that it grows and sells during the holidays.
It’s not entirely clear when Meghan will begin selling her jam and other products. But the Daily Mail reported that they will be soon become available at new brick-and-mortar stores that Netflix is opening up in two mega-malls in Pennsylvania and Dallas.
The streaming service announced last June that it would be opening department store-sized “entertainment venues” called Netflix Houses in 2025, at the iconic shopping center in King of Prussia, Pennsylvania, and at the Galleria in Dallas.
Netflix announced that its Netflix Houses will let people indulge in “immersive experiences” related to their favorite Netflix shows. For example, people will be able to “waltz” to an orchestral cover of a Taylor Swift song on a replica of a “Bridgerton” set or compete in the Glass Bridge challenge from “Squid Games.” The venues also will sell “Stranger Things” merch, such a “that Hellfire Club T-shirt you’ve always wanted.”
The venues also will include cafes that serve food inspired by favorite shows, Netflix said. Presumably, the Duchess of Sussex’s jam could be served or sold at the cafes, along with her olive oil, coffee or tea. Desserts or meals viewers see served on her show could perhaps also be on the cafe menus.
