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When you think of quiet luxury, what — or who — do you think of?
Sofia Richie Grainge’s viral South of France wedding in April 2023 made her somewhat of a poster child for the trend, which took off in the following months. Since, her influencer star has continued to rise, with Richie Grainge generating millions of TikTok views and coverage of her day-to-day style.
Now, she is channelling her fashion favour into a new venture: SRG Atelier, a contemporary label launched in partnership with retailer Revolve Group. The brand will be available online via Revolve and Fwrd, the group’s luxury fashion site, as well as direct-to-consumer (DTC) on a SRG Atelier-owned site, also operated on the backend by Revolve.
The 56-piece collection is reminiscent of Richie Grainge’s personal style: neutrals mixed with pops of colour, sleek lines, beige coats (“I’m a trench coat snob,” she says). For inspiration, she looked to interiors and art, she says, and compiled Pinterest boards to collect ideas.
She doesn’t necessarily label her own style as ‘quiet luxury’, but understands why people associate her dress with the aesthetic. “I gravitate towards clean lines, beautiful tailoring and neutral tones — things that speak softly but make an impact,” Richie Grainge says. “This collection really reflects that philosophy; it’s not about being loud, it’s about feeling confident and put together in an understated way.”
It was two and a half years ago — around the time of her wedding to now-CEO of Atlantic Records, Elliot Grainge — that the influencer decided it was time to start building a fashion brand, though says conversations began even earlier. The aesthetic, per Richie Grainge, is a mix of sophisticated and “young and fun”. At 27, the influencer-turned-designer wants to offer pieces that feel elevated, but perhaps not as refined and grown up as a lot of the other contemporary labels on the market that largely target women in the 30s to 50s.
For Revolve, partnering with Richie Grainge was an easy yes. “She’s always had such incredible engagement,” says Raissa Gerona, chief brand officer of Revolve Group.
The 2023 wedding moment was also a signal to Revolve — which was already in talks with Richie Grainge about launching a fashion brand under the Revolve umbrella — that it was the right time to get started. “That was such an iconic moment for her and for that whole rebrand,” Gerona says. “When that happened, it [went from] the feeling of, ‘OK, this could be something that we do’ to ‘OK, we really have to do this’, because obviously she understands how to communicate with her customer base and her community, and is also thinking about her long-term strategy and vision for herself as an individual and a brand.”
Partnering with Revolve to create the brand means that the retail group handles the logistics and business operations, while Richie Grainge focuses on the creative. Revolve declined to share the exact ownership percentages and profit sharing structure.
Launching with Revolve means all of SRG Atelier’s eggs are in one basket when it comes to wholesale. As online multi-brand retail stumbles with the collapses of Matches and Farfetch (though both are plotting comebacks), and Ssense faltering, the move may seem risky. But amid this volatility, Revolve’s revenues have continued to grow, suggesting it a safer bet than most. (The company reported 9 per cent year-on-year growth for the second quarter of fiscal 2025.) Revolve has 22 owned brands under its belt, and TD Cowen managing director Oliver Chen said in a June note that the firm has a positive view on both the retailer’s growth and the role of its owned labels in driving this growth.
There will be some diversification with the direct-to-consumer e-commerce site. Revolve-owned brands don’t typically have separate websites, but for Richie Grainge, this was a necessary part of the deal. “Having our own SRG website was really important to me because it gives us a space to tell our story in our own way,” she says. “It’s a place where the brand can live and breathe – where we control the creative, the world and the experience.” The Revolve sites – Revolve and Fwrd – will cover the reach and community aspect, she believes.
For Richie, who wants to focus on fashion over the business, it’s a good deal. While other celebrity brands launched and grew as independent labels, Richie Grainge was keen to focus solely on the creative side. “[Revolve] lets me be the creative, which is all that I really want to be.”
Courting contemporary shoppers
Though she left the majority of the business decisions to Revolve, Richie Grainge still had input on the price point, which ranges from $250 for a ruched top to $1,950 for a suede green coat. “I really wanted to make high-end, elevated ready-to-wear pieces that are amazing quality — and something that you can access,” she says. “I’m not saying that our price point is necessarily accessible, but for how high-end our product is, we’ve made it as accessible as we possibly can.”
Product quality is always a hot topic for celebrity brands, whose staying power is measured, in part, on whether the clothes themselves live up to the hype of the founder’s name. Richie Grainge was adamant on producing high-quality clothes, she says, because how she spends her own money is dependent on her being satisfied with the fabric, feel, trims and hardware of the products she buys. Fabrics in the SRG line include silk, suede, cashmere, leather, wool and cotton, and the clothes are made in Portugal, China, and Korea.
In working at this price point, Richie Grainge is hitting the right part of the ready-to-wear market. As luxury prices continue to rise — squeezing consumers out — analysts are bullish on the contemporary brand opportunity. There’s room for contemporary brands in the $500 to $1,500-odd range to capture the spend of those who might have once splurged on luxury, experts agree.
SRG Atelier sits slightly higher than Revolve’s typical price point, Gerona says. “I think that the consumer is going to be OK with that, especially as it comes down to who Sofia is, what she embodies and how well the clothes are made,” she explains. “It’s something that you will have in your closet for much longer than some of the trendier pieces.” This slightly higher price point also edges Revolve further into this contemporary category.
Both the look and the price point widen the reach of the brand, Gerona continues. “You can be 40 and wear SRG, or you can be in your 20s and wear it,” she says, with a nod to the brand’s availability on both Revolve (which caters to younger consumers) and Fwrd (typically a slightly older buyer with more disposable income).
The long run
SRG Atelier isn’t a collaboration drop between Revolve and Richie Grainge, but a brand that will stand on its own. Like Pia Arrobio’s LPA and Elsa Hosk’s Helsa, the brand will have its own identity and aesthetic (and social presence), rather than simply living under the Revolve umbrella. (SRG’s unique case takes this one step further with its own website.) Anytime Revolve does a partnership like this, Gerona says, the intention is for the brand to be big, though she declined to share targets. Richie Grainge is on the same page, and wants to keep designing and building the brand’s business. “My dream for the future of this brand is to just keep going and evolving and growing,” she says.
Gerona is confident in SRG’s ability to outlast the quiet luxury trend. “I know we’ve all kind of heard over and over again quiet luxury, quiet luxury, quiet luxury, etc,” she says. “With Sofia, it was not only the trend of being ‘quiet luxury’ and being able to mix and match these pieces that she designed, but also who she is as a person and as somebody in fashion — she’s solidified herself as someone that is beyond the quiet luxury moment. That’s literally her lifestyle.” This relevance beyond a trend is key for the longevity of the brand, Gerona says.
At launch, Richie Grainge will be the face of SRG Atelier. But longer term, the goal is to move beyond this, as House of Harlow did for Nicole Richie and as Helsa is doing for model and founder Hosk. (Hosk still appears in campaigns, but the majority of the brand’s marketing materials feature models other than herself, as the brand establishes the business.)
“With any brand that’s founded by a talent, a face or a celebrity, I think everyone’s goal is to have it become bigger than who the person is,” Gerona says. But, she adds, it would be a missed opportunity not to start the brand with Sofia’s persona at the (public-facing) centre. “One of the reasons why we wanted to work with her is that community aspect that she’s built over years; that engagement, the people commenting, the people already excited for her to come out with an apparel brand because they’ve been watching her for so long.”
This will remain true even as the brand grows, and new faces, concepts and marketing themes are built out. “Now consumers are so savvy, they need to relate to something or someone to help anchor what the brand is about. Who created it? Why? And do I want to be like this person?” Gerona smiles. “That’s how you really win.”
Correction: The final number of pieces in the collection is 56, not 58 as previously reported.
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