Morgan Stewart McGraw, onetime ‘Rich Kids of Beverly Hills’ star who influences fashion sales via her 1.6 million Instagram followers, recently launched her own sold-out line, Renggli: “Bitch, this is good.”
Morgan Stewart McGraw started noticing the shift only recently. Not after she transitioned from interviewing and dishing about celebrities on E! to becoming one in her own right, one who has socialized with the likes of Priyanka Chopra, the Jonas Brothers and Khloé Kardashian. Not after she crossed a million followers on Instagram. Not even in the aftermath of a glowing piece in The Wall Street Journal in October that described her as “a powerful booster of the biggest luxury brands” simply for putting designer duds on her body and posting the final looks.
“It’s literally been the past two-ish months where I feel like there’s just more of a response from people. I’m posting sneakers and people are losing their minds,” says Stewart McGraw. “I posted these Chanel baby blue flats about a week ago, and I’ve had four different salespeople I work with text me and say, ‘They’re gone. This is because of you.’ That’s unbelievable for Chanel, but that doesn’t mean Chanel is going to reach out to get in touch [for a brand deal], because their stuff is going to sell anyway.”
The timing couldn’t be more perfect for the 35-year-old who has fashionable items of her own to sell from a new clothing line. The brand, called Renggli, launched in the fall in collaboration with The Loyalist and its co-founders, Max and Xander Ritz. It’s a passion project for the fashionista who has been strategic about its growth. Renggli hit the market with a capsule collection of high-end pieces, starting with Carhartt-inspired work pants, a cashmere sweater and a luxe T-shirt. The line (with items from $85 to $395) sold out immediately.
The newest pieces drop April 11, and Stewart McGraw is most excited about new colorways like pink (including the pieces she’s wearing at left) as well as a slim-fit silhouette for the work pants. “Everything is just so good. The quality of our tanks and T-shirts has elevated ever so slightly in the best possible way. The fit of everything has just really locked in. I’m excited for the girlies to be able to get a slimmer fit that they can wear at night,” she says, adding, “the amount of growth and stuff that’s moving is hard for me to keep track of.”
Renggli is not Stewart McGraw’s first swing with a signature brand. In 2016, she launched the athleisure and swimwear line Morgan Stewart Sport with brand incubator L.A. Collective. Though it shuttered amid the pandemic, its run delivered valuable lessons. “I own literally 80 percent of Renggli, so it is actually my business, whereas before, I had people that were running a business and I was hired as the face and designer,” she explains. “The biggest lesson learned was that if you’re going to have a business, you need to know every single thing that’s going on. You need to know every single silhouette. You need to know exactly where everything is made. The amount I’ve learned in these past eight months has been the most I’ve learned, I think, in my whole life.”
With plans to expand the line even further this fall, she’s bullish on its growth. “As long as everything is really consistent, with an attention to detail, and that I really take the time to make sure that everything is elevated in the right way, we could be a serious, serious brand down the road, no question,” says Stewart McGraw, adding that she’s keenly aware how savvy her customers are. “I cannot bullshit people. They will not put up with me for one minute. I can’t sell a bad T-shirt. I can sell a good T-shirt, and then a great T-shirt. That’s the evolution that’s been happening.”
Renggli is a name close to her heart. It’s the maiden name of her mother, Susan, who passed it down to Stewart McGraw as her middle name. When Stewart McGraw and her singer-songwriter husband, Jordan McGraw (son of TV host Phil McGraw), welcomed their first child, a girl, in 2021, they named her Row Renggli McGraw. (Their son, Grey Oliver McGraw, was born in 2022.) “Maybe when Row grows up, she could be the head designer of Renggli, who knows?” she says.
Stewart McGraw first came to attention courtesy of the E! reality series Rich Kids of Beverly Hills. (Her father, Herb Stewart, was a successful construction company CEO who died in October following an illness.) The show, which lasted four seasons after debuting in 2014, cast the L.A. native alongside deep-pocketed offspring E.J. Johnson (son of Magic), Taylor-Ann Hasselhoff (daughter of David) and Dorothy Wang (daughter of billionaire Roger Wang). During the show’s run, Stewart McGraw got serious with fellow castmember Brendan Fitzpatrick, a luxury real estate agent, and the pair got engaged, planned a wedding and wed on camera. (They married in 2016 but split four years later.)
Already in the E! fold, Stewart McGraw stayed put when the network offered her hosting gigs on such series as Necessary Realness, Daily Pop, Nightly Pop and What the Fashion. “I always wanted to be Chelsea Handler. She is who I wanted to emulate,” she explains, recalling that the pace of filming was relentless: “I had to have a different hat for every show, and I don’t know how I did it, honestly. It was so much.”
Stewart McGraw, who attended the L.A. private school Le Lycée Français, credits her Swiss mother for passing down an intuitive sense of style. “I always say that I’m a borrowed cool girl,” she explained. “I’m not consistently cool — [whereas] my mom is a consistently cool dresser. She always gets the cool thing, even if it’s a high-end Chanel piece, she’s getting the coolest version of that.” Stewart McGraw remembers visiting her mother’s native Switzerland during summer breaks while growing up, and shopping was always on the itinerary. “That’s when I would always get some of my most special and treasured pieces. It’s so embedded in me. It’s in my DNA.”
So much so that when Stewart McGraw was in school, she knew how to turn heads. “I went to the same school from kindergarten to senior year, and we always had a uniform except for free dress days. I remember very early on, people would say, ‘What’s Morgan going to wear?’ I don’t have a lot of other gifts, these are the small gifts that I have, and I run with them.”
Stewart McGraw plans to keep up the pace, with her plans for Renggli and, of course, more content for her social channels. But she says she’s not going to let it run her life: “I’m a busy lady. I have a 3-year-old and a 2-year-old. There are girls out there spending their days getting content, changing outfits, taking photos and getting deals. That’s not me. I like to keep people engaged on what I’m able to provide at this point. I’m in the process of building a business and making sure it’s running smoothly.”
That, as always, includes good clothes. “You know when you make dinner and you’ve spent all that time on it but once it’s done, you don’t want to eat it? I put all this work into Renggli, and what I’m most pleasantly surprised by is how much I actually grab it in my real life. I’m obviously very fortunate to wear such beautiful, high-end designer clothes — whether from my own closet or passed down from my mother-in-law — and I’m still choosing to wear something I’ve made. That, to me, is the real indication of, like, ‘Bitch, this is good.’ ”
Her Three Favorite Splurges for Spring
Hermès Bag
Stewart McGraw just got an “oversized” Hermès Voyage bag in bright blue. “I just love it.” A similar style, the Travel Bag Kelly Relax 50 ($20,000), available at Hermès stores
Phoebe Philo Sunglasses
“They’re so me in sunglasses; they’re bold. I love the shape. I usually buy sunglasses in pairs in two colors. I wear them for six months, then change them out.” Phoebe Philo Bombé Oversized Frame Sunglasses in caramel; $750, at phoebephilo.com
Saint Laurent Leather Jacket
“I feel like you can wear it to the movies with sweatpants, or you can wear it over black leather pants at night with a blouse. You can wear it on an airplane. It’s one of those cool pieces that just can go with whatever. You know what I mean? You can wear it with light pink if you really want to go crazy. It’s kind of my favorite piece.” Saint Laurent Cropped Leather Jacket in lambskin; $7,000 (nearly sold out), at farfetch.com
This story first appeared in the April 10 issue of The Hollywood Reporter magazine. Click here to subscribe.