Reina designed the car after successful early business ventures in his twenties and commissioned its production from Louis Renault.

[1] The original Reinastella was the first of Renault's Stella series, high-end luxury automobiles intended to compete with contemporary marques such as Hispano-Suiza, Rolls-Royce, Daimler, Lincoln, Packard, and Cadillac.

Coachbuilding was by leading French coachworkers, exhibiting the luxurious fittings of the golden age of classic bodywork.

For example, it appears in The Adventures of Tintin series of Belgian comics The Blue Lotus (1936) and The Crab with the Golden Claws (1941).

The high proportion of aluminium used in construction made all the Stellas desirable for recycling during World War II.