Markle touted as most powerful woman in fashion
LONDON: Meghan Markle, the fiancee of Prince Harry, is being touted as the most powerful woman in fashion.
Fashion bloggers are scrambling to identify every garment she’s wearing — from her jeans to her jewellery — ringing designers, ateliers and stores from Cardiff to Canada.
Once those details are posted online, shops, from exclusive Stella McCartney to Marks & Spencer, are besieged by shoppers desperate to get Meghan’s look.
Every item Meghan is wearing sells out, usually within minutes, sometimes seconds, of her appearance — cheaper copycat items, too. Websites frequently crash under the strain.
Few other style icons wield such incredible power in the fashion world — not even the Duchess of Cambridge. Kate adds an estimated £1 billion to the British fashion industry annually, but in the latest issue of Vogue, editor Edward Enninful says her soon-to-be-sister-in-law could eclipse her: “Ms Markle is an astonishing fashion sales force, who is setting the industry alight.”
It’s not a barn fire – more of a forest fire, and Markle wannabes are scrambling to grab anything that remotely resembles her apparel.
So what is it about Meghan that makes her wardrobe so desirable and sends clothes flying off the shelves?
Fashion experts in Toronto, Meghan’s home for the six years between 2011 and 2017 when she was filming legal drama Suits, all use the same expression, ‘effortless chic’, to describe her style.
“She always looks like she’s not trying,” says John Muscat, founder of Line The Label, the Canadian brand behind the £750 white wrap coat Meghan wore to mark her engagement to Prince Harry last November.