Making her mark
Meghan Markle, Prince Harry’s fiancée, joined the Royal family for the Christmas Day service at Sandringham. Wearing an elegant camel coat and hat, Ms Markle and the Prince looked at ease as they walked alongside the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge – the first time the four have been photographed together – to St Mary Magdalene Church.
MEGHAN MARKLE struck a classic note with her Christmas Day outfit, wearing a wide-collared wrap-coat in camel by Sentaler, a Canadian brand, with a chestnut-brown felt hat and coordinating suede over-the-knee boots.
The actress, already the most closely watched member of the Royal family in fashion circles, was all smiles as she arrived at church. In her hand, she clutched brown leather gloves and a Chloé Pixie handbag – an on-trend round design in brown leather and caramel suede, with a gold-tone top handle. She added sparkle to the look with £3,500 diamond earrings from Maison Birks, having also worn the Canadian fine jeweller’s Snowflake earrings to the Royal family’s Christmas lunch at Buckingham Palace last week.
The church service was the first time that the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, Prince Harry and Ms Markle have been photographed together. It was also Ms Markle’s first time wearing a hat to an official event, a milestone in her transformation into a young royal. It cannot have been an easy moment to dress for. But walking arm-in-arm with Prince Harry, next to the Duchess of Cambridge, Ms Markle appeared confident and entirely at ease. She achieved the coup of dressing appropriately and respectfully, without veering into tryhard territory. Ms Markle’s minimal, warmly neutral look was in marked contrast to the more traditional feel of the Duchess of Cambridge beside her. The Duchess, pregnant with her third child, wore Miu Miu’s festive red-andgreen tartan peacoat – a gold-buttoned, velvet-collared design available for £2,655 on Net-a-porter.com – with a furtrimmed hat, tights and pumps all in black.
Both women curtsied to the Queen, herself resplendent in an orange wool coat and matching hat. With her diamond brooch, triple-strand pearl necklace and sprig of flowers on the brim of her hat, the 91-year-old monarch out-
shone even the most glamorous members of her retinue. The only royal trendsetters absent from the event were Prince George and Princess Charlotte, who, at four and two years old, have revived interest in a more traditional style of children’s dress.
Ms Markle and the Duchess share a taste for Sentaler. The Duchess wrapped up in a short, periwinkle-blue coat from the brand during the royal tour of Canada in September 2016, while Ms Markle has worn dark green and maroon versions of her Christmas coat. The brand’s signatures include wide collars, sash belts and ribbed detailing on the sleeves. Both women possess an ability to move products that can prove game-changing for small brands. After the Duchess appeared in her Sentaler coat last year, Bojana Sentaler, the label’s founder, said she had “witnessed an instant impact internationally”, with the design selling out shortly afterwards. Similarly, within an hour of Ms Markle’s appearance yesterday, the coat had sold out on Sentaler’s website.