‘Meghan is so conscious when she’s putting her wardrobe together’
The Duchess of Sussex’s most meaningful style moments have come courtesy of designer Misha Nonoo, says Bethan Holt
When the Duchess of Sussex visited some of her charity patronages in January, just hours before she and Prince Harry announced their intention to “step back” from the Royal family, she chose a quintessentially Meghan look for the outing. An affordable, timeless navy wrap coat from Massimo Dutti and a striped shirt by her friend, Misha Nonoo.
The ensemble was chic yet relatable, but the choice of Nonoo’s “Husband” shirt was also laden with added significance; it was the same style Meghan wore in September 2017, when she was photographed with Harry for the first time at the Invictus Games in Toronto, meaning that the “Husband” was there at both the start and the end of the Duchess’s royal life as we’ve known it. The next day, she jetted back to Canada.
Nonoo and Meghan have been friends since long before Harry came on the scene (she was even rumoured to have introduced the couple) but since the Duchess has become one of the world’s most famous and influential women, their friendship has developed into a powerful fashion partnership.
Nonoo’s pared-back aesthetic and commitment to sustainability chimes nicely with Meghan’s preference for meaningful sartorial messages, and as a result Meghan has worn the brand for key moments including at the launch of the Together cookbook and for the debut of her Smart Set collection, which saw Nonoo, M&S, John Lewis and Jigsaw team up to create pieces to be sold for the charity Smart Works, of which the Duchess is patron.
“We were so honoured to work with the Duchess, she’s so extraordinarily thoughtful,” Nonoo tells me on the phone from New York. “The Smart Set collection was a great example of her thinking about others. She’s so conscious when she’s putting her wardrobe together” – you don’t get more conscious than wearing a shirt called the “Husband” when rumours are swirling of an engagement.
Meghan will surely be keeping a close eye on Nonoo’s latest project.
Today, she is launching a capsule collection of maternity-friendly designs in collaboration with US label Hatch, which recognises that women want pieces they can wear beyond birth.
It’s a personal project for Nonoo who is expecting her first baby with husband Mike Hess, heir to the Hess energy corporation. “What I wanted to emphasise the most was that just because you’re pregnant, you don’t have to change your style,” Nonoo explains. She’s created two pieces: a longer, oversized version of the Husband shirt (£168) and a dress (£220), available in classic blue and white.
Nonoo has leaned on friends for maternity dressing advice. “I know some brands on the high street have maternity sections, but none of us would go there because of our concerns for sustainability. We looked at second-hand places like The Realreal and just buying a size up.”
Indeed, Meghan wore vintage designer trapeze coats when she was expecting Archie. And she’ll no doubt be on board with Nonoo’s philosophy of buying with post-partum in mind (“If you’re going to invest, think about something you’d be happy to wear in a more oversized way when you’re back to your pre-pregnancy size”), given she’s re-worn dresses she debuted when pregnant since giving birth. “I think you have to become very comfortable when you’re pregnant with wearing seven pieces in your wardrobe again and again on rotation – which I’m already comfortable with,” Nonoo adds. “It becomes your default, you know what looks good and what you feel confident in.” Nonoo, the daughter of Iraqi Meir Nonoo whose family established the Bahrain Financing Company, is an exception in the industry, having chosen to produce her tightly edited collections on an on-demand basis, to minimise waste. “I
‘I’d be honoured to work on anything with Meghan. She’s so passionate’
love fashion and believe in the transformative power of clothes, but I didn’t want to contribute to the wastefulness any more. But I thought if I can’t contribute in a sustainable way then I’m going to have to follow a different career path, so I decided to do it this way. Now, I wouldn’t change it, I believe it’s the way of the future.”
She even admits to having struggled with feeling guilty when she was designing her own wedding gown last year. In September, at Rome’s Villa
Aurelia, Ivanka Trump, Karlie Kloss, Paul Mccartney and James Corden rubbed shoulders with Katy Perry, Orlando Bloom, Princess Beatrice and the Sussexes (Meghan wore an £8,900 crystal-strewn Valentino gown). Having enlisted Oscar de la Renta to create the dress for her first wedding, to friend of Harry’s Alexander Gilkes in 2012, this time Nonoo took up the challenge herself.
“To be honest, it was an amazing process but I was torn about it from a sustainable perspective,” she admits. “I’m really happy that I did it but there were moments when I thought ‘I’m only going to wear this dress for eight hours and that’s it.’ I have so many happy memories from it.”
After a busy few months, then, Nonoo is probably ready to slow down and prepare for her arrival. But with Meghan carving out a new role for herself, are the friends tempted with a new partnership? “We shall see what happens in the future,” says Nonoo. “I’d be honoured to work on anything with her. She’s so passionate about the work she does.”