MEGHAN IN NZ
The secrets of her wardrobe
As if packing for a two-week visit to Australia, Tonga, Fiji and New Zealand — jammed with 76 engagements that could demand up to 35 outfit changes — wasn’t tricky enough. One can only imagine the tailspin Team Meghan would have been sent into when they heard that their tourdrobe efforts would also need to accommodate the Duchess of Sussex’s burgeoning bump.
From as far back as July, there has been speculation about the Duchess’ style strategy for her first major foreign tour. Reports even emerged of a rare rift between Prince Harry and his new wife over her choices. “Meghan is being told she needs to stop dressing like a Hollywood star and start dressing like a royal,” someone with knowledge of these top-level meetings allegedly told a tabloid.
“Meghan wanted to wear a t uxedo- s t yl e s ui t [ by St el l a McCartney], but Harry said it wasn’t traditional enough.”
Diplomatic dressing — a crucial genre in any royal tourdrobe — has already been ticked off the to-do list at the couple’s first Down Under engagement on Tuesday. At Sydney’s Admiralty House, where they met representatives from each of the 18 countries participating in the Invictus Games, Meghan wore a white, tiny-bump-accentuating shift dress by Australian designer Karen Gee.
The $1959 dress called the Blessed was accessorised with butterfly earrings and a blue stone bangle that once belonged to Princess Diana (a baby and Diana references is a combination bound to butter up republicans) and at one point swapped her heels for flats — so relatable.
By 9.20am, just after the first photos of her appeared, the Karen Gee website crashed.
Meghan later covered the dress with a camel trench coat, by Australian designer Martin Grant, for her encounter with a koala at Taronga Zoo.
After a long day out and about around Sydney harbour, she changed into a $2721 dark green shirt dress by New York-based designer Brandon Maxwell for an afternoon reception at Admiralty House. Maxwell is best known as being a key designer for Lady Gaga.
She chose another Australian brand for the second day of the tour when the couple landed in Dubbo on Wednesday. Paired with a $221 blazer designed by her friend, tennis ace Serena Williams, Meghan donned $216 black jeans from Outland Denim, an Australian company which provides jobs to survivors of the sex trafficking industry and women at risk of falling into poverty in Cambodia.
The look was paired with a Maison Kitsune s hi r t ($312), J.Crew suede ankle boots and diamond sun stud earrings, and a necklace by Aussie jewellery designer Natalie Marie.
On Thursday, at a Government House event during a Melbourne pit-stop, she wore a $859 navy dress by Australia’s Dion Lee and navy Manolo Blahnik BB pumps.
She accessorised with a gold cuff bracelet by British designer Shaun Lane and a Gucci Sylvie leather mini chain bag. She later changed into a black Club Monaco frock with gold detailing to meet a team of lifeguards on South Melbourne Beach ave before jumping aboard a tram.
Yesterday, the couple visited Bondi Beach where she donned another Martin Grant design, a full-length striped dress.
Today, the couple will watch and present awards at the opening of the Invictus Games. Sportsbet has opened betting on which designer Meghan will wear. Australian designers dominate the market, with Camilla and Marc the favourite, followed by Karen Gee, Scanlan Theodore and Zimmermann.
THERE ARE likely to be plenty of Kiwi designers lining up to dress the Duchess when she arrives in New Zealand next Sunday. She may take inspiration from New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, who had a maternity dress made for her by Kiwi designer Juliette Hogan for a state banquet at Buckingham Palace with the Queen in April when she was pregnant with Neve. She paired it with a korowai, causing a stir around the world.
Ardern had earlier stocked up on maternity clothes during a private apppointment at Katrena Drum’s 3 Bears Maternity store in West Auckland’s Titirangi, including a black skirt and jumpsuit, which was renamed “the Jacinda jumpsuit”.
Ardern is known for her support of New Zealand designers, includi ng I ngrid St arnes, Maaike, Harman Grubisa, Herriot and Kate Sylvester.
Meghan could also take inspiration from Catherine’s pregnant sister Pippa Middleton, who chose a forest green maternity dress by Kiwi designer Emilia Wickstead for Princess Eugenie’s wedding last Friday. Meghan herself chose a bespoke Givenchy wool coat for the wedding. It’s reported she and Harry had shared the happy news with close members of the royal family that morning.
Wickstead has been a favourite for the new Duchess and the royal family — she wore one of her designs at an Anzac Day service in April, before her wedding in May.
After that ceremony, Wickstead was quoted by the Daily Mail as saying the wedding dress — created by Givenchy’s Clare Wright Keller — was “quite loose”, and that it was identical to one of her own designs.
Wickstead faced backlash, disabled her Twitter account and went public to deny she ever made such remarks. All appeared to be forgiven when Meghan wore a Wickstead two-piece at an event in Ireland in July.
Whatever Meghan chooses for the tour, her aides will be making sure she avoids another diplomatic row like that caused by her sisterin-law Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge, in 2012 during her visit to the Solomon Islands. A mistake with gifts placed in her hotel room meant she accidentally wore a dress designed in the Cook Islands, 3000 miles away from her hosts, forcing local government officials to issue a strongly worded statement.
It’s thought Meghan’s overall pregnancy fashion style will be different to Catherine’s. While pregnant with her three children, the Duchess of Cambridge favoured bump-skimming dresses from Seraphine or her favourites, Jenny Packham, L K Bennett and Boden.
Meghan could opt for dungarees, slip dresses and jumpsuits from trendy US label Hatch. For formal occasions, its thought she will go billowy rather than show off her bump; pregnant socialite Alice Naylor-Leyland exemplified this look with her floral La DoubleJ dress at Princess Eugenie’s wedding.
It’s not thought we will see Meghan in maternity wear anytime soon — she will adopt the modern attitude of finding pieces she’d wear anyway that work with her new figure (and have Givenchy on speed dial to create more bumpfriendly couture). In terms of footwear, there will be no frumpy pumps or orthopaedic maternity shoes: one thing she has in common with her sister-in-law is a dedication to high heels.
WE WILL see upwards of 30 looks on the Duchess during the tour but many more will have been considered — for each pretty sundress, there’s a wet-weather alternative waiting in the wings.
One mastermind behind the tour fashion will have been Toronto-based stylist Jessica Mulroney, one of Meghan’s best friends, who has flown out to join the royal couple “informally”. Although the pair got to know each other while Meghan was working on Suits, Mulroney was already privy to what it takes to dress for the world stage, having styled Canadian Prime Minister’s wife, Sophie Gregoire Trudeau.
“It’s a fun process, like girlfriends when they get dressed to go out. I do the research and speak to a lot of the designers,” she has previously told The Daily Telegraph of their working relationship. Mulroney’s influence has been felt in the steady stream of US and Canadian labels and body-conscious silhouettes Meghan has been wearing.
It is thought Catherine’s stylist Natasha Archer has been providing backup assistance in the UK but, with the possibility of measurements changing at short notice as Meghan enters her second trimester, a tailor will be on hand for last-minute adjustments.
Looking after the Duchess’s hair is celebrity stylist George Northwood, who did her up-do for her evening wedding reception and is the brains behind her artfully undone buns. He’s in charge of taming her ma ne for all eventualities — from rainforest visits to yoga on the beach and state dinners.
Catherine’s hairdresser, Amanda Cook Tucker, has pre-
viously posted a snap to Instagram (hastily deleted) showing her tour essentials, which included 13 brushes, six combs, two hairdryers and a plethora of styling products, including Elnett hairspray and Kiehl’s $36 Creme with Silk Groom.
THAT THE preparations were in full swing three months ahead of departure is no surprise. Though careful consideration is always given to outfits for public appearance, attention to detail is amplified significantly for a foreign tour, recces by palace aides outlining every photo opportunity and any potential style mishaps.
A letter recently made public from Diana, Princess of Wales’s lady-in-waiting, Anne Beck with-Smith, to David and Elizabeth Emanuel reveals this no-stone-left-un-turned approach is nothing new.
Dated June 6 1986, Beck-with-Smith requests sketches from the designers for the Pri ncess’s November tour to the Gulf region, informing them that “certain special requirements concerning dress need to be observed . . . in all cases, modesty is the order of the day”. She describes the climate in great detail, adding that “synthetic fabrics are not advised”.
It is now a famous detail of history that when the Queen landed in the UK following her father’s death, she had to remain on her plane while a black mourning outfit was brought to her.
You can be sure that no royal wardrobe mistress has forgotten a just-in-case black choice since.
Meghan’s expectant mum status may make things a little trickier, but the bump will provide a distraction from any minor slipups — it’s already the tour’s hit accessory, after all.