THE REAL FASHION INFLUENCERS OF OUR TIME
Whatever item of clothing Kate or Meghan wear instantly fly off the shelves
Do you remember where you were on November 16, 2010? When Kate Middleton appeared on TV screens around the hall in all her swooshy, glossy, Issa-dressed glory, there was a fascinating new fashion influencer on the scene.
Kate’s forays in slinky party dresses, rowing attire and wedding guest looks had already been well-documented, but here was the first moment of calculated, world stage dressing from our future queen — by wearing sapphire blue to match her already-famous engagement ring (the grandest of hand-me-downs from Diana, Princess of Wales), she showed she got the whole fashion messaging thing, but she kept the look fresh and youthful by sticking to a label she already loved and which had seen her through many a twenty-something night out.
And now here we are, almost a decade on. The Duchess of Cambridge is still using fashion to clever effect and her sister-in-law, the Duchess of Sussex, has been yet another breath of fresh royal fashion air.
Of course, that Issa dress promptly sold out, as did thousands of copies created around the world by retailers hoping to cash in on the nascent “Kate effect”; it was the first hint at the remarkable impact she would have on fashion.
One of Kate’s first great fashion acts was to wear high street labels. Unlike the royals of the past, Diana included, there was a very real possibility that women could buy her look and, consequently, her prowess for boosting the fortunes of retailers soon became apparent. When British store Reiss posted healthy profits in the early 2010s, it put the figures down, in part, to the fact that Kate had worn its pieces for some key early moments in her royal life, including a cream dress that starred in the official engagement portraits and a caramel shift dress for a post-honeymoon meeting with Michelle Obama — some rushed out to buy the exact same pieces, but there was a halo effect, too, which prompted a more general spike in interest — any store in which Kate was photographed browsing on one of her frequent shopping jaunts on the King’s Road enjoyed a boost and it’s now estimated that her fashion choices alone could bring £152 million (Dh730 million) each year to the British economy.
THE MARKLE SPARKLE
Then, in 2017, along came Meghan Markle. If the royal fashion soap opera had been sedate and quietly lovely until this point, now it flashed to life. How could it not when, for her first public appearance as Prince Harry’s girlfriend, Meghan wore a shirt known as the ‘Husband’ by her friend Misha Nonoo? The Duchess of Cambridge may have spent the previous seven years finding a way to wear clothes with meaning, without allowing them to become a distraction, but Meghan was immediately more bold.
Instead of wearing British labels, Meghan mostly sported international designers like Dior, Prada, Givenchy and Valentino and she imbued her outfits with messaging that highlighted her eco-conscious and feminist principles by wearing vintage couture and spotlighting brands like Outland Denim, which helps women who are victims of sexual exploitation, Veja trainers (an eco brand with vegan options) and Maggie Marilyn, a New Zealand designer who puts sustainability at the heart of her designs.