| Designer: | Clare Waight Keller |
| Material: | Silk |
The wedding dress worn by Meghan Markle at her wedding to Prince Harry on 19 May 2018[1] was designed by the British fashion designer Clare Waight Keller, artistic director of the fashion house Givenchy. The bride's veil was embroidered with flowers representing the countries of the Commonwealth; the California poppy, in honour of Markle's home state of California; and wintersweet, a flower that grows at Kensington Palace.[2]
The engagement of Meghan Markle and Prince Harry was announced on 27 November 2017, but the speculation about the bride's dress had started even earlier.[3] Some commentators suggested that Markle would not wear a white wedding dress as she had been married previously.[4] In December 2017, Israeli designer Inbal Dror was asked to submit designs for a wedding dress.[5] [6] It was rumoured that Erdem and Ralph & Russo were also contenders. By January 2018, British designer Stewart Parvin was the bookmakers' favourite.[7] Betting was suspended after Alexander McQueen attracted a large amount of wagers.[8] Markle had commented on wedding dress styles in 2016, as her character was getting married in Suits, saying that she preferred simple styles.[9] Markle, long a vocal admirer of the style of Carolyn Bessette-Kennedy, described Bessette-Kennedy's wedding gown as "everything goals".[10]
Markle chose designer Waight Keller because she "wanted to highlight the success of a leading British talent who has now served as the creative head of three globally influential fashion houses — Pringle of Scotland, Chloé, and now Givenchy."[11]
She chose Keller to create her wedding dress due to the designer's "elegant aesthetic" and "relaxed demeanour."[12] Waight Keller has been Givenchy's creative director since 2017.[13] The dress was made in Paris by "a small team of ateliers".[14] There was only five months to have the dress and the veil manufactured, and Waight Keller and Markle met for eight fittings.[15]
Markle and Waight Keller worked closely together to design the dress, which shows a "timeless minimal elegance", according to a Kensington Palace announcement.[16] The two contacted each other through discreet texts and phone calls, before and after nondisclosure agreements were signed, with Waight Keller unable to tell anyone that she had been selected to design the dress.[17]
Waight Keller stated that the dress sought to "convey modernity through sleek lines and sharp cuts", while paying homage to the history of the Givenchy house.[18]
The design of the simple white dress and the name of its maker were revealed only when the bride got out of the car and entered St George's Chapel at Windsor Castle for the wedding service. The dress was made of silk with three-quarter-length sleeves, an open boat neckline and a train with built-in triple silk organza underskirt. Waight Keller helped develop a double bonded silk cady for the construction of the dress, which featured only six seams.[19] The dress was without lace or any other embellishments.
The dress is augmented by a long 5 metre (16-ft) veil, hand-embroidered with a variety of flowers on its hem, and symbolic sprays of wheat. It was 3 metres wide.[20] The veil took longer to create than the dress itself,[21] and the embroiderers spent 500 hours on completing it, washing their hands every 30 minutes to make sure that the veil would remain immaculate until the wedding day.[22] [23] A piece of the blue dress from Markle's first date with Prince Harry was stitched into the bridal veil.[24] Markle also chose two favourite flowers – wintersweet (Chimonanthus praecox), which grows outside Nottingham Cottage at Kensington Palace, where she and Harry lived, and the California poppy (Eschscholzia californica), from where she was born – along with individual flowers representing the 53 countries of the Commonwealth,[25] reflecting the couple's interest in the work of the Commonwealth. The countries and flowers are:
Elizabeth Emanuel, co-designer of Diana, Princess of Wales's wedding gown, thought that the gown made a "really solid fashion statement" and thought that Waight Keller "should be pleased because Meghan looked absolutely stunning and beautiful."[26] Waight Keller stated that Prince Harry told her "Oh my God. Thank you. She is absolutely magnificent."[27]
The media have noted similarities between Markle's dress and those worn by Angela Brown at her wedding to Prince Maximilian of Liechtenstein in 2000, and Mary Donaldson at her wedding to Frederik, Crown Prince of Denmark in 2004.[28] [29] It has also been compared to a Givenchy dress worn by Audrey Hepburn in the 1957 film Funny Face.[30] Emilia Wickstead claimed that the dress was "identical" to one of her designs.[31] Unfavorable comparisons of Markle's wedding dress in comparison to Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge's wedding dress were proclaimed online and in the press, with Catherine's wedding dress being proclaimed as the "victor".[32] Critics also noted that Markle's dress seemed an attempt to mimic the late fashionista Carolyn Bessette-Kennedy.[33] Markle's wedding dress was compared to a formal dress Bessette-Kennedy once wore during her life, and her reception dress had similarities to Bessette-Kennedy's now-classic wedding gown at her wedding to John F. Kennedy Jr. in 1996, although Markle's reception dress was a 1990s-style halter dress.[34]
Markle's wedding dress received mixed reviews from the public, some saying it was "beautiful" and "stunning" while others described it as "boring", "baggy", and "ill-fitting."[35] Celebrity commentators, fashion editors, internet influencers, and Twitter commenters criticized the dress, calling it "boring", "ill-fitting", and "too big", criticizing the cut, the shape,[36] and even the matte satin fabric, calling the finish "dull", criticizing a perceived lack of tailoring on the sleeves and waist,[37] and others declaring the overall effect as "heavy".[35] Fashion experts noted that the silk cady fabric would have been difficult to move in if the dress had been more form-fitting.[38] Critics mocked the veil style and length, and created an Internet meme comparing it to a CVS receipt.[39]
Robin Givhan of The Washington Post noted in her review of the gown that "It was not a Hollywood red carpet statement...it was not a Disney princess fantasy...the dress was a backdrop; it was in service to the woman."[40] Desiree Cooper of the Detroit Free Press unfavorably compared the dress to a costume "straight from The Handmaid's Tale", but conceded, "She could have been wearing a paper bag (which she nearly was) and it wouldn't have mattered an iota. That girl was just plain stunning."[41] Less than a week after the wedding, dresses based on Markle's were being sold.[42]
The dress, veil and tiara were exhibited by the Royal Collection Trust at Windsor Castle from October 2018 until February 2019, and then at Holyrood Palace from June 2019 to October 2019.[43] [44]