Wedding dress of Meghan Markle

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 Meghan Markle's home state of California, and wintersweet, a flower that grows at Kensington Palace.[2]

Wedding dress of Meghan Markle
DesignerClare Waight Keller
Year2018 (2018)
MaterialSilk

Pre-wedding speculation

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.[1] 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] Meghan Markle, long a vocal admirer of the style of Carolyn Bessette Kennedy, described Kennedy's wedding gown as "everything goals".[10][11] It was also reported that Markle herself would pay for the bridal gown, but she did not.[12][13]

Design

Designer

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."[14]

She chose Keller to create her wedding dress due to the designer's "elegant aesthetic" and "relaxed demeanour."[15] Waight Keller has been Givenchy's creative director since 2017.[16] The dress was made in Paris by "a small team of ateliers".[17] There was only five months to have the dress and the veil manufactured, and Waight Keller and Markle met for eight fittings.[18]

Markle and Waight Keller worked closely together to design the dress, which shows a "timeless minimal elegance", according to a Kensington Palace announcement.[19] 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.[20]

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.[21]

Dress

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.[19] Waight Keller helped develop a double bonded silk cady for the construction of the dress, which featured only six seams.[22] The dress was without lace or any other embellishments.[23] A piece of the blue dress from Markle's first date with Prince Harry was stitched into the bridal gown.[24]

Veil

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.[1][25] It was 3 metres wide.[26] The veil took longer to create than the dress itself,[27] 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.[28][29] Markle 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,[1][25] reflecting the couple's interest in the work of the Commonwealth. The countries and flowers are:[25]

Acacia pycnantha (Australia)
Nymphaea nouchali (Bangladesh)
Guaiacum officinale (Jamaica)
Markhamia zanzibarica (Mozambique)
Vanda 'Miss Joaquim' (Singapore)
Warszewiczia coccinea (Trinidad & Tobago)

Reception

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."[30] Waight Keller stated that Prince Harry told her "Oh my God. Thank you. She is absolutely magnificent."[31]

Queen Elizabeth was reportedly surprised by the colour of the dress, since Markle was married before, and traditionally white wedding dress were worn by first-time brides only.[32]

Australian media have noted similarities between the dress and that worn by Mary Donaldson at her wedding to Frederik, Crown Prince of Denmark.[33] It has also been compared to a Givenchy dress worn by Audrey Hepburn in the film Funny Face.[34] Emilia Wickstead claimed that the dress was "identical" to one of her designs.[35] Unfavorable comparisons of Meghan's wedding dress in comparison to Catherine Middleton's wedding dress were proclaimed online and in the press, with Catherine's wedding dress being proclaimed as the "victor", as if there was an unspoken competition.[36] On the more positive but admittedly unironic and snarky end of the spectrum, critics also noted that Markle's dress seemed an attempt to mimic the late fashionista Carolyn Bessette-Kennedy.[10] Meghan 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 1990s-era slip dress, although Meghan Markle's reception dress was a 1990s-style halter dress.[37]

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."[38] Celebrity commentators, fashion editors, internet influencers, and Twitter commenters criticized the dress, calling it "boring", "ill-fitting", and "too big",[39] criticizing the cut, the shape,[40] and even the matte satin fabric, calling the finish "dull", criticizing a perceived lack of tailoring on the sleeves and waist,[41] and others declaring the overall effect as "heavy".[38] Fashion experts noted that the silk cady fabric would have been difficult to move in if the dress had been more form-fitting.[42] Critics mocked the veil style and length, going so far as to create an Internet meme comparing it to a CVS receipt.[43]

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."[23] 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."[44]

Less than a week after the wedding, dresses based on Markle's were being sold.[45]

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.[46][47]

References
  1. "Royal wedding 2018: Meghan Markle's Givenchy dress in detail". BBC. 19 May 2018. Retrieved 19 May 2018.
  2. "Meghan Markle coat of arms revealed". 29 May 2018. Retrieved 20 December 2018 – via www.bbc.com.
  3. Binding, Lucia (1 November 2017). "Meghan Markle's wedding dress predictions revealed". International Business Times UK. Retrieved 21 May 2018.
  4. Gibson, Robyn (16 May 2018). "From Victoria to Diana to Meghan, royal weddings have shaped bridal fashions". The Conversation. Retrieved 24 November 2020.
  5. Barr, Sabrina (21 December 2017). "Meghan Markle's wedding dress designs were revealed". The Independent. Archived from the original on 10 January 2018. Retrieved 10 January 2018.
  6. O'Malley, Katie (20 December 2017). "Everything You Need To Know About Meghan Markle's Wedding Dress". Elle UK. Archived from the original on 11 January 2018. Retrieved 10 January 2018.
  7. "An unlikely contender was the favourite to design Meghan Markle's wedding dress". harpersbazaar.com. 26 January 2018. Retrieved 2 March 2018.
  8. Hirsch, Afua; Croft, Claudia (18 May 2018). "The Meaning Of Meghan". Vogue UK. Retrieved 9 July 2018.
  9. "This is What Meghan Markle's First Wedding Dress Looked Like". Harper's BAZAAR. 12 January 2018. Retrieved 20 May 2018.
  10. Gonzales, Erica (19 May 2018). "Meghan Markle's Second Wedding Dress Channels Carolyn Bessette Kennedy's Simple Elegance". Harper's Bazaar. Retrieved 24 November 2020.
  11. Lee, Esther (28 November 2017). "Meghan Markle Once Said This Kennedy's Wedding Dress Is "Everything Goals"". The Knot News. Retrieved 24 November 2020.
  12. Michaels, Matthew (18 May 2018). "Prince Harry and Meghan Markle's royal wedding will cost about $46 million, and that money comes from 3 places". Yahoo! Finance. Retrieved 18 May 2018.
  13. Griffiths, Emmy (18 May 2018). "Who is paying for the royal wedding? How much is costing?". Hello!. Retrieved 18 May 2018.
  14. Friedman, Vanessa (19 May 2018). "Meghan Markle's Wedding Dress Was Made for a Person, Not a Princess". The New York Times. Retrieved 19 May 2018.
  15. "Givenchy has designed Meghan Markle's wedding dress". The Independent. 19 May 2018. Retrieved 19 May 2018.
  16. "Meghan Markle Wears Givenchy Dress for the Royal Wedding: Why She Chose the French Label". PEOPLE.com. Retrieved 19 May 2018.
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  19. Ledbetter, Carly (19 May 2018). "Meghan Markle's Wedding Dress Details Are Absolutely Stunning". Huffington Post. Retrieved 19 May 2018.
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  21. "Meghan Markle Weds in Givenchy by Clare Waight Keller". The Business of Fashion. 19 May 2018. Retrieved 22 May 2018.
  22. "Everything You Need to Know About Meghan Markle's Givenchy Gown". ELLE. 19 May 2018. Retrieved 19 May 2018.
  23. Givhan, Robin. "Meghan Markle's Givenchy wedding gown was beautiful. But the woman wearing it was unforgettable". The Washington Post. Retrieved 22 May 2018.
  24. Locker, Melissa (24 September 2018). "You Definitely Missed the Romantic 'Something Blue' Meghan Markle Wore at the Royal Wedding". Time. Retrieved 24 November 2020.
  25. "The Wedding Dress, Bridesmaids' Dresses and Page Boys' Uniforms". The Royal Family. 19 May 2018.
  26. "Royal wedding 2018: Meghan's dress designer, Clare Waight Keller from Givenchy". BBC. 20 May 2018. Retrieved 20 June 2018.
  27. "The Story of Meghan Markle's Wedding Dress". Harper's BAZAAR. 22 May 2018. Retrieved 4 June 2018.
  28. Barr, Sabrina (26 September 2018). "Meghan Markle reveals the moment she saw her wedding veil for the first time". The Independent. Retrieved 17 February 2019.
  29. Ledbetter, Carly (30 May 2018). "Meghan Markle's Wedding Veil Makers Washed Their Hands Every 30 Minutes". HuffPost Life. Retrieved 17 February 2019.
  30. "Princess Diana's Wedding Dress Designer Praises Meghan Markle's Elegant and Classic Gown". PEOPLE.com. Retrieved 19 May 2018.
  31. "Prince Harry thought Meghan Markle looked 'magnificent' in her wedding dress — and it proves no one else's opinions matter". INSIDER. Retrieved 3 June 2018.
  32. Pochin, Courtney (20 November 2018). "One thing about Meghan Markle's wedding dress that really 'shocked' the Queen". Mirror. Retrieved 24 November 2020.
  33. "Royal wedding: Meghan Markle accused of copying dress design". news.com.au. Retrieved 20 May 2018.
  34. "Meghan Markle's Givenchy Wedding Dress Is Very Audrey Hepburn". ELLE. 19 May 2018. Retrieved 20 May 2018.
  35. Young, Sarah (26 May 2018). "Meghan Markle's wedding dress 'identical' to one of my designs, Emilia Wickstead claims". The Independent. Retrieved 24 November 2020.
  36. Watson, Sheridan (22 May 2018). "Katy Perry Said "Kate Won" In The Non-Existent Competition Of Royal Wedding Dresses". BuzzFeed. Retrieved 24 November 2020.
  37. Hallemann, Caroline (19 May 2018). "Meghan Markle's Wedding Dress Pays Tribute to Her Style Icon Carolyn Bessette Kennedy". Town & Country (magazine). Retrieved 24 November 2020.
  38. Goldberg, Carrie (19 May 2018). "Twitter Is Calling Meghan Markle's Wedding Gown "Ill-Fitting" and "Boring"". Harper's Bazaar. Retrieved 2 August 2018.
  39. Sheppard, Ciara (18 June 2018). "Meghan Markle criticized for wearing 'too big' Oscar de la Renta dress". Yahoo. Retrieved 24 November 2020 – via AOL.
  40. Frey, Kaitlyn (21 May 2018). "Katy Perry Says Meghan Markle's Wedding Dress Needed 'One More Fitting'". People. Retrieved 24 November 2020.
  41. Udice, Kristina (22 May 2018). "Some people think Meghan Markle's wedding dress was too big for her — but it was probably deliberate". MSN. Retrieved 18 February 2019.
  42. "Why Meghan Markle's Wedding Dress Wasn't As "Ill-Fitting" As You Thought". Harper's BAZAAR. Retrieved 2 November 2018.
  43. Hoffman, Ashley (22 May 2018). "We Are Gathered Here Today to Enjoy Some Memes About Meghan Markle's Veil". Time. Retrieved 24 November 2020.
  44. "Praise be, we can still disagree: Lessons learned from Meghan Markle's royal wedding dress". Detroit Free Press. Retrieved 20 December 2018.
  45. "Exclusive: Here come the Meghan Markle royal wedding gown knockoffs". USA TODAY. Retrieved 3 June 2018.
  46. "Duchess of Sussex's wedding dress to go on display". BBC. 29 August 2018. Retrieved 14 October 2018.
  47. Ledbetter, Carly (29 August 2018). "Meghan Markle's Wedding Dress Is Going On Display This Year". HuffPost. Retrieved 29 August 2018.
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