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Interlacing American and English culture, designer Clare Waight Keller reveals the intentional details within Meghan Markle’s wedding dress.
Following the age-old saying, “something old, something new, something borrowed, something blue,” Meghan Markle’s wedding dress designer revealed how the Duchess of Sussex incorporated that tradition into her royal wedding.
In a recent interview, Clare Waight Keller, the designer behind Markle’s long-sleeved, minimalist white Givenchy gown, shared more details from Markle and Prince Harry’s May 2018 wedding. Unveiling more about the gown’s details, Keller gave Vanity Fair more insight into the “blue” hidden within that gown — something Markle previously alluded to in the 2018 HBO documentary “Queen of the World.”
“Somewhere in here, there’s a piece of blue fabric that’s stitched inside — it was my ‘something blue,’” said Markle when discussing the gown she wore down the aisle. “It’s fabric from the dress that I wore on our first date.”
“We basically sewed it into the hem of the wedding dress, so she was the only one that knew that it was there. It was a little blue gingham check,” Waight Keller further explained to Vanity Fair. “It was the perfect personal memento that was secretly hidden inside the dress.”
In addition to the popular bridal ritual, Markle was reportedly adamant about featuring a hand-embroidered floral trim on her veil in honor of the 53 countries of the Commonwealth and her new role as a then-working royal.
“[Meghan] felt like she was bringing an element of each of those countries down the aisle with her. So that her new role — and that bridge to the new role — was captured in what she was wearing,” said Waight Keller. “For both of us, we felt it was a really beautiful signature, and I think even Prince Harry was just thrilled at the idea that we really tried to capture something for everyone in that service.”
Despite the recent tension between Markle and the royal family — and the monarchy and several countries of the Commonwealth — Waight Keller reports King Charles appreciated the thoughtful details in the Duchess of Sussex’s wedding attire. Moments before the monarch walked Markle down the aisle due to her father’s absence, Waight Keller recalls:
“King Charles was just in awe of the dress and the [veil] embroidery, and he asked me about it while we were waiting inside the nave. […] He was really very interested, actually, in all the different motifs and the floral representations.”
As Sarah Collins, a professor at Savannah College of Art and Design, notes, Markle’s gown reflected her American background while simultaneously honoring England. Inspired by style icons Audrey Hepburn and Carolyn Bessette-Kennedy, the Duchess of Sussex’s wedding dress omitted the traditional lace, embroidery and decorations typically seen in royal wedding styles.
“We talked a lot about what [Markle] really felt represented her as a modern interpretation of the royal role,” Waight Keller told Vanity Fair. “She wanted to bring some simplicity and just timeless elegance. Not overly feminine, but not really minimal either. That effortless American style, where it just feels really fresh and personal. But it’s not overwhelming. It’s not specific to any particular decade.”
“There was that sense of playfulness and modernity and doing things in a different way,” Waight Keller added. “And I really feel that—for the dress, particularly—that sense of it could be something that really represented her, her spirit, her modernity, and the freshness and the cleanness.”
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