At the end of every year for the past nine years, we’ve gotten the Daily Mail’s calculation of what the Duchess of Cambridge spent on clothing for the year. While taxpayers are not technically paying for Kate’s clothing, she’s not spending her own money on it either – the Prince of Wales finances his daughter-in-law’s clothing and it’s not like Kate has any kind of allowance. In 2020, she spent about $127K on new frocks, coats, coatdresses, sister-wife gear and ridiculous ‘80s secretary ensembles, and I think the DM underestimated that figure. All of which is remarkable considering how much of the year Kate was not in the public eye, and she was just doing one or two Zoom calls a week. In any case, I didn’t even believe the $127K number – that’s just the Mail’s calculation based on what we’ve seen her wear, not what she actually bought during the year.

Anyway, the point of all that Kate talk was that for the brief time the Duchess of Sussex was around, fashion and the cost of clothing was a huge conversation in the British media. Meghan, like Kate, had a wardrobe financed by Charles and yet… the British media always made a huge f–king deal about what Meghan’s wardrobe cost. It wasn’t just a mild criticism of “both Kate and Meghan are spending too much on clothes,” it was “how dare Meghan, a Black American woman, have nice things!” Considering Meghan and Harry were all “smell ya later” in March 2020, I figured that the Mail would do some kind of story on wardrobe costs, but they would end their tally in March, since Charles was no longer financing Meghan’s wardrobe in any capacity beyond that point. Not so much.

Since she married Prince Harry two years ago Meghan Markle has worn a parade of designer outfits from brands such as Dior, Givenchy, Prada and Chanel and an array of expensive accessories. But after quitting the royal family in March and moving to California, the Duchess has taken a decidedly different approach to her wardrobe.

Meghan has slashed the value of the new items she has worn this year, with Femail calculating the royal has won new items of clothing and jewellery worth £44,188 in 2020. It is a drastic reduction on last year, when her wardrobe was valued at more than £211,693. Her most expensive outfit came during her farewell tour in March, when she stepped out for lunch at The Goring in an high fashion ensemble worth £14,000.

While a working member of the royal family, the cost of Meghan’s clothes for work engagements was covered by Prince Charles through the budget he gave the couple from the Duchy of Cornwall. But after the couple said they wanted to be financially independent, it is not clear who is picking up the bill for Meghan’s clothes, or whether the Duchess always pays full price for her clothing, or receives discounts from designers.

[From The Daily Mail]

£44,188 is roughly $60K. Which is a lot, and that’s why the Mail did the story and tried to compile the costs. But of course there are fundamental problems with the way the DM calculates this figure. As I said, post-March, Charles wasn’t paying for Meghan’s clothing. Meghan and Harry are paying for their own wardrobes now, so the DM is just baiting haters and incorrectly nitpicking Meghan about the costs of her outfits post-March (“Woman spends her own money on her wardrobe, GASP!”). I’d also like to point out (again) another issue I’ve had with the way the DM compiles these numbers: they take into account every single piece of jewelry Meghan wears, and they play fast and loose with the jewelry costs and who bought the pieces and when. I would guess that Meghan had a nice jewelry collection before she even became a duchess, and she’s added to the collection with gifts from Harry, pieces she likely bought herself, and maybe some that Charles paid for too. But the DM treats every piece as brand-new and their projections of jewelry costs were always hyper-inflated just for Meghan.

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Backgrid and social media.