Nothing says “we hate you and we hope you never, ever come back” like obsessing over what a woman wore eight years in her engagement portraits. Not only obsessing over her clothes, but hallucinating a rigid fashion protocol which somehow “proves” that the woman was always going to leave. So it is this week with the Daily Mail’s Richard Eden, who apparently devoted his weekly YouTube video to the Duchess of Sussex’s fashion choices while in the UK, and her 22 months of broken protocols. Highlighted in this piece: Meghan and Prince Harry’s 2017 engagement portraits, where she wore a Ralph & Russo gown; Meghan wearing a Ralph Lauren ensemble to Wimbledon; Meghan wearing a dress designed by the British designer she was honoring at the British Fashion Awards.

Since abandoning official duties in 2020 and returning to her native America, the Duchess of Sussex has been at pains to stress what an effort she’d put into becoming a loyal, hard-working member of the Royal Family. Who, for example, can forget the exaggerated curtsy that she performed on her Netflix series Harry & Meghan to demonstrate how deeply she had bowed on meeting the late Queen Elizabeth for the first time? But how much care did she really take to adapt to life in ‘the Firm’?

I looked into this for a new edition of my YouTube television programme, Reading the Royals – and was shocked by what I discovered. Given the volume of headlines that Meghan created, people forget how brief her royal tenure was. It spanned a mere 22 months, from her marriage in May 2018 to her acrimonious departure in March 2020. In that time, there were more than a dozen examples of her breaking the rules – about one every two months.

The vast majority of her protocol breaches involved clothing and the rules about what royals are supposed to wear or not wear bearing in mind the nature of the event they’re attending and the time of day. As an actress for more than two decades before she married Prince Harry, Meghan would have been well aware of the power of costumes in storytelling.

The first breach was during her official engagement photograph when she wore a sheer gown – which is a real no-no for daytime attire. This was Meghan declaring, when she barely had her foot in the palace door, that she would be treating royal protocol as ‘guidance only’. Eyebrows were also raised when the price of this haute couture outfit was revealed: an eye-watering £56,000. In contrast, in 2010 the dress for Catherine’s official engagement photo was purchased in a high-street store, Fenwick’s, for £385.

When, soon after her wedding, Meghan joined Princess Catherine at Wimbledon, she chose to wear trousers. Meghan would, as a royal duchess, have been expected to keep to the usual Royal Box rules and, like Catherine, wear skirts or dresses for the occasion.

Perhaps Meghan’s most crass sartorial gesture, however, was her choice of outfit for the 2018 British Fashion Awards. ‘It’s such an honour to be here celebrating British fashion and British fashion designers in my new home of the UK,’ she declared, while wearing a gown by French label Givenchy. Yes, she neglected to wear a British designer to the British Fashion Awards. Shortly after the event, Meghan’s photo on the British Fashion Council’s Instagram account was deleted. Coincidence, I’m sure…

One year later – despite all the headlines about that Givenchy faux pas – Meghan chose French fashion label Dior for the official family photograph for her son Archie’s christening. Traditionally, a royal mother wears a piece by a British designer for every christening.

[From The Daily Mail]

I guess I skipped the christening “broken protocol” at the time, because I had no idea that was a thing. They were mad because she wore Dior?? Really? What I do remember is how the British media was hysterically screaming about every little thing (real or imagined) Meghan did in 2019. Speaking of, it’s remarkable how Eden (and all of these people) want to cry about how Meghan should have worn British designers 24-7 (which even Kate doesn’t do) but they’ve never acknowledged that Meghan was paying for her own clothes almost the entire time she was in the UK.

As for the specific examples cited by Eden… delightfully unhinged. Let’s get into it. In retrospect, I would be willing to bet that the Ralph & Russo gown was probably already in Meghan’s closet, or that it was gifted to her. The British taxpayers didn’t “pay” for it, and it’s in poor taste to throw a hissy fit over what Meghan chose to wear in her engagement portraits, you know? As for her Ralph Lauren ensemble at Wimbledon… Ralph Lauren is a long-time sponsor of Wimbledon. If anything, she probably made the All-England Club really happy by wearing an outfit from the tournament’s long-time sponsor. And the British Fashion Awards… lol. She was there to honor her wedding dress designer, Clare Waight Keller, who was then the chief designer for Givenchy. So Meghan wore Givenchy (designed by Keller).

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Backgrid and Alexi Lubomirski for Kensington Palace.