Pictures reveal Meghan’s wild Harry transformation
Telling pictures prove that the Duke of Sussex has quietly been undergoing a massive transformation in recent years.
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How empowering and uplifting can making hummus really be?
That’s the fundamental question upon which the success of Meghan, The Duchess of Sussex’s new TV show With Love, Meghan teeter-totters.
I wonder, can tahini be truly transformative?
Because With Love promises, according to the Netflix marketing flummery, to not only instruct us, the grateful public, in the art of the effortlessly strewn crudité, but to “inspire” and to teach us all how to “elevate” “the ordinary”.
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While we will have to wait until March 4 to find out if spiritual salvation can truly lie spatula-wards, in the meantime, there is a very strong case to be made that yes, the duchess can take something a bit humdrum and blah and magic it into something spiffy and new.
Step forward Prince Harry, The Duke of Sussex – and sometimes now fashion plate.
In the trailer for With Love, the duchess tells us “I’ve always loved taking something pretty ordinary and elevating it”, a knack that is clearly borne out by her husband’s makeover in recent years.
Harry. Oh Harry.
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He used to be a man best known for his untucked, rumpled shirts and a certain lager-dribbled unkempt laddishness. GQ was not about to come calling; his ensembles were more human beer coaster than hedge fund bro-cool.
And then along came Meghan, like a fairy godmother in floral Erdem, who took her prince and magicked him from schlubby bachelor, a man barely on speaking terms with his iron, to often now debonair dude.
In late December, when Harry strode out onto the stage for The New York Times DealBook Summit, it was in an impeccably cut suit.
You want to talk about “taking something ordinary and elevating it”? Meghan, with Harry’s style reinvention, might actually have just passed the Vatican’s first hurdle of performing a demonstrable miracle. (Does the Pope have Netflix? Should someone check?)
Harry, back in the day – the day being when he could step foot on British soil without certain clucking elements of the UK press getting themselves into a right old lather and when his father would answer his calls – had about him a certain je ne sais quoi.
His suits never seemed to quite fit, on occasion his undies could be seen peeking above his trousers and his aesthetic was more scruffy scamp than sophisticate. He not only owned but publicly wore flannel and on occasion a hoodie. Sometimes, you had to wonder if he truly did wake up like that.
To really understand how far we have come, let me remind you about, deep breaths here chaps, the “bucket”.
In the duke’s 2023 memoir Spare, he wrote about his former approach to fashion and talked about his “mismatched outfits, my ratty shoes. Writers would flag a photo of me and wonder why my trousers were so long, my shirts so crumpled. (They didn’t dream that I’d dried them on the radiator).”
To fill his wardrobe, he would go to discount retailer TK Maxx twice a year with “two hundred quid” where he deployed his patented system: “Get to the shop fifteen minutes before closing time. Grab a red bucket. Hurry to the top floor. Begin systematically working up one rack and down another. If I found something promising I’d hold it up to my chest or legs, standing in front of a mirror … If it looked nice, comfortable, into the bucket it went.”
Never before has “bucket” been used in the fashion lexicon.
And then, puff! Meghan arrived.
There is no greater signpost of how far Harry has come than when he arrived at King Charles’ May 2023 coronation wearing a custom suit made for him by Christian Dior, who also created his wife’s white ensemble for the late Queen’s Platinum Jubilee celebrations.
Arise, Harry The Influencer.
Today, while the duke is still a man who dearly loves him a linen shirt and whose grey polos have proven staying power, he cuts much more of a dash, bringing with him a certain West Coast-style swagger when necessary. Basically, he has grown up.
Would Harry be where he is now as a human being or how he dresses if not for his good lady wife?
What Meghan seems to have taught him is not just how to dress and what to wear, but she has also seemingly inculcated him with an awareness and understanding of the importance of image.
Post-palace, for the duke, his clothes, at times, have a job to do.
The father of two now needs clothes in a way he never did before. The before times of TK Maxx and the occasional military uniform reflected the fact he was one half lost boy, one half dutiful soldier. He was not aiming to project any particular message, but wore garments that were intrinsically tied to particular aspects of his identity.
Now it’s a whole new ball game, and he is in the business of brand-building. On a stage he needs to look the smart, perfectly turned out figure that a Nasdaq-listed company will merrily invest in. In a Travelyst skit from 2022, it was a T-shirt proudly emblazoned with the words “Girl Dad”, reminding us just how right-on he was.
In Lesotho to support his Sentebale charity, in a relatively well-pressed shirt with on-trend sunnies.
What Harry and Meghan have done is to fashion the duke’s image into that of a man they want to be seen as independently worthy of respect, investment and attention.
So just think. If the Duchess of Sussex can do this with the Duke of Sussex, lordy lord, just imagine what she might be able to do with a chickpea.
I hope the Vatican is paying attention.
Daniela Elser is a writer, editor and royal commentator with more than 15 years’ experience working with a number of Australia’s leading media titles
Originally published as Pictures reveal Meghan’s wild Harry transformation
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