‘No accident’: Meghan Markle’s calculated move

The Duchess of Sussex’s latest move shows she is canny and ready for her big break away from Prince Harry.

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Has anyone looked out the windows to check for a plague of locusts or whether it has started raining frogs? I fear we might have hit the end times. At nearly the same time on Friday that Princesses Beatrice and Eugenie were walking the red carpet at Vogue World 2023 in London, done up like slightly awkward designer dinners, in Germany Meghan, the Duchess of Sussex was wearing dreary head-to-toe brown and looking like she was a delegate off to a Minnesota dairy convention.

Apocalypse … wow!

Princess Beatrice of York and her husband Edoardo Mapelli Mozzi at Vogue World in London. Picture: Henry Nicholls / AFP

Princess Eugenie at Vogue World in London. Picture: Henry Nicholls / AFP

There have been any number of strange happenings over the last four years of post-palace Sussex manoeuvrings but what we have seen play out in Dusseldörf this week takes the cake. (Definitely not a Victoria sponge though.)

Gone is the duchess’ Cèline, the Valentino, the Valentino again and more Valentino of last year’s Games; it has been adios to the reported $70,000 plus of designer goodies that she trotted out for the 2022 event; and a clear sayonara to the glossy, blow-dried Meghan of 2022, who had been primped until she could be primped no more.

What has instead played out in Dusseldörf this week is a whole new look for the 42-year-old whose wardrobe has been so low-key as to qualify as officially plain: Jeans and flats in blacks and browns, a relentlessly neutral palette that makes one wonder if her stylist might have gone colour blind, and an absolute dearth of glamour.

Meghan has worn a relentlessly neutral palette that makes one wonder if her stylist might have gone colour blind. Picture: Sascha Schuermann/Getty Images for the Invictus Games Foundation

Clearly this was no accident, and not simply the result of Meghan throwing some rumpled clothes into a Louis Vuitton steamer trunk before dashing to the airport.

I’d argue, there is a method in all of this style mediocrity and a canny one at that.

The Duchess of Sussex, in taking her wardrobe off the table story-wise this week, would seem to be trying to ensure that the spotlight and attention remains on the Games and her thinning-haired other half, Prince Harry, the Duke of Sussex. No limelight stealing here, no siree!

As Victoria Ward pointed out in the Telegraph, “Aides – acutely aware of the focus on the cost of her wardrobe – are at pains to point out how much of her clothing is “vintage” or being re-worn.”

The closest thing to a deviation from this sartorially ascetic route came when she wore $1315 Hermès sneakers to one Games event. (Well, that and her wearing her reported $96,000 diamond pinky ring of mysterious provenance, an unnecessary bit of sparkle, which would have to be the symbolic zenith of over-pampered and overprivileged.)

Those poor souls over at the Daily Mail et al have thus been denied the chance to castigate the duchess about her ridiculously over the top wardrobe of yore.

Instead we’ve gotten the Duchess of Drab who looks like she might have shopped for this trip at an outlet mall.

Those poor souls over at the Daily Mail et al have been denied the chance to castigate the duchess about her ridiculously over the top wardrobe of yore. Picture: Chris Jackson/Getty Images for the Invictus Games Foundation

One difference between Meghan’s appearance at last year’s game, during which she was rolling out multiple looks each day, was the presence of a Netflix crew, who were filming the event for Harry’s recently released Heart of Invictus documentary.

This time around, the couple’s two series for the streamer, Heart and Harry & Meghan, have long since debuted and both to decidedly mixed reactions and viewing figures.

With no cameras traipsing behind them this time, ready to capture their top-notch caring, and after a bruising year that has seen the couple’s brand careen off a cliff, it would seem that someone, somewhere has been doing some long and deep thinking about where the Sussexes go from here. (See, that’s why everyone needs a meditation yurt.)

Meghan’s comparatively austere turnout at the Games, I’d wager, is very much a part of the carefully plotted evolution of the Sussex empire-to-be. Picture: Chris Jackson/Getty Images for the Invictus Games Foundation

Meghan’s comparatively austere turnout at the Games, I’d wager, is very much a part of the carefully plotted evolution of the Sussex empire-to-be.

The Sussexes for years were joined-at-the-hip twosome, the BOGOFs of the royal family. (Remember when Harry surprised the pants off everyone by turning up with Meghan for her roundtable about gender equality with The Queen’s Commonwealth Trust and One Young World in 2019?)

That strategy would now seem to have shifted as the couple embark on increasingly divergent careers and public images.

Jeff Bezos, Lauren Sanchez, Kris Jenner and Meghan Markle at Beyonce concert. Picture: Twitter

Hollywood megawattage seems to be Meghan’s goal, with her cosying up to the sorts of very important people who can shake Wall Street stock prices or green-light big budget projects with the upwards twitch of an eyebrow like Jeff Bezos and Netflix boss Ted Sarandos.

Then there is her @Meghan Instagram account (128,000 followers and counting) and whatever the hell this website or business she has been on the brink of launching for so long now I can’t even quite bring myself to write about it.

Call it Operation: Vogue Cover Or Bust.

But Harry, he doesn’t seem even remotely interested in any of that (from afar anyway). He may or may not end up making some new Netflix series about the conservation in Africa, an outing whose worthiness would only be outweighed by how soporific and predictable it would all be.

The duke’s ambitions in life would seem to be limited to a) doing charity, b) somehow earning enough money to keep their bodyguards fed and watered and c) finally getting to a higher level in Fortnite. That’s it. The end. Never once has it looked like, deep down, the 39-year-old (as of Friday) has been secretly hankering to be asked to present an Academy Award or to be invited to grace the Met Ball or ever go anywhere that might involve making small talk with Timothée Chalamet.

Hollywood megawattage seems to be Meghan’s goal. Picture: Sascha Schuermann/Getty Images for the Invictus Games Foundation

It looks more and more like the couple are separating, professionally-speaking. And that in turn means giving each other the space and the media breathing room to take the lead.

Thus carry the two, subtract one and you get Meghan wearing the blandest clothing I have ever witnessed on Getty Images to the Invictus Games.

Consider this the Duchess of Sussex’s best attempt to fade into the background while Harry struggles to wipe the joyful smile off his face as he excitedly hugs his way around the Games.

I also wonder to what degree this new (and hopefully temporary) look is an attempt to tone down her pampered image with her four-figure blankets and collection of diamond rings, and to make her seem a tad more relatable. Meghan the polished princess is not exactly working with the American masses, according to approval rating done by Redfield & Wilson for Newsweek, putting her in negative territory. (31 per cent of people had a favourable view of her as opposed to 33 per cent who had an unfavourable one.)

So, is this new down-home duchess look part of a move to broaden her mass market appeal? No bad thing if she is about to get into the entrepreneurial game.

Something would appear to be shifting in Sussex-land, with what looks from the outside like a new-found awareness of the overhaul they need. Picture: Sascha Schuermann/Getty Images for the Invictus Games Foundation

Don’t overlook the fact that, since last year’s Invictus Games and all the roll out of all that Valentino, the duchess has brought in the big guns, signing on with Hollywood agent, Ari Emanuel of WME. (Probably just a coincidence that she has twice worn pieces by Emanuel’s wife’s Sarah Staudinger’s brand Staud for high-profile outings in recent months, including at the Games, right?)

Before anyone starts rending their Rodarte, I don’t think we are never again going to see Meghan showcasing her (generally) fabulous style and high-end sartorial chops, or that we will never again see her dripping in Dior.

Meghan Markle cut a much more glamorous figure at last year’s Invictus Games. Picture: Chris Jackson/Getty Images for the Invictus Games Foundation

However, something would appear to be shifting in Sussex-land, with what looks from the outside like a new-found awareness of the overhaul they need to pull if they are to have any hope of rebooting their beleaguered brand.

How is this for a bit of good old-fashioned irony? In Harry & Meghan, the duchess said, “Most of the time that I was in the UK, I rarely wore colour. There was thought in that … I wore a lot of muted tones, but it also was so I could just blend in. Like, I’m not trying to stand out here.”

And here we are three countries, four years and one podcast later and once again, Meghan is stuck in her own personal age of beige. The universe really has a perverse sense of humour.

Daniela Elser is a writer, editor and a royal commentator with more than 15 years’ experience working with a number of Australia’s leading media titles.

Originally published as ‘No accident’: Meghan Markle’s calculated move