Meghan saved her best looks for last
MEGHAN Markle’s first international royal tour has been a near flawless PR exercise, but that’s not to say she didn’t make some fashion blunders along the way, writes Nadia Salemme.
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AS the Duchess of Sussex’s first official tour Down Under draws to an end, it’s safe to say she has well and truly hit her stride in the style stakes.
The new royal, 37, sported some of her most stunning outfits yet on the last part of 16-day tour of Australia and the Pacific, after a relatively slow start.
Initially, her wardrobe included re-wearing a camel-coloured Brandon Maxwell trench coat a lot and sporting multiple variations on basically the same navy dress.
But the actor-turned-Duchess has really turned it around in the past few days as she visited Fiji and Tonga with her new husband, Prince Harry, who has been dressing like Mike Ross from Suits.
Perhaps her best look so far was a $628 belted, scarlet-coloured Self-Portait dress. Sure, the visible swing tag and cotton string was an unintended accessory, but that was a minor faux pas given how red-hot the outfit was (especially when teamed with pointy-toed stilettos and a black clutch).
Then Meghan emerged in Tonga today wearing a blah striped dress by Paris-based Australian designer Martin Grant — a favourite designer of hers on this tour.
But she turned the day around with an outfit change into a flattering $924 blue button-up frock by Veronica Beard.
Other highlights of the former Deal Or No Deal model’s tour wardrobe included a form-fitting green Jason Wu dress — as worn on her arrival in Nadi, Fiji — and a knockout black frock by Emilia Wickstead teamed with a Philip Treacy headpiece, which she wore in Sydney last weekend.
That outfit was a controversial choice as New Zealand-born Wickstead was, of course, the designer who publicly dissed the Duchess of Sussex’s custom Givenchy wedding dress. Wickstead had suggested it was “identical to one of our dresses” and criticised the cut, saying it was “quite loose”, but later apologised. Obviously, Meghan Markle forgives and forgets.
While Meghan has definitely turned heads the past few days for mostly the right reasons, the royal tour started off on a less striking note.
She wore some pretty forgettable ensembles for a Duchess with a considerable clothing allowance.
The pieces, although designed by some of fashion’s most respected designers and some with an ethical selling point, fell a bit flat, leaving me wondering if she had been shopping at a suburban chain store.
That’s OK for the rest of us, but not for a woman with unlimited clothing options.
There was her striped dress by LA-based eco-friendly label Reformation, which featured a sexy thigh-high split.
It led some to suggest she was showing off too much skin for a royal (it was tame compared to 98 per cent of the girls on Instagram). But the real problem was that it wasn’t that stylish by Meghan Markle-standards.
Early on the tour in Melbourne, she wore navy dress by Dion Lee … followed by a near-identical navy dress by Club Monaco, both worn on the same day.
So what will the last few days of the royal tour hold for Meghan Markle’s influential style?
She is due rub shoulders with Victoria and David Beckham in Sydney, so perhaps an outfit from Posh’s clothing label would be an appropriate choice.
She has a track record of supporting her designer friends, like Serena Williams, after wearing a blazer from her label in Dubbo.
If not, maybe she can make a last-minute trip to Supre.
Nadia Salemme is a News Corp senior digital reporter.
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