Meghan Markle’s TIME100 Talks outfit reveals hidden Diana message
There’s one small detail in a glamorous new photo of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle that might suggest they’ve got something to announce.
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On June 29, 1994 Diana, Princess of Wales stepped out for the Serpentine Gallery’s annual summer party.
The evening just so happened to be the night that Prince Charles confessed to the world in a TV interview that he had been unfaithful and when she emerged from her chauffeur-driven Jaguar, Diana was wearing a wildly risque little black dress revealing her décolletage and enough knee to probably make the Queen Mother choke on her nightly Gin and Dubonnet.
With one outfit, the princess managed to both steal the spotlight from her husband and send a powerful message without uttering a word. The next day The Sun ran the story on the front page with the headline “The thrilla he left to woo Camilla.”
Game, set and match Diana.
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Likewise, in 1996, Diana attended New York’s Met Gala wearing a John Galliano slip dress. While the designer had originally sewn a hidden bustier into the frock to protect her modesty, the princess was having none of it.
When she arrived at the society bash, Galliano was left stunned when he realised she had ripped it out. Her message was clear: Liberation. While her lawyers negotiated with Charles’ back in London over their divorce, here was the princess embracing a far more confident, sexy image.
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There are plenty more examples, but the point is that Diana was a woman who innately understood the power of fashion to send tacit messages to the world. In 2020, it would seem that her daughter-in-law Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, is clearly equally fluent in this sort of sartorial semaphore.
Some quick background.
When Diana tragically passed away in 1997, under the terms of her will her jewellery collection was split between her sons. Her former butler Paul Burrell has revealed that in the wake of her death, William and Harry were given the chance to select pieces that had belonged to their mother as keepsakes.
William chose Diana’s Cartier watch, a 21st present, while Harry selected his mother’s famous engagement ring. Burrell recalled Harry saying at the time: “I remember when I held Mummy’s hand when I was a small boy and that ring always hurt me because it was so big.”
However, in 2010, with William on the cusp of finally popping the question to his longtime girlfriend Kate Middleton, the younger Prince, per Burrell, had a brainwave.
“Wouldn’t it be fitting if she had Mummy’s ring?” Harry told William, according to Burrell. “Then one day that ring will be sat on the throne of England.”
In the decade since then, not only Kate (who became the Duchess of Cambridge in 2011) but Meghan have worn key pieces that belonged to their husbands’ mother. Now it would seem that the Cartier watch has reappeared, this time on the wrist of Meghan.
(The 39-year-old also owns a two-tone Cartier tank watch which she bought for herself after her TV show Suits was renewed for a third season.)
On September 30, the Duchess took part in Fortune’s Most Powerful Women virtual summit during which eagle-eyed watchers spotted her wearing what looked like Diana’s gold Tank number alongside a series of bracelets.
Now, over the weekend, a new shot of Meghan and her husband Harry, Duke of Sussex, was released to mark their upcoming hosting of TIME100 Talks series, showing the tactile duo in nearly identical suits, looking sublimely relaxed. (Maybe all that yoga and journaling really does work …)
However, what immediately made waves was that, very clearly, there on the Duchess’ arm, alongside a $6400 Cartier Love bracelet (reportedly given to her by her husband) was what appeared to be Diana’s luxe timepiece.
Oh boy, this is big.
Seriously.
That’s because in the two and a bit years since Meghan became a fully-fledged member of The Firm, the instances when she has chosen to deploy pieces of Diana’s jewellery are momentous junctures.
On Harry and Meghan’s wedding day, the newlyweds appeared briefly for the cameras on the way to their night-time reception, the newly minted Duchess clad in a stunning Stella McCartney and wearing Diana’s iconic whopping aquamarine ring.
With nary a word, Meghan created an immediate association between herself with the Princess of Wales and added a deeply moving personal touch to her big day.
Fast forward to October 15, 2018. Harry and Meghan were in Sydney when they announced they were expecting their first child. On that day, the mum-to-be wore a chic white dress, pairing it with a pair of diamond butterfly earrings that had belonged to Diana.
It was a touching gesture, including Harry’s beloved mother during a hugely important family moment.
And now, we have (what would appear to be) The Watch on full display.
Superficially, the Time event might just seem like a classic Sussex engagement, a hand-wringing exercise in enumerating the ills of modern society while slightly awe-struck hosts on the other end of the camera enthusiastically nod along.
However, I think the fact that Meghan chose this moment to wheel out the $32,240 piece is particularly significant.
The occasions she has chosen thus far to wear pieces from Diana’s collection have all been moments signifying important new chapters in her and Harry’s life together, which is why the fact she has chosen to start wearing what looks to be the princess’ watch speaks volumes.
The last three months have seen the Sussexes’ dial up their number of public engagements. Week after week they have been in the news, Zooming with their trademark earnest abandon (mostly) from their $20 million Californian mansion, trying to fix the world’s problems while surrounded by a carefully curated selection of candles.
This Time gig, however, is a milestone moment. For the 90-minute talkfest, the Sussexes chose the subject (the State of Our Shared Digital Experience) and the gaggle of big name guests, as Alexis Ohanian, the founder of Reddit, the Center for Humane Technology president Tristan Harris and author and co-director of the UCLA Center for Critical Internet Inquiry, Safiya U. Noble.
The Time outing will publicly cement the starring activist roles they have been gunning for ever since they landed in the US in March, cementing them in the firmament of the new generation of leaders and solidifying their Stateside brand.
For Harry and Meghan, this event represents their admission into the upper echelons of the business world and the progressive intelligentsia and joining the ranks of the meditation-proselytising, Davos-going, Jeff Bezos-hanging big league.
The duo has never hid their hunger to lead on a number of important issues including gender equality, racial justice and climate change. However, there has thus far been something of a gap between their ambition and the means of putting all that enthusiasm and zeal into action.
And that is why the Time talkfest is consequential.
This is Harry and Meghan finally being given a chance to proactively engage with the people who can actually affect change in the areas they care about. Notably, at an hour and a half long, this is one of the longest public outings the couple has made, perhaps ever.
One of the last times that Diana publicly wore her Cartier watch was in April 1997 to a British Lung Foundation event. At the time, Diana was professionally at least, flourishing. (Her romance with surgeon Dr Hasnat Khan would end within months.)
However, emancipated from her marriage to Charles, the princess was at that time leading a powerful anti-landmine campaign and emerging as a new global tour de force. Unfettered by an official royal role, she was building a humanitarian career to reflect her values and passions. Finally, she was creating the life she wanted.
So there is something fitting about Diana, featuring, obliquely at least, in Harry and Meghan’s Time portrait. Because, whether you support the Sussexes’ quitting of the royal family or not, the choices they have made over the last year must surely have taken a huge amount of courage and personal conviction and in their dogged pursuit of building the lives they want, I think the princess would have been incredibly proud.
Daniela Elser is a royal expert and writer with more than 15 years experience working with a number of Australia’s leading media titles.
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