Royal tailor breaks silence on Meghan Markle and Kate Middleton’s dress debacle
The luxury tailor who saved the day after Princess Charlotte’s bridesmaid dress didn’t fit – leaving Meghan and Kate at war – has broken his silence.
The tailor involved in the infamous Sussex bridesmaid dress drama is telling his side of the story.
Nearly five years after Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s May 2018 royal wedding, luxury tailor Ajay Mirpuri of Mirpuri Bespoke talked to Page Six Style about what happened behind the scenes with Princess Charlotte’s outfit — a topic that’s been highly publicised in the wake of the release of Harry’s bombshell memoir, Spare.
As Prince Harry writes in his book, the Givenchy dresses that were “hand-sewn from measurements only” for Princess Charlotte and the five other bridesmaids needed alterations before the big day — and his sister-in-law, Kate Middleton, had strong feelings about the fit.
Enter the royal tailor.
“I don’t know anything that went on before we were asked to come in, but there was clearly a misunderstanding or miscommunication,” Mirpuri tells us, adding that “the brand that made the dresses has some of the highest standards in the world.”
While Harry wrote that “it wasn’t a big shock that they might need altering,” considering Givenchy had made them solely based on the girls’ measurements, the then-Duchess of Cambridge allegedly texted Markle expressing concerns about her daughter’s frock.
“Charlotte’s dress is too big, too long, too baggy. She cried when she tried it on at home,” Middleton’s text to the bride-to-be read, according to Spare.
After the royal fiancee suggested Middleton “take Charlotte to see Ajay,” the now-Princess of Wales allegedly insisted that all of the bridesmaid dresses be completely remade.
Following the terse exchange, Harry wrote that that he found Markle “on the floor. Sobbing”.
When asked if he was aware of any drama between the two royal women, the high-end suitmaker — whose business runs bespoke tailoring showrooms in London as well as Switzerland — said, “Not at all. Everyone was very cooperative and in a good mood.”
“We were contacted by a PA a few days before [May] 14, which is when we first went in,” Mirpuri continued.
With just days before the May 19 wedding, the team had to work through the night to finish all six dresses.
“It took us three days and most of three nights,” Mirpuri recalled, sharing that “the level of alterations required for each dress” varied.
The tailor — who specialises in custom suits — often works with celebrities and high-level VIPs such as Matt Damon, and said he would have been “quite happy” to stay behind the scenes of the incident.
“On this occasion it was our privilege to serve the royal family, and had no one put two and two together to find us, we [would have been] quite happy for it never to be known,” he said. “That’s not why we do what we do.”
At the end of the day, Mirpuri added of the dress debacle, “I feel it’s a family matter and should be dealt [with] as such.”
While the tailor said he hasn’t read Spare yet, other than the sections involving the bridesmaid dress incident, he plans to do so in the near future.
“We had a small role to play in this globally televised event and I just hope our role made the country look good,” Mirpuri concluded, saying he was “very proud” of the work done on the dresses, “given where we started”.
This article was originally published by Page Six and reproduced with permission
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