The Duchess of Sussex has certainly found her own unique way of dressing as a member of the royal family – and all this started on her wedding day, when she eschewed tradition in favour of pure simplicity with her Givenchy gown. And now, Clare Waight Keller, the woman behind the iconic dress, has spoken out about what Meghan had hoped to achieve when they set out to create her wedding look.
“We talked about the ceremony, the implications of her coming into the family and what her role was going to be in the future, and what she wanted to represent, what emotions she wanted to portray, how she wanted to carve out a new idea of a way to dress for a royal, and also the magnitude of it,” Waight Keller told Grazia.
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And, although she was embracing pared-back simplicity with her double-bonded silk cady gown, there was a very complex level of detail that needed to be considered in the design.
“It’s all those little things when you’re working with such purity, everything matters – the bateau neck and where it cut on her bone, the hem at the front was 2cm shorter so you could see the point of her shoe, so she looked like she was floating.”
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Waight Keller explained that her meetings with Meghan were personal and intimate, rather than stately and official, which meant that she didn’t really grasp the scale of what was going to take place until the bride climbed up the steps of St George’s Chapel. And she says it was this that made the experience so special and the two women so close.
“I think the magic of that being so intimate and so personal for so long felt incredibly special because it evolved from a designer and client relationship very quickly into a friendship, in that we’ve got such a comfort level with one another and shared so many special moments. I suppose we have a sort of unbreakable bond in that sense, when you’ve experienced something very few people have together, so it goes deep.”
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The designer also went on to say that she hopes to meet baby Archie soon – and that she’s pretty certain Meghan will have the same attitude to parenting as a royal as she has to dressing as a royal, that she will do it differently.
“I think she’s got quite a clear idea of what she wants, always, but I’m sure he’s going to be a very different royal.”
This article originally appeared on Harper’s BAZAAR UK.
