Meghan Markle’s Wardrobe Is Still Missing This 1 Element Years After Royal Exit, Fashion Expert Says
She may have left royal life behind, but Meghan Markle apparently hasn’t done away with everything related to the Firm. Namely, the color palette of her clothing in her working royal days or lack thereof. A fashion expert says despite claiming to avoid color as a way to blend in, the Duchess of Sussex still heavily favors neutrals.
Meghan tried not to ‘stand out’ as a royal by wearing neutral colors
In Netflix’s 2022 Harry & Meghan docuseries, the Duchess of Sussex explained why she avoided bold-hued clothing while dressing for royal life.
“Most of the time that I was in the U.K., I rarely wore color,” Meghan said, noting, “There was thought in that.”
“To my understanding, you can’t ever wear the same color as Her Majesty [Queen Elizabeth II] if there’s a group event,” she explained. “But then you also should never be wearing the same color as one of the other more senior members of the family.”
“So I was like, ‘Well, what’s a color that they’ll probably never wear? Camel? Beige? White?’” Meghan went on. “So, 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.”
It wasn’t until she and Prince Harry carried out their final engagements as the Duke and Duchess of Sussex that Meghan decided to “look like a rainbow.”
Meghan predominantly wore neutral colors in 2023, not experimenting with color
Bidding farewell to royal life and relocating to California hasn’t seen a major shift in the way Meghan dresses. Sure, many of her looks are much more casual than they might’ve been were she still in England.
However, the actor-turned-British royal hasn’t expanded to more colorful clothing, instead sticking mainly to neutrals, especially in 2023, fashion expert Miranda Holder told The Royal Report podcast.
“I think that the first sort of thing to note about Meghan is that we have just had neutrals virtually all year, having been very vocal about reluctantly wearing neutrals or sort of indicating that was the case in the Netflix documentary because she didn’t want to stand out too much,” she said.
“She suggested that she wore neutral colors because she was fearful of overshadowing other members of the royal family,” Jack Royston, the podcast’s host, replied. “So, in other words, the implication was that she kept herself in a box.”
Holder went on to say the expectation might’ve been to see Meghan “break free of those royal shackles and have loads of fun wearing every single color of the rainbow and expressing her true self.”
However, that hasn’t been the case, as no injection of color into her clothing has happened.
“It’s very interesting, you know, that there has been very little color this year,” the fashion expert said. “In fact, I went through her outfits, or many of them anyway. And there’s literally less than a handful of these [color] moments for Meghan.”
Among the mother of two’s color 2023 “moments” were the close of the Invictus Games, for which Meghan wore a blue dress, as well as a May 2023 awards ceremony where she donned a gold dress.
Jewel tones would also look ‘great’ on Meghan
While neutrals seem to be Meghan’s go-to, according to Holder, sporting a wider array of colors would be a good choice too.
“I think knowing your best colors is very useful in fashion,” she said. “Meghan suits the deep, dark jewel tones. But also, she’s one of the few people that can get away with wearing black or pure white.”
“So you could say that a lot of those neutrals are because … it just looks great on her, and she looks fabulous in those colors,” Holder added.
“But there are also many jewel tones such as, you know, deep emerald green, sapphire blue, magenta, royal purple. All those colors would look fantastic on her. We’ve not really seen them.”
So, maybe while 2024 is poised to be a year of “redemption” for Harry and Meghan, it might finally be the year where Meghan injects more color into her wardrobe.
