Meghan Markle’s Givenchy gown went down as one of the most elegant royal wedding dresses of all time and it only had six seams holding it together.
Except, while she opted for quite a straightforward gown, the drama surrounding her designer dress after was all quite complicated.
The Duchess of Sussex looked radiant on her big day and has since revealed that she asked Givenchy’s then-creative director Clare Waight Keller that she wanted a ‘very timeless, classic feeling’ dress that was ‘modest’. The French fashion house has a long history of creating classically beautiful garments and Meghan’s dress was full of subtle details which made it so memorable.
The haute couture dress had cropped long sleeves and featured a chic bateau neckline (which is a Hubert de Givenchy staple) that framed Meghan’s shoulder while it also accentuated her waist.
Made from a double-bonded silk cady, it was cushioned with a triple silk organza underskirt, which made the skirt appear to go on forever.
Her veil was just as much of a showstopper. Measuring 16 feet in length, the white silk veil was delicately embroidery with flora from all the Commonwealth states. BBC reveals that the duchess also included two special flowers, Wintersweet (that is found in Kensington Palace) and a California Poppy as a sweet nod to the place she was born.
All in all, the royal wedding look took 4,000 hours to complete and it was one of the most expensive of all time, costing a pretty penny of €120,000.
While her gorgeous dress was still being talked about months after she wore it down the aisle, it also made headlines for another unexpected reason.
Emilia Wickstead, the New Zealand-born fashion designer who is a regular wardrobe go-to of another immaculately-dressed duchess, Kate Middleton, reportedly accused Givenchy of copying her designs to create the royal gown.
According to the Daily Mail, the London-based designer allegedly made comments about the Givenchy gown looking similar to one of hers.
The celeb-adored designer had released her first bridal collection the year previously and suggested that Meghan Markle’s Givenchy gown was a knock-off of her Helene dress which had much less of a hefty price tag, at £7,000 (€7,900).
‘Her dress is identical to one of ours,’ the publication quoted her saying, as her wedding dress also happened to include a boat neckline. ‘Apparently a lot of commentators were saying “It’s an Emilia Wickstead dress”,’ she added.
She also reportedly criticised the shape of the dress, saying that it was ill-fitting on the royal bride.
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That wasn’t all. The designer apparently continued to make comments about something different entirely, the duchesses hair, sharing a dislike for Meghan’s relaxed tresses on the day.
‘I was like, “Hold the wisps [of her hair] back — it’s a Royal Wedding for God’s sake,”‘ she was quoted saying.
A few days later, the Daily Mail reported that Emilia Wickstead’s Twitter account had been ‘mysteriously suspended’, which only added more fuel to the fire.
A representative for the designer subsequently denied those claims as Wickstead had not used her Twitter account ‘in years’, The Cut reported at the time.
After much confusion in the media around who said, and thought, what, Wickstead cleared up the issue by releasing a lengthy statement on Instagram where she explained that she did not intend to accuse that Meghan Markle’s wedding dress copied hers.
In the statement, she wrote: ‘I am extremely saddened by commentary that has appeared in the press and on-line over the past few days. Her Royal Highness, the Duchess of Sussex looked absolutely beautiful on her wedding day and I have the utmost admiration and respect for her.’
She went on to address the controversial comments about the Duchess of Sussex’s wedding dress, writing: ‘I do not think the dress was a copy of her designs. I have the greatest respect for Clare Waight Keller and the House of Givenchy — a huge source of inspiration to me.’
She finished off the statement by wishing the Sussexes a ‘wonderful, happy and love filled life together.’
While the dust settled on the confusing chapter, the online fashion watchdog group Diet Prada took it on themselves to prove just how authentic Meghan’s dress was to the house of Givenchy.
Maybe Diet Prada wanted to give the designer a taste of her own medicine, but they alleged that Wickstead had plagiarised in her own work before and showed the evidence to prove it.
Posting side-by-side pictures on Instagram, Diet Prada highlighted that Wickstead had used an ‘ultra-specific box-pleated bust cupped brasserie’ and ‘bow-adorned tailoring’ in one of the pieces for her spring/summer 2018 collection, that also looked strikingly similar to design from a 1950s Jacques Fath collection. As the saying goes, there is nothing really new in fashion!
Diet Prada subsequently dove into the Givenchy fashion annals reposting older designs alongside pictures of Meghan’s gown to show where the inspiration could have come from.
On an interesting side note, the Duchess of Sussex was also accused of copying another royal, the Crown Princess Mary of Denmark, who also opted for a similar boat-necked dress when she wed Prince Frederick in 2004.
There was obviously no foul blood over the was-or-wasn’t Meghan Markle’s wedding dress copied debacle, as Emilia Wickstead was responsible for another one of the duchesses iconic dresses more recently.
It was the truly unforgettable caped green dress that the Duchess of Sussex wore for her final appearance as a working member of the royal family in March 2020. It has since been called the ‘revenge’ dress 2.0.