The seven ways Meghan styled her Nigeria trip like a royal tour
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The Duchess of Sussex may have been unhappy as a working royal, but if her Nigerian not-a-royal tour wardrobe tells us anything, it’s that she has picked up a few tricks from her time within the Palace.
For her three-day visit to the west African nation with her husband Prince Harry, Meghan has worn a series of looks that are layered with significance, from her decision to wear Princess Diana’s jewellery, to wearing Lagos-based labels. Every single look included an element that was straight from the royal tour playbook.
The verdict? The Duchess looked great, although there is some evidence that she has been planning her wardrobe without professional guidance. Although rumours persist that she is working with Adele’s Montecito-based stylist Jamie Mizrahi, sources close to both parties denied this to The Telegraph in March.
Camp Sussex is keen to make clear that Meghan styles herself, and if that’s the case, she does a decent job for the most part. Far better than many Hollywood stars if parted from their stylists and personal shoppers. The Duchess clearly enjoys fashion and discovering new brands.
That said, even the best-dressed people need a second pair of eyes; someone to appraise a look from every angle, and to give honest feedback when something isn’t right – particularly when one is in the public eye.
The sartorial diplomacy was top notch though. Read on for the hidden messages in the three-day, eight-outfit tourdrobe.
The coded dress
At first, the Duchess’s choice of a £1,106 blush silk maxi dress by the California-based Heidi Merrick appears to be little more than a woman wearing a dress by her favourite label – it’s the second time she’s worn it in the space of a month. Then you learn that it’s named the “Windsor” style, and was part of a 2018 collection, the same year she and Prince Harry married. Coincidence? That’s unlikely. It certainly hammers home the royal connection.
It did need hemming though; Meghan can’t have moved easily with the skirt pooling on the floor. “Her choices are usually better,” observes the personal stylist Annabel Hodin. “She has lovely ankles and legs and a midi length would be more flattering.”
It failed to hit the mark in terms of its cut too. “The dress needed a weightier fabric, as a backless design needs structure to sit well at the front,” Hodin explains. “The break at the waist creates a square silhouette ... it needed a slightly raised waistline.”
Princess Diana’s jewellery
Exhibit B is Princess Diana’s cross pendant necklace, which she wore with a £335 white strapless column dress by the Australian brand St Agni for a lunch with the Nigerian chief of defence staff. The choice represents her privilege in having access to jewellery previously owned by the Duke’s late mother.
Then there is the Cartier Tank Francaise watch. The one worn on this tour is the Duchess’s own, but it’s often mistaken for the Tank that belonged to Princess Diana, which Prince Harry inherited and she sometimes wears – another nod to her connection to the Princess. This was stacked with her Cartier “Love” bangle and a diamond tennis bracelet by the California-based fine jeweller Ariel Gordon. New to her jewellery collection is a pair of vintage Lanvin clip-on earrings, and a wooden bead necklace gifted to her by students at the Abuja school that she paid a visit to.
The nods to the host nation
For her evening engagement on Saturday, a Women in Leadership panel, the Duchess wore a red dress with a ruffled hem by Oríré, a Lagos-based label. This kind of sartorial diplomacy has been employed by the Princess of Wales many times on tour.
On her decision to switch from her signature neutral palette, she’s reported to have said: “I very quickly got the memo that I need to wear more colour so I can fit in with all of you in your incredible fashion.”
The following day, she wore a Nigerian shawl over her Carolina Herrera dress, which had been a gift from the wife of the Governor of Lagos. It’s charming that Meghan wore it straight away, and it made for a striking colour combination, although it’s a shame that nobody had the foresight to iron out the fold creases.
The sentimental dress
The Duchess’s taxi cab yellow gown was a design by Carolina Herrera. She has worn it on two highly sentimental occasions in the past: for Archie’s first birthday celebration in 2020 and in her pregnancy announcement when she was expecting daughter Lilibet in 2021. The look was completed by Jennifer Meyer hammered disc earrings.
The championing of local designers
On her final day in Nigeria, the Duchess wore a wrap skirt made from Nigerian aso-oke fabric, by the Nigerian label Regalia by Fal. It had been given to her as a gift by the Nigerian Diaspora Commission the previous day.
Meghan showed some flair by coming up with a way to wear it on the fly, and teamed it with a white shirt by Carolina Herrera. A strong look in both fashion and diplomatic terms.
The rewear
Alongside the Duke’s green suit, the Duchess’s white Altuzarra blazer and trousers referenced the colours of the Nigerian flag; literal dressing like this is another tick on the royal tour style checklist.
The jacket is a piece we’ve seen her wear before, in 2018, while pregnant with Archie, to kick off the Invictus Games in Sydney. It’s a way of saying, yes, my clothes may be expensive, but I hold onto them and rewear them all the time. The King, the Princess Royal and the Princess of Wales are all known to take great care of their clothes so that they can be worn for years to come.
For stylist Hodin, this look was a misfire though. “It’s not a suit as the blazer and trouser are different. If doing a top-to-toe suit look, the pieces must match,” she says. “The jacket is pulling at the waist button, and the flare trouser is too tight at the thigh. I’d also lose the T-shirt and team it with a silky blouse instead.”
The high glamour moment
Every royal tour needs its “wow” glamour moment and the Duchess gave us two on this trip, with the help of a label she trusts to deliver the goods: that of the Colombian designer Johanna Ortiz.
First up was Saturday’s $2,850 (£2,275) engraved jacquard palm print dress, with a cut-out detail beneath the bust. She wore a similar dress by the same designer to the Women of Vision awards last year.
On Sunday, for a polo fundraiser, she wore another Ortiz design, this time a drapey jade viscose jacquard, with a deep V-neckline and a matching scarf. She teamed it with a pair of copper Burberry heels from 2013.
