Meghan Markle Recycles an Erdem Dress for Queen Elizabeth's Royal Christmas Lunch
The royal family is not short on holiday traditions.
Gorgeous decorations have gone up at royal residences across the UK, and later this month, they'll travel to Sandringham to celebrate Christmas Day.
But before they head north, the royals will all attend the Queen's annual Christmas lunch. Prince Harry and Meghan Markle just arrived at Buckingham Palace for the festive event, Meghan's first as an official member of the British royal family. They didn't come empty-handed: in the back seat, you can see she and Harry brought a present to the lunch.
As People reported last year, more than 50 of the Queen's closest relatives attend the annual celebration, many of whom Meghan may not have seen since the royal wedding.
For the occasion, Meghan recycled an Erdem printed dress, which she first wore to a 2016 appearance on Today-months before Prince Harry confirmed their relationship in a statement. While Meghan's sister-in-law Kate Middleton has made a habit of rewearing outfits, it's more rare to see the Duchess of Sussex dig back into her closet, especially for a dress she owned before she was a royal.
The Duchess finished off her look with her Galanterie de Cartier earrings, a pair that she's also been known to rewear for events ranging from an Invictus Games reception in London to her own royal wedding.
Given that today is a private family event, we likely won't see any full-length photos of Duchess Meghan's outfit, so these car shots will have to do for now.
As royal reported Duncan Larcombe told Town & Country earlier this year, the royals like to drive to family events such as this because it gives them a sense of independence.
"If I had access 24 hours a day to chauffeurs-which they do, their royal protection officers drive them around in bullet-proof vehicles-I’d think that was heaven," he told T&C.
"But for them, they’re funny. They try and be as normal as they can. For them, it’s quite nice to be able to drive themselves and to be independent."
But Meghan and Harry aren't quite as alone as they might appear.
"They’ll still have their protection officers in tow." Larcombe said. "They would have had at least two vehicles driving with them and a protection officer in the vehicle with them, all armed."
In addition to Harry and Meghan, the Cambridge family was also in attendance at today's luncheon.
We'll likely see all four of them together again on Christmas morning, when they attend church services at St. Mary Magdalene.
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