It’s hard to believe that it’s already been five years (!!!) since Meghan Markle and Prince Harry tied the knot in St George’s Chapel at Windsor Castle back in 208. A lot has changed since then – to say the least – but one thing that will never get old about the star-studded event is Meghan’s truly glorious wedding dress.
Classic and minimal yet truly show-stopping, Meghan’s long-sleeved, boat-neck Givenchy gown has lived in our minds rent-free ever since it first appeared on the chapel steps – but a new interview with the dress’ designer has got us obsessed all over again.
Speaking with Vanity Fair, Claire Waight Keller, who was the first-ever female artistic director of Givenchy and the brains behind the dress, has revealed a previously unknown detail about the design that has made us love it EVEN more.
Apparently, the Duchess put a “creative twist” on the traditional “something blue”, taking a small piece of fabric from the dress she wore on her first date with Prince Harry and incorporating it into her bridal design. “We basically sewed it into the hem of the wedding dress, so she was the only one that knew that it was there. It was a little blue gingham check,” Waight Keller explains. “It was the perfect personal memento that was secretly hidden inside the dress.” Sweet!
Waight Keller also discussed the details of Meghan’s extraordinary 16.5-foot silk tulle veil, which supposedly entailed 3,900 hours of design and was hand-embroidered with flowers from all 53 Commonwealth countries – as well as featuring an homage to her home state of California, and
Meghan Markle‘s wedding dress designer has revealed that the “something blue” that was included in her wedding dress is something that only the Duchess of Sussex knew about at the time.
Designer Clare Waight Keller, who is also the artistic director of Givenchy, told dress“Vanity Fair that Meghan didn’t want “a garter or something like that” for her something blue and, instead, Meghan snipped a piece of fabric from the dress she wore on her first date with Prince Harry.
“We basically sewed it into the hem of the dress, so she was the only one that knew that it was there,” Keller told the venerable magazine. “It was a little blue gingham check. “It was the perfect personal memento that was secretly hidden inside the dress.”
Meghan and Harry tied the knot on May 19, 2018, at St. George’s Chapel at Windsor Castle. The focus of the Givenchy gown was the graphic open bateau neckline that framed Meghan’s shoulders and emphasized a “slender sculpted waist.” The design house also noted that the slim three-quarter sleeves added “a note of refined modernity” and that the underskirt was made of triple silk organza.
Months after the wedding, Meghan meghan-markle-something-blue-wedding-day-revealed/”told ITV for its documentary, Queen of the World, about the “something blue” as she tried to look for the piece of fabric for the cameras.
“Beautiful. Somewhere in here there’s a piece of… did you see it?” she asks in the doc. “The piece of blue fabric that’s stitched inside? It was my ‘something blue.’ It’s fabric from the dress that I wore on our first date.”
She also told ITV that she wanted the 53 nations of the Commonwealth represented
Meghan Markle’s Givenchy gown had a number of special touches Clare Waight Keller is now revealing.
Meghan Markle’s wedding gown had a special nod to her first date with Prince Harry. Clare Waight Keller, the fashion designer responsible for the Duchess of Sussex’s long-sleeved Givenchy wedding gown, opened up in a new interview with markle-wedding-dress”Vanity Fair about adding sentimental touches to the May 2018 ceremony attire.
The first female artistic director of Givenchy revealed that for Markle’s “something blue,” she secretly stitched blue fabric into the hem of Markle’s wedding gown from the dress the future royal wore on her first date with her future husband. “We basically sewed it into the hem of the wedding dress, so she was the only one that knew that it was there. It was a little blue gingham check,” Waight Keller said of the classic wedding tradition. “It was the perfect personal memento that was secretly hidden inside the dress.”
Markle had previously hinted at the first date dress’ special role in her wedding date in HBO’s 2018 documentary Queen of the World, but didn’t confirm what it was. “Somewhere in here there’s a piece of blue fabric that’s stitched inside – it was my something blue,” she said in the documentary. “It’s fabric from the dress that I wore on our first date.”
Another special touch Waight Keller added to Markle’s wedding attire was a hand-embroidered flower trim representing each of the 53 countries of the Commonwealth to the bride’s cathedral-length veil. “[Meghan] felt like she was bringing an element of each of those countries down the aisle with her. So that her new role – and that bridge to the new role – was captured in what she was wearing,” she said. “For both of us, we
Meghan Markle’s classic bridal look is receiving new attention and all thanks to the designer Clare Waight Keller.
The fashion designer behind the long-sleeved Givenchy gown that the Duchess of Sussex wore to wed Prince Harry in May 2018 shared fresh information about the ensemble on Friday. The information included a new hint about Meghan’s “something blue” and King Charles’ admiration of the Commonwealth link of her veil.
When Waight Keller realized Meghan’s vision as the first female artistic director of Givenchy, she revealed to Vanity Fair how and where she surreptitiously sewed blue cloth from the dress the future duchess wore on her first date with Harry.
“We basically sewed it into the hem of the wedding dress, so she was the only one that knew that it was there. It was a little blue gingham check,” the British designer told the outlet of the “something blue” tradition.
“It was the perfect personal memento that was secretly hidden inside the dress,” she added.
Meghan, 42, earlier hinted the homage in HBO’s 2018 documentary Queen of the World, but only alluded to where it was.
“Somewhere in here there’s a piece of blue fabric that’s stitched inside — it was my something blue,” she said while inspecting the dress for the first time since her royal wedding day. “It’s fabric from the dress that I wore on our first date.”
In an interview with Vanity Fair, Waight Keller stated that the 53 hand-embroidered flower trims on her cathedral-length veil, which were worn by Meghan and Harry, meant a great deal to them.
wedding dress memento” width=”476″ height=”700″ class=””/“[Meghan] felt like she was bringing an element of each of those countries down the aisle with her. So that
“[She] felt like she was bringing an element of each of those countries down the aisle with her. So that her new role—and that bridge to the new role—was captured in what she was wearing,” Waight Keller says. “For both of us, we felt it was a really beautiful signature, and I think even Prince Harry was just thrilled at the idea that we really tried to capture something for everyone in that service.”
To symbolize love and charity, crops of wheat were intricately blended into the floral motif at the front of the veil, which was secured with Queen Mary’s diamond and platinum bandeau tiara. The Givenchy atelier workers in Paris sewed for hundreds of hours and washed their hands every 30 minutes to ensure that the threads and tulle remained immaculate.
The groom’s father, a staunch supporter of British hand-craftsmanship and artisan traditions, was also moved by the gesture. “King Charles was just in awe of the dress and the [veil] embroidery, and he asked me about it while we were waiting inside the nave,” Waight Keller says. “He was really very interested, actually, in all the different motifs and the floral representations.”
Celebrating Prince Harry With “Something Blue”
The duchess put a creative twist on her serendipitous “something blue.” After dismissing “a garter or something like that,” Waight Keller explains, Markle snipped a piece of fabric from the dress she wore on her first date with Prince Harry.
“We basically sewed it into the hem of the wedding dress, so she was the only one that knew that it was there. It was a little blue gingham check,” Waight Keller says, dropping a significant clue about the Sussexes’ origin story—and for social media sleuths to scour the Wayback Machine. “It was the perfect personal memento that was