Meghan Markle helped create a Vogue cover we won’t forget for the British version of the magazine’s September 2019 issue. Along with finding 15 trailblazing women to feature, the Duchess of Sussex was incredibly involved throughout, choosing the photographer and giving him one very specific instruction — more freckles.
In a Vogue UK story, editor-in-chief Edward Enninful admitted that they both decided to work with Pete Lindbergh. But then it was the new royal mom who gave the famed photographer a very specific direction.
When talking on the phone the morning of the New York shoot, Lindbergh recalled his conversation with the former Suits star. “My instructions from the Duchess were clear: ‘I want to see freckles!’” To which he replied, “Well, that was like running through open doors for me. I love freckles.”
He continued to explain that the word “natural” came up a lot when discussing the visual direction of the empowering shoot. “I hate retouching, I hate makeup. I always say, ‘Take the makeup off!’” Lindbergh said. “The number of beautiful women who have asked me to lengthen their legs or move their eyes further apart…You would not believe. It’s a culture of madness.”
The duchess has always embraced her own freckles, keeping them visible for some of her most important occasions including her royal wedding, thanks to go-to makeup artist Daniel Martin.
“To this day, my pet peeve is when my skin tone is changed and my freckles are airbrushed out of a photo shoot,” Markle told Allure back in 2017. “For all my freckle-faced friends out there, I will share with you something my dad told me when I was younger: ‘A face without freckles is a night without stars.’”
It’s incredible to see this sort of positivity mentality come to fruition in such a major way.
