Meghan Markle’s wedding dress designer is opening up about the pair’s close friendship.
Clare Waight Keller, the British designer behind Meghan’s simple and chic Givenchy gown for her 2018 wedding to Prince Harry, shared more details about her relationship with the former actress.
While speaking on a panel at the 2023 Bazaar At Work Summit on Tuesday, November 21, Keller reflected on the process of designing the long-sleeved gown. “It was just a pleasure to create in this very, very private way,” said the designer, per People. “It was just the two of us for so long and it became this very personal girlfriend relationship.”
Keller previously gushed about the special look in an August interview with Vanity Fair, revealing how she and Meghan, now 42, incorporated a very special “something blue” into her wedding gown. The designer said that she “snipped” a piece of fabric from the frock Markle wore on her first date with Harry, now 39, in July 2016, and sewed it into the dress.
“We basically sewed it into the hem of the wedding dress, so she was the only one that knew it was there,” Keller told the publication. “It was a little blue gingham check. It was the perfect personal memento that was secretly hidden inside the dress.”
The designer also shared that Meghan was influenced by Hollywood icons like Audrey Hepburn, adding that the dress the late star donned in the 1957 film Funny Face inspired Meghan’s own open neckline and the gown’s “small, rounded, neat shoulder.”
Additionally, Meghan wanted to emulate the silk dress the late Carolyn Bessette-Kennedy wore when she wed John F. Kennedy Jr. in 1996 before their tragic deaths in 1999. “Both of us also loved Carolyn Bessette-Kennedy and the fact that she surprised everyone with the simplicity of what she wore,” Keller explained.
Us Weekly previously reported that it took Keller and the Givenchy team 3,900 hours to create Meghan’s wedding gown, which included a 16-foot veil with flora from every commonwealth nation. The design also included flowers from California and Kensington Palace were included as a nod to Meghan’s birthplace and Harry’s home.
Meghan and Harry were married at St George’s Chapel at Windsor Castle on May 19, 2018. Since their wedding, they have relinquished their royal titles and are no longer working members of the royal family. They currently reside in California and share son Prince Archie, 4, and daughter Princess Lilibet, 2.
