Meghan’s Midas Touch

[Twistybranch]

So Clare Keller who once designed for the likes of Gucci, Chloe, Givenchy is now at Uniqlo.

NYT has done an article on Clare, where Clare tries to make out that Clare wanted her stint at Givenchy to be a short one …sure Clare

Meghan has emailed in to say she got a few items from Clare’s Uniqlo collection. Bet she’s gutted she can’t get the designer togs anymore! But my god…Meghans hardly the person to call upon as a fashion ambassador.

But I’m thinking, 2017- April 2020, when she left Givenchy. Is a very short time for a head at an atelier. So it looks obvious she was let go or was ‘mutually agreed’ as the Sussex’s like to say.

But could it be, that her stand out garment from her time there, Meghans wedding dress, was her downfall?

Im sure on paper the dress looked gorgeous. Simple, elegant, clean lines. But with the bespoke duchess satin used, which was incredibly thick - it didnt lend itself to elegant sleeves or a fine fit. We also know from the flower girl dresses it was a rush job. Charlottes dress was shocking, with a hanging hemline etc.

The fit of some of the flower girl dresses and Meghan dress didn’t look good. This must have reflected on Givenchy and Clare. I’m guessing that’s why she left so soon with no job to go to and now is at a fast fashion label!

Her Trajectory seems the same as Meghans. Duchess to D list. Givenchy to Uniqlo.

So why on earth she got Meghan to write an email talking her up I don’t know. Working with her seems like the kiss of death!

https://archive.ph/lpnqP - for those that don’t have an NYT subscription

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/10/17/style/clare-waight-keller-uniqlo-givenchy.html

As far as Meghan’s wedding dress is concerned , I think Katy Perry voiced the views of many - it needed one more fitting . And Charlotte’s was a mess .
Not the best advert for Givenchy .

The fit of some of the flower girl dresses and Meghan dress didn’t look good. This must have reflected on Givenchy and Clare

I'm sure it did, but what I've never understood is how it came to this in the first place, given that Givenchy have a stellar reputation and are generally so well regarded

It probably comes under the heading of more stuff we'll never know, but if things were going so wrong it beats me why such a major house didn't just back off completely

That’s what I thought too. Why on earth did they let their name be attached to that dress and let it go out like that.

I think I remember reading at the time that there were issues with the development of the bespoke fabric. That it took a long time. I’m guessing it was rushed and it was too late to do anything. But I can’t believe that and the flower girl dresses left the ateliers in the state they were in.

I just don’t get why Claire still wants to associate her designs with Meghan. I mean it cost her l, her job. She got her to email the NYT to tell her about their ‘beautiful friendship’ and how meghan has some of her Uniqlo pieces.

For how famous/infamous Meghan is….shes never had a Vogue cover, been a face at top fashion shows, invited to the MET. She isn’t seen as someone who is in the fashion world. So seems odd to me why they thought Meghans good word would mean anything

Uniqlo have collaborations with some big names.

It's quite a shrewd move to get the wider name recognition

I seem to recall reading that the wedding dress and bridesmaids designs were changed last minute which is why everything looked so off. I seem to recollect that the original design was meant to be a little more ornate than the final and it was better suited to the beautiful veil she wore. It would also explain why Charlotte’s dress was a mess and why Catherine insisted all the bridesmaid dresses needed to be remade. But I cannot for the life of me remember where I read this, it could have been a gossip site (so this is all pure speculation 🤣)

It’s still a fast fashion brand though, regardless if they work with other fashion labels

That makes sense because the design of the dress didn’t match the veil at all. The dress suited the tiara. Art deco in style but the veil didn’t match the dress or tiara.

I think Meghan has a habit of not having things fitted properly.... the Caroline Herrara red dress springs to mind instantly.

That wedding dress was an abomination given how much it cost. Same with her Stella McCartney evening gown, it was so badly fitted.

It's a $8bil business that is huge in Asia, and it doesn't seem to have been anything but positive for the likes of Jil Sander, Marni, Ines de la Fressange and more

It has considerably more cachet than doing lines for TKMaxx

Uniqlo is great - i think i would prefer to Givenchy. Less pretentious. I liked Meghan's and Kate's dresses although loved Beatrice's the most.

The apparently 'freakish eye for detail' that Meghan has described herself as (clearly it's from her!) is all nonsense, she's hideously under prepared for everything, and suspect her ridiculously entitled requirements (what Meghan wants Meghan gets bollox) means people can't help her, plus she's too dim to see the glaringly obvious

I thought Meghan's dress was lovely. What on earth was wrong with it?

I think the rule is with dresses you can only take them in a couple of sizes, any more and they have to be remade. So I suspect that's why Kate said that, she'd been told the dress was too big to take in, it needed to be remade.

The wedding dress was an extremely poor advert for a couture brand as prestigious as Givenchy and was ill fitting. Neither Megan's gown or the bridesmaid dresses should have been allowed to leave the atelier in that state. It gives us some insight into the hasty departure of Claire Waight Keller as their artistic director, and now her position working for Uniqlo rather than working in another prestige brand.

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I thought Meghan’s evening dress looked great.

The day wedding dress looked lovely in some photos from the day but the fabric was all creased from the car ride and definitely needed another fitting - even if she lost weight rapidly in the last couple of weeks the designer should have been able to fix that before the day.

The bridesmaids dresses and full outfits were shocking - if you compare to Eugenie’s bridesmaids later that year - they look unfinished and messy.

Also having the ‘senior’ bridesmaid not have a posy because she was going to take Meghan’s during the service may have made sense but they should have ordered one for her for the official photos. What they did is have her hold another bridesmaids posy and the poor girl whose posy it was is just reaching out with one hand to touch it - looks so odd and unbalances the composition of the photo.

I thought both Meghan and Sophie's wedding dresses looked like they had lost a lot of weight in the last week so they didn't fit quite right. With all the pressure they must have been under it isn't really surprising, although someone on hand to fit last minute would have been useful.

With regard to the infamous bridesmaid dresses, there was a fabulous thread here last year in which people who know about sewing talked in detail about the fit and how hard it is to make dresses for children if you don't specialise in them (which Givenchey don't). It was fascinating and also explained why most royal brides get the attendants' dresses made by companies who specialise in them.

I really like Uniqlo clothes and they last brilliantly well. Do they really count as fast fashion? I have some trousers from 2019 which are still going strong.

She doesn’t own it, that 8 billion isn’t hers.

She just designs for it. However savvy her decision making, to go from an atelier to a utilitarian affordable fashion brand is a step down. Even then, it seems like they rescued her from unemployment, so shes damn lucky to be there.

Of course I didn't mean to imply that she owns it!

I think it's easy for those who do not live in Asia to realise what a massive brand it is, nor necessarily to have clocked the calibre of the designers who enter in to collaborations with it. It's a very good gig to get.

It didn’t fit .
i did like her evening dress .

I did like the evening dress. The wedding dress was very disappointing.

The wedding dress was extremely expensive and looked average at best. The evening dress was more wow. The bridesmaid dresses ... SHEIN would have been an improvement 😵‍💫😵

I was mortified for everyone involved when I saw the bridesmaids dresses.

Meghan looked nice enough but when you think of the dizzying cost of her dress, it seems quite shocking that the effect was underwhelming.

There's a few stories behind the whole debacle that we'll never hear about, I'm sure.

She's certainly very bad luck to work for/with.

I wonder if she wore it to the real wedding three days earlier?

The little girl in the photo without a posy, bless her heart!

No one ever speaks about the page boys outfits, I thought they were loathsome.