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

I actually loved M's wedding dress. I really like simple lines, and would pick that sort of dress over a lace one all day long. Imagine if it had fitted.

I'm also surprised that a student of Diana didn't learn from her incredibly crumpled dress.

Clare simply couldn’t match the success of the previous artistic designer Ricardo Tisci, Givenchy's turnover increased six-fold during his tenure. I never liked his work but he was so successful and everything he designed was a hit for several seasons, people still use his bags , shark boots . Clare came and left without any impact. But she was so successful at Chloe.

the biggest surprise is Sarah Burton is now Givenchys artistic designer ! Fashion does have a sense of humor after all!

Did Meghan ever wear Alexander McQueen? Don’t think she’ll wear Givenchy now!

Good question !

Apparently Kellers time at Givenchy was not especially successful. And she is quite difficult. So the rumour goes. If you look at Galliano and McQueen who were also head designers at Givenchy. You have to wonder. The current head is ironically Sarah Burton. Now we will probably see Kate in Givenchy. She is a tooth. Contrast someone who did such a stellar job at McQueen after his sad death. And Kate wearing her wedding dress just the next year. A bit like the contrast between the two women they designed wedding dresses for.

The most beautiful of all the dresses was Beatrice. Didn’t like Eugenie’s at all.

and no they should never have done the kids dresses.

Eugenie's dress was lovely, I liked Kate's except the lace, I don't like lace so would have had that part in a different material, and I thought it looked a bit like stuck on breasts but other than that it was lovely. I thought the bottom bit of Beatrice's looked like a 1970's party dress - the detailing around the waisted area was pretty - Diana's was horrible - but I loved it at the time lol 😂

I saw Meghan’s, Kate’s and a Beatrice’s dresses on display. The end of Beatrice’s dress was an added panel and I thought it had been because she was taller than her grandmother but as the dress was satin it seemed to have water staining or something which is why ai think they did that. You could see some spots in person. Kate’s was very official. Very proper. Meghan’s was just a plain dress. But as a friend said to me at the time: it was all about her face. Nothing could detract from that.

I didn’t like Kate’s dress.
I know it’s of its time and too frufru even back then , but Diana certainly had the most memorable Dress.

I liked Sarah Ferguson’s dress. It was beautiful. Also Zara’s. Beatrice looked beautiful in her dress, it suited her personality.
Dianas dress was a monstrosity. It drowned her and it was horribly crumpled. I didn’t like Kate’s dress at all and found Meghans dress incredibly disappointing.

I loved Meghan’s CWK givenchy day wedding dress - the evening one was Stella mcc. So crisp and Persil white, sculpted, drool.

I’ve got most of that CWK Uniqlo stuff and barely take it off. Delightfully surprised, didn’t realise it was as good as fashion persons claimed.

Only exception was a straight skirt i am way too fat for.

It is a huge step down from an elite atelier to fairly basic chain store.

She was so good at Chloe I had really high hopes for her at Givenchy, but she just never really seemed to click there.

Meghan's dress was just underwhelming, the material was too heavy and it just seemed so stiff. I could see what the intention was, but it just seemed to fall short. Katy Perry was 💯 correct - 1 more fitting. The evening dress was far better, but again just needed 1 more fitting.

The bridesmaids dresses were appalling, for a fairly simple design I have no idea why they were so bad. Givenchy isn't a children's designer and they would have been better admitting that and letting an actual specialist children's designer do it. They clearly weren't measured or fitted correctly, and if that was a local tailor/seamstress working round the clock for a couple of days before trying to fix them - I dread to think what state they actually arrived in.

Can never be sure whether that contributed to CWK leaving Givenchy - but I can't imagine it helped.

Presumably without getting it dry cleaned in between which accounts for the creases.

I did like her evening dress much more. The day dress just felt like it was still unfinished in terms of the wow factor and fitting.

Except it completely detracted from her face. Overwhelmingly people comment negatively on the dress and didn’t even look at her face.

There was a huge thread here on Dressgate back when Spare came out. Someone posted photos of royal dresses. Sarah Chatto's dress was the loveliest! Her bridesmaid dresses were also nice.

That poor tailor announced that he and his team spent 4 days, if I remember correctly, redoing the bridesmaid dresses for M & H's wedding.

That thread was so interesting. The whole story in Spare was missing some really key information, but Harry really demonstrated how out of her depth Meghan was. She was utterly clueless and not in a doe eyed ingenue way. It also showed that she can't take constructive criticism. Harry told us a lot by raking over the bridesmaids' dresses story and it didn't paint Meghan in a good light.

The men's tailor that tried to save the day did the job, but he and his team was up against it. Also, their business is very different so it seemed bizarre he took it on.

I don't like a lot of the clothes she wears. Some are absulutely awful. But I thought her wedding dress was fine. I didn't notice any drooping hemlines on the bridesmaids dresses.

I actually liked the wedding dress.

I was mostly shocked that Givenchy had made those terrible bridesmaids dresses ... and these were supposedly the "improved" versions

This might help you

You can see here - even accounting for the fact Charlotte was moving, compared to the other photos the hem is definitely uneven.

Even on the display model you can see it uneven, and the folds aren't evenly spaced around the waist band.

I never pay much attention to bridesmaid dresses, so just had a quick Google of other Royal wedding bridesmaids. It is quite noticeable how different Meghan's lot were to other dresses. The dresses worn at H & M's wedding look flimsy and cheap by comparison (which is shocking, as they must have cost a fortune). The dresses at K & W's wedding and Eugenie's have a 'good quality' look to them - good fabrics and careful design. Zara's look fresh and appropriate, with comfortable footwear.

I thought Meghan's wedding dress was boring as all heck, but I have never been keen on her clothing choices anyway, right from the engagement announcement photos when she wore that coat that looked like a bathrobe and had such messy hair. Then there was the horribly flashy frock for the engagement photos, and all that expensive couture she squeezed herself into during her early royal days. If I was a fashion designer I'd want to distance myself from her.

M's dress didn't work as it didn't fit properly. It wouldn't be such a big deal if it hadn't cost a fortune and come from one of the most famous couture houses in the world. Her hair was also a mess. It was initially lovely but lots of wisps of hair started to fall as the day went on. It needed a good blast of Elnett!
I saw an interesting piece online today where Tina Brown said M is flawless about getting it wrong'. That just sums it up. She has the reverse Midas touch.

This article ? Ouch .
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-13984409/Ex-Vanity-Fair-editor-Tina-Brown-Meghan-Markle-Shes-flawless-getting-wrong.html?ico=article_preview_xp_mobile

I think as well because she has always made a big thing about her "freakish eye for detail" it contrasts starkly with the reality.

Five years and you're impressed? Wow. No wonder the climate's fucked.

Even on the display model you can see it uneven, and the folds aren't evenly spaced around the waist band

Good grief I hadn't seen that before, @MrsFinkelstein
Frankly I could have done better myself, and as said before what beats the hell of out me is what Givenchy were doing allowing that to leave their workshop in the first place