The stunning bride: Meghan Markle's Givenchy wedding dress epitomises minimal elegance
Meghan Markle is finally a royal! The 'Suits' actress married her love Prince Harry in a sweet, traditional wedding at the Windsor Castle. As every bride does on her wedding day, Meghan looked more beautiful than anyone in the room. After all the hype about her dress for the longest time, she pleasantly surprised everyone in her sculpted Givenchy off shoulder number.
The dress had no frills, no embroidery — the boat-necked, sculpted white dress was a simple pristine white. The gown is designed by Clare Waight Keller for Givenchy, the powerhouse French fashion house.
Here too, Meghan's love for women empowerment shone through — Keller is a British designer who went on to be the first ever female artistic designer of Givenchy last year. She has previously designed for Pringle of Scotland and Chloe.
While the speculation was all about Ralph and Russo, Meghan had secretly picked who would dress her already. She met Meghan earlier this year and the pair worked closely together to create the dress. It is described as a dress that "epitomizes a timeless minimal elegance". Mission accomplished.
The open bateau neckline showed off Meghan's shoulders and the beautiful fit at the waist emphasizes on her petite figure. The unique shape was made with using just half a dozen seams while the dress flowed towards a train at the back, cushioned by an underskirt of triple silk organza.
The sleeves fell right at her wrist perfectly showing off her Cartier bracelet. The dress is made out of white double bonded silk cady only, which is a relatively thicker fabric but has a soft matt luster.
Her veil was what really stood out — this was the only one that had some extra work on it. Made from silk tulle, the trims of the veil had hand-embroidered flowers that took hundreds of hours to complete. Made from silk threads and organza, the veil is five meters long and had to be held by two pageboys as Meghan arrived. When it was being made, the workers had to clean their hands every half an hour of working, so that it could stay spotless!
The embroidery shows off one flower each from each country in the 53 nations in the Commonwealth. A clear tribute to Harry, as he is the ambassador of the group. Along with the flora of the Commonwealth, it also has two of her favorite flowers — Wintersweet and California Poppy. The former grows in the Kensington Palace, her present home and the latter is from her American home.
She wore Queen Mary's diamond bandeau tiara, which she borrowed from Queen Elizabeth II. It has 11 sections and features a detachable center. The tiara was made in 1932, and it can be worn as a brooch too. While her shoes were hidden most of the time, she wore Givenchy shoes in a silk duchess satin.
