Meghan: A Hollywood Princess(65)
It will have relieved Tom Markle Senior to know that the royal family was paying for the flowers, reception, the service, and the music. He or Meghan would only have to shell out for her dress.
It was like a rebirth: a new religion, a new country, a new culture, a new language (sort of), and certainly a new career. In making a new beginning with the man she loved, she was also giving up a lot. She could never again wander down to the shops without a bodyguard, never take her dog Guy for a walk on her own, never tell the world about a passing thought or fancy on Twitter or Facebook. In short, her life would never be the same again.
Almost overnight she and Prince Harry were the most famous couple on the planet and “Megan Markle” the most googled name of 2017. She had been blessed with a gift, a gift that would challenge and fulfill her, giving her the kind of access and influence she never dreamt of. Her next test was how to use that gift wisely.
13
The Billion-Dollar Bride
The moment Meghan Markle said, “I will,” you could almost hear the cash registers singing. Within minutes of committing to the royal family, the recently retired actor spawned a one-woman industry to rival any Hollywood blockbuster.
Everything from the coat, dress, and boots she wore for her engagements to her eye shadow, nail polish, and sweaters—even her cute turned-up nose—was copied, imitated, advertised, and sold. She was big business, very big business, the fairy dust of royalty boosting fashion brands, tourism, and even plastic surgery. The white wool coat by Canadian company Line the Label that she famously wore on the day of her engagement announcement sold out within minutes, leaving eager customers no option but to add their names to the four-hundred-strong wait list. It was relaunched the following spring when it had been renamed “The Meghan.”
Meghan mania gripped the nation. Newspapers printed special supplements about the life and times of Britain’s newest “Mega Star,” to steal the Sun’s headline. In a declining industry, the hope was that Meghan, like Diana before her, was the new golden goose who could lay profitable circulation eggs.
Step aside, Kate Moss, there was a new queen of the High Street in town. Everything Meghan touched or wore transformed lives—and bottom lines.
The niche sunglasses firm Finlay and Co. was able to open a shop in Soho, Central London, on the back of a surge in sales after she wore their shades on her first public outing with Prince Harry in Nottingham. The company sold ￡20,000 worth of glasses within twenty-four hours, thanks to Meghan’s Midas touch.
Again, when she carried a ￡500 tote bag produced by a small Edinburgh-based company called Strathberry, stock ran out within an hour.
Strathberry cofounder Leeanne Hundleby couldn’t believe her luck. A couple of weeks before, acting on impulse, she had sent Meghan a selection of handbags and was thrilled to see her product given the royal seal of approval. “It’s just amazing, it really is the greatest,” said a company spokesman. “We’re suddenly incredibly busy and we are so excited.”
For Meghan, her induction into the royal family was an opportunity to influence her new army of fans by wearing the labels of ecologically and ethically minded designers, as well as companies that have a philanthropic element in their business ethos.
She previously used her blog The Tig to promote such brands as Conscious Step, a sock company that plants twenty trees for every pair sold, as well as the Neshama Project, a California-based jewelry business that donates a percentage of profits to Innovation: Africa. She had always known that being with Harry would give her a megaphone, and even if she was having to step back from her charity work while her future was being ironed out, she was determined to use it and communicate the messages that mattered to her in any way she could.
Careful and considered, Meghan is completely aware that anything she wears, be it makeup, clothes, a new hairstyle, or jewelry has an impact. She has to think strategically. During her days on Suits she got used to being looked at and discussed. But this was a whole new level of scrutiny. She has the personality to cope, describing herself as someone who likes to think things through, to pause before she jumps in. As she admits: “I give things a lot of thought and I try to be as sensitive and thoughtful as possible to how it’ll make someone feel.”
For example, during her visit to Cardiff she carried a bag by DeMellier, a British label that funds lifesaving vaccines through their sales, and a cruelty-free coat by Stella McCartney, an animal-rights activist as well as a topline designer. As Meghan once noted on her blog: “It’s good if you are fabulous but great if you do something of value to the world.” Not everyone was impressed. Columnist Amanda Platell snarked: “There’s a thin line between doing good and signalling how virtuous you are. We live in an age of social media, but the Windsors are NOT the Kardashians.”
Whether she wants to or not, Meghan has become a one-woman walking, talking advertising board, everything she wears pored over and then sold online. Websites such as Meghan’s Mirror have been created expressly to cash in on the Markle sparkle. These sites are effectively online stores devoted to all things Meghan, selling and shipping with just a few clicks, and in the case of Meghan’s Mirror, using the same e-commerce site, RewardStyle, as The Tig in its heyday. The editor of Meghan’s Mirror, Christine Ross, explained that Meghan’s popularity was because her style was relatable to the everyday woman.
Ironically, when she was running her own website she was getting a share of the pie. Now she doesn’t earn a penny, though the rewards are much greater.