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Meghan Markle Chose A Sheer Dress For The Queen’s Christmas Lunch

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Meghan Markle showed up to the Queen’s Christmas lunch in a dress the internet had already seen before — and that was the point.

On December 19, 2018, the Duchess of Sussex joined Prince Harry for Queen Elizabeth II’s annual pre-Christmas luncheon at Buckingham Palace, her first time attending as an official working royal. Pregnant with her first child, Meghan skipped a new custom gown for something with history: a sheer black silk-organza dress with a high neckline and bright floral print that she’d worn nearly three years earlier, long before she was royalty.

• Meghan wore Erdem’s black-and-floral ‘Devina’ dress, a piece originally worn in January 2016 on NBC’s TODAY show while she was still filming USA Network’s Suits and running her lifestyle blog, The Tig.
• She paired the sheer gown with diamond earrings and a sleek updo, and was photographed arriving and departing the luncheon by car.
• It marked her second consecutive semi-sheer look at the pre-Christmas lunch, following the black lace Self-Portrait dress she wore in December 2017 just after her engagement to Prince Harry.

A Recycled Look With A Backstory

Royal fashion watchers moved fast once the photos circulated, matching Meghan’s 2018 luncheon outfit to her January 2016 TODAY show appearance, when she sat as a fashion contributor discussing style trends rather than sitting on the other side of the camera as a member of the Royal Family. The Erdem ‘Devina’ dress — with its bright floral print set against sheer black organza and a high, almost demure neckline — was a bold enough choice the first time around. Wearing it again to a Buckingham Palace lunch hosted by the Queen gave it an entirely different context.

The sheer fabric was the detail that generated the most discussion, since it sits well outside the conservative dress code typically associated with royal engagements. Meghan offset that boldness with restraint everywhere else — diamond earrings, a tight updo, no statement clutch or footwear drawing attention away from the dress itself.

Re-Wearing As A Habit, Not An Accident

Meghan re-wearing a pre-royal outfit for one of the family’s most photographed events fits a pattern she and Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge, have both leaned into rather than avoided. Kate has repeated coats, dresses and even wedding-guest outfits for years without apology, and Meghan’s own history backs up the same instinct.

The exact dress Meghan wore as a TODAY show fashion contributor in January 2016 reappeared, unchanged, on her at the Queen’s table in December 2018.

December 2018 wasn’t Meghan’s first semi-sheer moment at this particular lunch, either. Her debut at the pre-Christmas gathering in December 2017 — her first appearance at the event after her engagement to Prince Harry — came in a black lace Self-Portrait dress with its own sheer paneling. Two years, two lunches, two dresses built around the same fabric idea suggests a deliberate style lane rather than a coincidence.

Christmas Amid The Headlines

The luncheon appearance landed in the middle of heavy tabloid coverage of tension between the Cambridges and the Sussexes ahead of their joint Christmas gathering at Sandringham. None of that chatter touched Meghan’s wardrobe choice directly, but it gave the sheer-dress story an audience already primed to read into every detail of her public appearances. For a Duchess several months into her first pregnancy, showing up in a dress tied to her pre-fame career as an actress and blogger read as a small, pointed reminder of who she was before the title.

Readers interested in how other royal wardrobe choices have made headlines can find more in The Most Expensive Royal Wedding Dresses, and the family dynamics swirling around Meghan that same year are covered in Royal Family Members That Are Nothing Like They Seem.

Meghan’s next big public style moment wouldn’t come until the new year, but the Erdem ‘Devina’ dress had already done its job: turning a three-year-old TODAY show outfit into the most talked-about look of the Queen’s 2018 Christmas lunch.