On Saturday, the moment we’d all been waiting for arrived: Meghan Markle stepped out of her car at St. George’s Chapel, Windsor Castle, for her royal wedding with Prince Harry, and we finally got to see her highly anticipated ceremony dress. Only, it wasn’t by Ralph & Russo, Erdem, Burberry or any of the other designers rumored to be the likely designers. Instead, the boatneck haute couture wedding was designed by Clare Waight Keller for Givenchy.
Just one day later, on Sunday, Kensington Palace released Keller’s sketches for Meghan’s wedding dress. Before that, the palace had said in a statement that Keller — a British-born designer who became the French fashion house’s first female artistic director last year — and Meghan “worked closely together” on the design.
In a Sunday tweet, the palace once again emphasized the collaboration that went into the dress, saying the new Duchess of Sussex and Keller worked to ensure that the design epitomized “a timeless minimal elegance referencing the codes of the iconic House of Givenchy.”
The palace also released a sketch of Meghan’s veil, which she and Keller designed together as well. “Ms. Waight Keller designed a veil representing the distinctive flora of all 53 Commonwealth countries united in one spectacular floral composition,” the tweet reads.
Later in her royal wedding day, Meghan changed out of her ceremony dress and put on a different dress for the private reception. The second dress, which was designed by Stella McCartney, was a silk crepe gown with a high neck collar. The dress kept with the minimalism of Meghan’s earlier Givenchy gown.