The Duke and Duchess of Sussex, Meghan Markle and Prince Harry, leave their wedding in Windsor, England, to attend an evening reception at Frogmore House. Photo / AP
The Duke and Duchess of Sussex, Meghan Markle and Prince Harry, leave their wedding in Windsor, England, to attend an evening reception at Frogmore House. Photo / AP
Most royal wedding gowns become historic artefacts the instant they appear on the world stage. Gowns worn by Diana, Princess of Wales and the Duchess of Cambridge influenced bridal trends for years after their debuts, without their designers ever directly replicating their most famous creations.
Yet Stella McCartney, who designedthe fluid, halterneck gown the Duchess of Sussex wore to her evening reception, has announced that she will offer a limited number of clients the chance to acquire their own versions of the bespoke dress she designed for Meghan.
McCartney will offer 23 white and 23 black versions of the dress to clients through the Made with Love edit - 23 because the designer has just opened the doors on her new global flagship store at 23 Old Bond Street in London, reports Telegraph UK.
Although the Made with Love dresses are fabricated in sustainable viscose while Meghan's was silk crepe, the replicas promise all the swish and slink of the original. And, at £3,500 (NZ$6,690) each, they're priced in line with many other bridal offerings from designer brands. (A spokesperson noted that McCartney plans to extend the Made with Love edit into a special wedding collection in spring 2019.)
A sketch of Stella McCartney's design for Meghan, Duchess of Sussex. Photo / Stella McCartney
The catch is that not just anyone can buy one: interested parties must email 23oldbond.store@stellamccartney.com and receive McCartney's personal invitation to view the gowns, which are housed in a private exhibition space within the new shop.
McCartney, who dressed Meghan for two engagements before her wedding, has said she was "very proud" to work with Meghan on the gown, and "thrilled, obviously" by the public's positive response to her design.
She added that in her view, the gown represented the "last moment that she [Ms Markle] could reflect sort of the other side to her: the joy and the human within her." Now 23 lucky others (or 46, if you count the women in black) will also have the chance to experience that joy.
