The message behind Meghan Markle's 'Good Morning America' look

As ever, even in a situation which looks straightforward on the surface, Meghan’s outfits are loaded with meaning. Photo / Good Morning America

What's in a white shirt? A lot, it turns out, if you're Meghan Markle and said white shirt is being carefully selected for an interview with Good Morning America.

The "big exclusive interview" on life after the Royal family which we had anticipated from the US programme turned out to be more of a video voice over promoting Elephants, the Disney documentary which Meghan has narrated. It was pre-recorded, likely towards the end of last summer.

It is still, however, a public appearance of sorts and for the occasion Meghan will have known that she would be filmed and visible to the audience from only the waist up (which seems particularly relevant now, with so much interaction taking place over video call).

She chose a classic white shirt by Misha Nonoo, her close friend and frequent collaborator. Nonoo famously made "The Husband Shirt", the aptly-named blouse which Meghan wore to her first public appearance with Prince Harry at the Invictus Games back in September 2017. Her message, on her first date with the Prince in front of the world's media, was seemingly-subtle but actually incredibly important.

Meghan Markle in one of her very first appearances with Prince Harry, chose to wear a white shirt, called "The Husband Shirt". Photo / Getty Images

This time, though, Meghan chose another style from her collection, the Smart Set shirt, which was produced and sold last summer as part of the Duchess's charity fashion collection for Smart Works, the British organisation for which she served as Royal patron.

In wearing the shirt several times in her own working life, the Duchess has set out to demonstrate that she really does rate the collection - the premise was that, for every piece sold, another would be donated to Smart Works, the charity which helps vulnerable and unemployed women back into work via interview coaching and a professional dressing service.

A white shirt, classic black and blue shift dress, black trouser suit, and black and tan tote bag were the pieces which the collection comprised; all versatile essentials in any working woman's wardrobe. The Duchess worked with Nonoo on the shirt, and British high street institutions Marks and Spencer, John Lewis & Partners and Jigsaw on the other styles.

It would have been all very well to sign off the designs, and then to continue wearing designer clothes to perform her own duties as a then-member of the Royal family. But Meghan will have known how much it would matter to be seen practicing her preach on this one, and by wearing the designs regularly in her own work life, she is showing that they are, definitely, good enough for any woman to have in their wardrobe.

For the Disney appearance, Meghan finished off her seemingly-simple look by adding some sentimental gold jewellery: two necklaces by small Canadian business Suetables. One pendant features a Taurus star sign charm, symbolising her son Archie's 6th May birthday. The other has a Virgo motif, nodding to Prince Harry's birthday on 15th September.

That's the kind of detail which sends her Twitter fans wild; accounts such as Meghan's Mirror zoom in on these micro details in search of any line of communication - even the grainy CCTV photos of Harry and Meghan delivering food parcels in Los Angeles this week have been picked over and, yes, she's apparently wearing these two necklaces again in them.

As ever, even in a situation which looks straightforward on the surface, Meghan's outfits are loaded with meaning.