The power play that lies behind the Duchess of Sussex’s new feminine dressing

If Meghan’s shoot for Variety is an attempt to appear like the girl next door, she may be underestimating the cynicism of the British public. Photo / Getty Images

She says she is “done with acting”. But the Duchess of Sussex is too clever to believe this is true. She may never grace our small screens again in an episode of Suits, but then, she has no need to. For Meghan, all the world’s a stage, and all the men and women merely ensemble players.

The most recent platform to give her a starring role is Variety magazine, on whose cover she features wearing a sleeveless black Giorgio Armani top, her shoulders looking preternaturally narrow in a manner that serves to emphasise her head. Lips parted, eyes skyward, her expression is one of contrived benevolence that was, perhaps, arrived at after moodboarding many pictures of the saints. A direct-to-camera gaze would have looked too fierce and pointed. Instead, Meghan’s gaze is the quintessence of “soft power”.

Meghan Markle for Variety.

Read the cover story: https://t.co/YDDQTTwgg9 pic.twitter.com/ItadS9XXje

— Variety (@Variety) October 19, 2022

Much has been made of the five-figure wardrobe the Duchess is wearing in Variety’s accompanying fashion shoot, which includes a £4657 dress by the Taiwan-born, New York-based designer Jason Wu – a favourite of Michelle Obama – a $2990 Carolina Herrera dress and a $1560 green silk halterneck gown by London-based label, Galvan, one of whose four founders is married to Dhani Harrison, son of the late Beatle, George.

To say it’s an eclectic mix is an understatement. The sculptural, asymmetric cut of the Carolina Herrera dress looks formal and dramatic, as though it should belong at a ball, rather than in the grassy garden that serves as the shoot’s location. The Jason Wu dress, meanwhile, with its billowing skirts and abstract pink and white print, looks to have been chosen to convey the sort of softness and playfulness which her critics accuse her of lacking. “Find me a print that looks like candyfloss,” you can imagine her saying. Frankly, it’s a wonder Meghan didn’t just wear a fairy costume or a kitten onesie.

#MeghanMarkle in #JasonWuCollection #Fall2022 for @Variety pic.twitter.com/1DkRaY9opo

— JASON WU (@JasonWu) October 19, 2022

Having recently favoured the sort of corporate, stealth wealth wardrobe that wouldn’t look out of place on Succession – power shoulders, tailored trousers and expensive blouses in emphatic colours such as black, white, navy and red – Meghan is now sending a different message through her clothes, one that suggests the same friendly, unimposing personality that is echoed in her interview. It’s why she mentioned how she and Harry love going for drive thru’ burgers and eating giant chocolate cookies. “I think that what happens, looking in from the outside, when there is this much noise, is that you become dehumanised,” she says, adding that she hopes her Archetypes podcast will help people see her as a “real person”.

Meghan Markle’s advice for an actor who plays her in the future: “I hope that in preparing for that role, she finds the softness and the playfulness and the laughter. The silliness. I just hope she finds the dimensions. Also, she can call me!” https://t.co/YDDQTTNR7H pic.twitter.com/mI8ZFCF7Mg

— Variety (@Variety) October 19, 2022

If the shoot is an attempt to appear like the girl next door, Meghan may be underestimating the cynicism of the British public. Alas, it will take more than lying on her stomach with her legs kicking in the air for her detractors to believe that the duchess is as “soft and playful” as she is at pains to rebrand herself as being in her accompanying interview. Nonetheless, she gets a gold star for effort, and for conveying the same “nice warmth” that she says she enjoyed with the Queen.