Meghan Markle’s Wedding Gown Had a ‘Secretly Hidden’ Nod to Her and Prince Harry’s First Date, Designer Says
Five years later, details are still coming out about Meghan Markle’s wedding gown. When she married Prince Harry on May 19, 2018, the Duchess of Sussex sported a “secretly hidden” something blue. Clare Waight Keller, the designer behind the gown, revealed where to find the nod to Meghan’s first date with the Duke of Sussex.
Meghan’s wedding gown included a piece of fabric from the dress she wore on her first date with Harry in 2016
After much speculation, the big moment finally came when Meghan arrived at St. George’s Chapel and gave the world a glimpse of her royal wedding gown. The look: A bespoke creation designed by Keller during her tenure as Givenchy’s artistic director, complete with a bateau neckline and 16-foot floral embroidered train.
Revisiting Meghan’s wedding gown in an August 2023 Vanity Fair interview, Keller recalled the small but meaningful detail behind the bride’s “something blue.” Meghan’s pick? A piece of fabric from the blue-and-white dress she wore on her first date with Harry in July 2016.
“We basically sewed it into the hem of the wedding dress,” Keller said. “So she was the only one that knew that it was there. It was a little blue gingham check. It was the perfect personal memento that was secretly hidden inside the dress.”
Meghan, the designer also shared, rejected the idea of “a garter or something like that,” before cutting a piece of fabric from her first date dress.
Meghan previously hinted at the ‘something blue’ on her wedding gown in a 2018 documentary
Keller’s mention of Meghan’s “something blue” being a nod to the bride and groom’s first date wasn’t quite a first. Meghan herself mentioned it, albeit briefly, in a 2018 documentary about the late Queen Elizabeth II titled Queen of the World.
Meeting with a Royal Collections curator in September 2018, Meghan — who wore a blue dress for the occasion — took a closer look at her wedding gown. “Somewhere in here, there’s a piece of …” the former Suits star said as she touched the gown. “Did you see it?”
“’The piece of blue fabric that’s stitched inside? It’s my something blue,” Meghan explained. “It’s fabric from the dress I wore on our first date,” to which the curator replied: “Oh, that’s about the most romantic thing!”
Harry remembered Meghan wearing jeans on their first date, not what became her ‘something blue’
Recalling their first date in his Spare memoir, Harry described meeting Meghan at Soho House in London, England, on July 3, 2016. Except, according to him, she wasn’t wearing the dress that would become her “something blue.”
Arriving 30 minutes late, Harry showed up to find Meghan “wearing a black sweater, jeans, [and] heels.”
“I knew nothing about clothes, but I knew she was chic,” he wrote. “Then again, I knew she could make anything look chic.”
The pair met the next day, July 4, 2016. This is when, per Harry’s recollection, Meghan wore blue. “She walked in, wearing a pretty blue sundress with white pinstripes,” he said before adding she “was aglow.”
So maybe Harry and Meghan count July 3, 2016, as their initial introduction and their second meeting as their first date? Either way, Meghan’s “something blue” holds a special place in their love story and made for a sweet addition to their wedding day.
