Is this where Meghan Markle got Archie’s name inspiration from?
Share
7th Jun 2019
Clare Waight Keller is the British designer behind the French house of Givenchy, but you probably also know her as the woman who designed Meghan Markle’s wedding dress. In a new interview with Grazia, Clare Waight Keller talked about the months leading up to the wedding, as well as what it felt like to witness the Duchess of Sussex wearing her design for such a pivotal moment in history.
The interview also revealed just how close Waight Keller and the duchess have become since those May 2018 nuptials. So close, in fact, that we wonder if the Duchess of Sussex took inspiration from Waight Keller for her son’s name – the Givenchy designer’s son is named Harrison, which is Archie’s middle name.
Waight Keller doesn’t confirm or deny that fact, but she does confirm the friendship: “I think the magic of that being so intimate and so personal for so long felt incredibly special because it evolved from a designer and client relationship very quickly into a friendship, in that we’ve got such a comfort level with one another and shared so many special moments.”
“I suppose we have a sort of unbreakable bond in that sense, when you’ve experienced something very few people have together, so it goes deep.”
The 48-year-old designer said since she worked directly with Markle on designing the dress, she had no idea the magnitude of it until the day of the wedding. “Because it felt so small and intimate up until that point. no one else was involved, it really was just the two of us for so long, I simply didn’t grasp the scale of it,” she says. “Then on the day, driving through streets and streets lined with people waving, that overwhelming realisation that actually, this is going to be enormous…”
Waight Keller also revealed that during those intimate dress fittings, the Duchess of Sussex remained open and personal. “We talked about the ceremony, the implications of her coming into the family and what her role was going to be in the future, and what she wanted to represent, what emotions she wanted to portray, how she wanted to carve out a new idea of a way to dress for a royal, and also the magnitude of it. She was so excited about the whole thing.”
She also talked about the dress itself and how much thought went into every detail. “It’s all those little things when you’re working with such purity, everything matters – the bateau neck and where it cut on her bone, the hem at the front was 2 cm shorter so you could see the point of her shoe, so she looked like she was floating.”
As for the secrecy behind the whole thing? Well Waight Keller might just be the best secret keeper of all time – she didn’t tell the other staff at Givenchy, or even her husband. “Literally by not telling anyone. Like a doctor’s law in that you don’t talk about your patients, so I just stuck to that principle.”
Waight Keller also discussed the Duchess of Sussex surprising her onstage at the British Fashion Awards, saying it was “extremely kind.” “It was extremely kind of her to do that because she didn’t have to, obviously, but she chose to do it, which I thought just shows her level of thought and emotion about people, how much she values people and feels for them.”
Click Here: online rugby store malaysia
Finally, as to whether the designer has met baby Archie Harrison Mountbatten-Windsor? “I haven’t met him yet, but I’m sure soon.” And maybe, just maybe, she’ll be dressing the royal? “I wouldn’t dream of imposing. I think she’s got quite a clear idea of what she wants, always, but I’m sure he’s going to be a very different royal.”
Look back on Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s 2018 wedding here.