Meghan Markle’s Chanel Dress Mix-Up Is a ‘Misunderstanding’
Since stepping down as a working royal and moving back to the U.S., Meghan Markle has worked on several different ventures. She previously had two podcasts, produced and appeared in her own Netflix shows and a docuseries, launched and then shut down a Shop My Closet, and accepted an acting gig for a cameo appearance in the upcoming Amazon comedy Close Personal Friends.
But the biggest thing Meghan has seemed to be concentrating on is her lifestyle brand, As Ever. However, she’s been garnering more headlines lately for fashion than her brand products. And those fashion headlines haven’t been positive. But perhaps the strangest bit of news accuses Meghan of lifting designer clothes and accessories following her photo shoots.
Here’s more on that, and the Duchess of Sussex’s other glaring headlines.
Meghan’s fashion controversies lately
The former Suits star made an appearance in early October at Paris Fashion Week and stepped right into a string of controversies.
First, the duchess was slammed for videotaping herself being driven near the same route where her mother-in-law, Princess Diana’s fatal car accident occurred. She received a ton of backlash after sharing the clip on her Instagram Stories with her feet up in a chauffeur-driven vehicle traveling along the banks of the Seine towards the Pont d’Alma tunnel, the site of the 1997 crash that killed Diana.
Meghan was then outed by new Balenciaga creative director, Pierpaolo Piccioli, for inviting herself to his fashion week show when he told The Cut, “She reached out and said she’d love to come to the show. There was no strategy or big orchestration.”
There’s also the viral video that showed Prince Harry’s wife sitting in the front row, putting her hand to her face and laughing as one model lost her footing. The clip is awkward, especially since no one around Meghan is smiling.
Meghan taking designer dresses called a ‘misunderstanding’
Meghan’s fashion drama continued after Netflix released the trailer for her new Holiday special in which she’s seen in a green Galvan “Ushuaia” gown. It also led to some crying foul over a tweed Chanel dress the duchess was spotted in weeks earlier.
Viewers recognized the green dress from her 2022 Variety cover shoot and one fashion source told Page Six that Meghan “took the dress from the shoot without asking.” Some on social media then brought up a tweed Chanel dress the actress wore on a date night with her husband in October at NYC’s club Chez Margaux, and noted that was from her 2022 photoshoot for The Cut.
However, another source claimed this is much ado about nothing as it’s all likely “a misunderstanding.” They explained, “as a royal, [Meghan] was required to archive all her looks. It was known that when things were pulled that they may not be returned.”
But a different source insisted, there’s no such protocol because “It’s a fib!”
Meghan has faced accusations in the past about taking clothes after she does a shoot. Vanessa Grigoriadis, who is a contributing writer for The New York Times Magazine and Vanity Fair, discussed the topic in 2024 on Andrew Gold’s Heretics podcast. The journalist claimed that Markle took “a lot of stuff” after wearing it in “a very high-profile photo shoot.”
Grigoriadis then added, “What’s shocking about hearing these kinds of alleged stories is that somebody who is living in a $15 million plus mansion in Montecito, who’s just had $100 million deals, would care enough to take home some jewelry and clothes from a photoshoot that she can clearly afford.”
A spokesperson for the Sussexes later reached out to Page Six and said, “The insinuation that any items were taken without the full knowledge and agreement of the on-set stylists or their respective teams” was “categorically false.”
