There’s a lot going on in the trailer for With Love, Meghan: Holiday Celebration. She lays one on Prince Harry! She makes a wreath out of broccoli! But there’s one blink-and-you’ll miss it moment that has tongues’ wagging.
At the 0:44 minute mark, the Duchess formerly known as Meghan Markle is lighting candles wearing a slinky green dress. It’s an arresting visual and she looks great in it. The shot is so striking it’s even currently being used as the thumbnail on Netflix’s promotional material.
The dress is by Galvan, a London-based fashion label founded by four women: Anna-Christin Haas, Sola Harrison, Katherine Holmgren, and Carolyn Hodler. Called Ushuaia and in the colour emerald, the bias cut satin gown retails for £1,395.
Funnily enough, we’ve seen this Meghan in this dress before. She was styled in it for a Variety photoshoot back in 2022.
But after the trailer dropped, allegations resurfaced that the Duchess had made off with some of the expensive designer items the stylists pulled for her at the shoot.
In 2024, journalist Vanessa Grigoriadis gave an exclusive interview to the Heretics podcast that outlined the stealing allegations in full.
She began by re-iterating claims made by Tom Bower's in his book, Revenge: Meghan, Harry and the War Between the Windsors, where he accused Meghan of taking a pair of designer shoes.
“At the end of the shoot, the celebrity or important person is never supposed to actually take the clothes they were wearing in the shoot home,” said Grigoriadis.
As anyone who has been an intern on a fashion shoot knows (me), everything gets packed back up and couriered back to the designers with great speed as soon as shooting wraps, lest you incur the wrath of a major fashion house that has promised that same garment to another publication.
“I have since heard in a more recent photoshoot of Meghan’s that there was a lot of stuff that was not returned after Meghan wore it,” said the journalist.
“We try not to call it stealing, that sounds quite aggressive,” explained Grigoriadis, adding that “sticky fingers at the end of a photoshoot is not unheard of” although it’s apparently surprising when wealthy people want to keep expensive clobber as freebies (really? Have you met rich people?).
Proper etiquette, as Grigoriadis explains, is the talent should ask if they want to keep the clothes at the end of a shoot. “The thing to do is to write personally to the designers in her calligraphy — because we know she has beautiful penmanship — and say: ‘I absolutely loved wearing this outfit in the shoot, perchance French designer of my dreams, would you be interested in me purchasing it from you?”
Then the designer would happily offer it for free, in the hope that they’d wear the piece again and get papped, which would be even more free publicity. Which is exactly what happened now that Meghan has worn the Galvan dress on her Neflix show, when you think about it.
The Duchess’s people have now firmly shot down speculation that the £1.4k dress was taken via subterfuge.
“The insinuation that any items were taken without the full knowledge and agreement of the on-set stylists or their respective teams is not only categorically false, but also highly defamatory,” a spokesperson told the Daily Express.
“Any items kept, were done so in total transparency and in accordance with contractual arrangements."
So it sounds like there’s been crossed wires somewhere and Meghan had permission to take the dress home with her at the time. And re-wearing it for the Netflix Christmas special is simply a display of her thriftiness.
After all, whenever her estranged sister-in-law re-wears an item it’s a demonstration of her modesty and budget-consciousness. But when Meghan is an outfit repeater, she’s attacked for being cheap or, in this case, accused of literally stealing designer clothes.
Although, given Galvan is an all-woman business, you’d think Meghan would want to support the brand by purchasing it herself.
At least we now have confirmation that the Duchess is doing all her own wardrobe stunts in With Love, Meghan.
With Love, Meghan: Holiday Celebration will be streaming on Netflix on 3 December
