The Sussexes Not Quite A Royal Tour (but they hope it looked like one) ended on Friday after four packed days and seven outfit changes for the Duchess.
There could have been so many more, but no evening galas were on the itinerary, so only royal tour ‘adjacent’ daywear was required. She could have worn any designer labels, but in the event she followed royal diplomatic protocol and wore only Australian labels accessorised with her signature ultra high heels, the Cartier Tank watch that belonged to Diana, her Cartier gold bracelet, and a few pieces of ‘don’t scare the horses’ jewellery.
And this ‘Not A Royal Tour’ could have been an opportunity for Meghan to showcase her personal style and cement her image as a woman of taste with her finger on the fashion pulse. Last October she parachuted into Paris fashion week to sit front row at the Balenciaga show, dressed in head-to-toe white by the brand’s creative director Pierpaolo Piccioli – a look that was taken by everyone as the starting pistol for the launch of her own high end clothing line.
The trip to Australia was a golden opportunity – four days in the international spotlight – when Meghan could have flexed her personal style, free from the royal protocol (tights with everything) she so struggled with the last time she was in Australia back in 2018.
In the end what we got was Meghan more ordinary – a series of bland, predictable outfits, all instantly available to buy via a new AI powered fashion platform, OneOff (oneoff.world) from which she’ll receive half of the cut from the retailers’ 10 or 25 per cent.
Meghan, like many celebrities, is monetising her online style searches and her presence on OneOff proves she is among the roughly one hundred celebrities whose style is most searched for, but given the number of misfires on this trip, it’s unlikely to be a moneyspinner saleswise.
On day one Meghan wore a £655 navy sleeveless waisted midi dress, fitted on top with six decorative buttons by Australian designer Karen Gee, finished with £500 Dior black leather heels.
This look is not so much California style guru as parade-inspection-ready politician, or slick city business woman.
Pictured: Meghan wearing a black Karen Gee dress during a visit to the Royal Children’s Hospital in Melbourne
The Duchess wore jeans and a trench coat to take part in a Scar Tree Walk during her trip to Australia (pictured right) Left: Meghan pictured in Masterchef Australia promo
Meghan is on the next stage of her journey with As ever, the company she started to sell jam, and now hopes to expand into every retail market – she’s out of the kitchen (where she wore cool creamy separates for the most part) and keen to demonstrate she can walk the walk in the boardrooms.
This tailored navy dress could be Ted talk, it could be Davos – but great fashion it is not: it looks a lot like the uniform you might find on the concierge of a five star hotel or front of house in an uptown restaurant at any point over the last 40 years. Polished but ordinary.
And navy, why navy? On their previous Not A Royal Tour, Meghan gravitated towards white linen separates. Admittedly they were in Jordan and the weather was warm, but we felt sure that the Duchess was gunning to make white (the colour of purity, innocence and high fashion minimalism) her personal signature – and that would have been a smart move.
Meghan has worn a succession of white tailored sleeveless dresses before. She has great arms and arms are a status flex now – if you’ve got them you flaunt them, especially in cool weather. But navy felt like a backwards step, duller, more conservative and less youthful.
Leaving white behind was evidently not, as you might have guessed, a practical decision. Her next outfit was a suede khaki two-piece by St Agni, consisting of a £760 cocoon bomber jacket and a £675 long column midi skirt worn over a £175 sleeveless taupe knit top by P. Johnson once again with those ultra high heels, this time £570 nude ‘Purist’ pumps by Aquazzura.
The skirt looked cumbersome and hard to walk in (always a hazard with a longer pencil style, ten times harder with clinging suede) and once she took off the jacket (a little bit Camp David in my view) she was in a putty coloured sleeveless nothing with an unflattering solid roll neck. An ivory sweater (if maintaining the stealth wealth tropes was the priority) would have brightened up the room. Or camel with a dash of red. A white shirt… Anything but this. It looked miserably flat and dowdy. Thank heavens for the Cartier gold love bracelet.
For her final appointment on the first day, a Nexus summit meeting, she chose a £223 long sleeve off-the-shoulder wool top by Beare, £150 wide-leg linen pants by Dissh and £417 loop leather sandals by Emme Parsons, all in black. Another safe, uninspiring choice that will not find a place in the style books.
Pictured: The 44-year-old wearing a muted jumper coupled with a matching brown denim jacket and skirt in Melbourne on April 14, 2026
Pictured right: Meghan Markle smiles as she wears a white co-ord outfit as she enters a lift. Pictured left: The Duchess of Sussex wearing a black ensemble at an event
On day two, Meghan made a surprise appearance as a guest judge on MasterChef Australia and by now no one was surprised that for her big studio entrance she chose an entirely plain black outfit: a £395 long sleeve silk shirt by Matteau, a £587 silky high-waisted midi skirt with a high front split by Camilla and Marc and £695 Manolo Blahnik BB pumps.
Head-to-toe monochrome apart from some pearl earrings she wore on the original Australia tour back in 2018. Evidently Meghan wanted to distance herself from the prettily clad female presenters but slim-fit black on her slender frame was dull and severe – Morticia without the drama. A fuller, shorter, off-the-shoulder black dress with some texture would have had more spark and energy – not to mention glamour.
Just as we were saying ‘What about white?’, day two brought an ivory two-piece for a leadership summit, another long pencil skirt, this time back split (£328), with matching vest (£338) both by Posse, accessorised with Aquazurra nude heels. This was Meghan back in her signature territory but narrow cuts are not ideal on very petite figures. Meghan tends to end up looking featureless; she’s so slight that she needs definition and curves, a lightly padded shoulder, a waisted peplum top, a textured soft tweed fluid skirt would make all the difference. Chanel would do wonders for her.
Day three and Meghan’s chosen outfit for the Scar Tree Walk should have been a walk in the park for her – £117 bootcut jeans by Rolla’s, a £30 T shirt by Alliance of Moms with £220 ivory trainers by Freda Salvador and a £317 light camel coat by Melbourne label Friends with Frank. Once again this outfit managed to look stiff and contrived and outside the fashion conversation (aside from the T shirt which she wore to support a Los Angeles charity). Eight years ago Meghan put Veja trainers on the map when she was photographed wearing them with slim fit jeans on a boat in Sydney harbour during that first Actually Royal visit. We all wanted what she had then – Vejas flew out of the shops – now it feels like expediency is getting in the way of good style.
Her last outfit of the tour, another Friends with Frank item, a £287 short khaki shift dress worn with black Wolford tights and Manolo Blahnik black suede BB pumps was a fashion rule breaker (short dress plus very high heels) and the absolute low fashion point of the tour.
Any stylist worth their salt would not have let her wear shoes this high, let alone with a dress this short. But worth noting that, as the tour wound up, all the heels she had worn had sold out. As for the clothes, only the split black MasterChef skirt was out of stock. Maybe this is an aberration? Or maybe there’s a way to go before Meghan conquers her next challenge. Not A Royal Visit to Paris, anyone?
Additional research: Amy Kester
