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On Tuesday, Prince Harry and Meghan Markle arrived at The Marcy Lab School in Brooklyn, a tuition-free college alternative that prepares its students for jobs in the tech field. The Duchess wore a pair of Frame jeans, a black shirt, and a navy varsity jacket.
While the royals often choose clothes embedded with meaning (the Princess of Wales, for example, wore a Ukrainian blue sweater during a visit to the country’s cultural center in London) Meghan’s jacket was especially so. It was originally given to the Duchess by the students on the debate team at Robert Clarke School in Dagenham, which she visited on March 8, 2020—her final solo appearance as a working royal.
She kept the jacket when she moved to Montecito from the United Kingdom. In a letter she sent to the pupils a year later in March 2021, the Duchess even mentioned how fond she was of the item: “P.S. I still have the Debate Society team jacket you gave me with me here in California and wear it often,” she wrote.
On Tuesday, it was hard not to feel like the jacket served as a sartorial symbol. The couple has had an extremely dramatic several months: in January, Prince Harry published his controversial memoir Spare, which sensationally aired the dirty laundry of the royal family and dominated the news cycle for weeks to come. Then, in May, the couple said they were involved in a “near catastrophic car chase” in New York City—only for their characterization to be downplayed by the New York Police Department. Lastly came the news that the couple and Spotify made a “mutual decision” to part ways on their 20 million dollar deal after only producing one season of one podcast, Archetypes, together. They were making headlines for all the wrong reasons.
It also felt that their self-described purpose—to “unleash the power of compassion to drive systemic cultural change”—was lost amid this sensational shuffle. The jacket, however—a physical emblem of Markle’s tangible and positive public service—suggests a return to what the couple aimed to do in the first place.
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After staying largely out of the spotlight this summer, Harry and Meghan have slowly started to make public appearances again: in September, they attended the Invictus Games in Dusseldorf, and later that month, they attended Kevin Costner’s charity fundraiser in Santa Barbara. Throughout it all, Meghan has largely worn a polished yet very much casual wardrobe, mostly comprised of neutral colors: at the Invictus games, for example, she wore J. Crew jackets and Polo Ralph Lauren knits, whereas at Costner’s event, she put on a cape jacket and black pants. To host a panel for World Mental Health Day in October, she wore a simple cream set from Altuzarra.
It does feel like Markle is leaning into a subdued, stylish way of dressing where her clothes are (or seem to be) more relatable, reserved, and not, well, distracting. Which, in a way, seems to be a goal that goes far beyond fashion.
Shop more items inspired by Markle’s style below.
