Will Meghan Markle Reprise Her Brit-Chic Royal Wardrobe When She Returns to the UK?

It was a bombshell that rang from the rooftops of Camp Sussex in sunny California to the Portland stone of Buckingham Palace. Prince Harry and Meghan Markle have decided to move from from their Montecito idyll to the United Kingdom in mere weeks, news that generated countless headlines and shook royal society to its core. It was an announcement so swift and—to many—unexpected following the pearl-clutching furor that was their departure back in 2020, that the King only found out on Sunday, the Sun reports.

While the Sussex’s greatest supporters cheer—and the naysayers jeer—the fashion crowd have another, more urgent question on their minds: what will the Duchess wear for her return to Great Britain?

For the past six years, Markle has enjoyed the freedoms of her non-working royal wardrobe, waving goodbye to Palace regulations on modest hemlines, hats before 6 p.m. and non-negotiable pantyhose, she embraced the relaxed, LA style reminiscent of her former incarnation as a Hollywood actor. In some of her earliest sightings in the Golden State, she oozed cool in boxy Loro Piana tailoring; opted for casual, pared-back glam in Jane Birkin-esque crisp-shirt-and-jeans combos; and stepped up her red carpet game in Oscar-worthy glam from US-born labels such as Harbison Studio and Carolina Herrera.

Then came the whimsical dressing of With Love, Meghan. Chintz-printed modern tea dresses, color-pop cashmere pairings, and meticulously pulled-back waves became her modus operandi as she cooked up apple butter tartines and Earl Grey tea lattes. So, with her back garden pantry set to soon look more potatoes-and-carrots than homegrown orange orchard, will the Duchess keep the all-Americana, Netflix-y glimmer and gloss? Or will she transform, chameleon-like back to her celebrated, stately Great British-chic?

Let’s take a walk down memory lane. Picture the scene: a recently married Meghan Markle pacing the cobbles of Westminster Abbey in a cream chain-print Victoria Beckham dress with matching coat and cloche hat. It’s 2019 and she’s serving a quintessentially Commonwealth Day royal frothy fantasy. Her wardrobe is filled to the rafters with feather- and net-plumed perchers, caped gowns, and tartan coats. The look is—objectively—elegant, and on par with that of Kate Middleton‘s palace-worthy prestige. That was the reality of Meghan’s English icon era: a championing of British designers and London-born silhouettes.

Notable moments of this style epoch include the sequin-floral embroidered Erdem dresscoat ensemble worn to a reception at Canada House in 2019, Royal Ascot 2018’s Givenchy shirt dress and Philip Treacy headpiece and, of course, the ecru-toned, cape-shoulder design (another Clare Waight Keller for Givenchy piece) donned for her first outing with Queen Elizabeth II. Her maternity ensembles when pregnant with Prince Archie were nothing short of spectacular: cradling her burgeoning bump in a midnight-hued one-shoulder gown (more Givenchy) on stage at the Fashion Awards, stacking Pippa Small bangles on her wrist in 2018, and slipping into divinely draped Dior during the 2019 Morocco tour.

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