The designer of the royal wedding dress said she thinks Meghan Markle may have admired her role as a successful “working mother”.
Birmingham-born Clare Waight Keller, who has twin daughters and a son, made history as the first female artistic director at French fashion house Givenchy.
She was revealed as the designer of Meghan’s dress on the morning of the wedding, after months of speculation about who was chosen to create the gown which will go down in fashion history.
“I think she really admired the fact that I was a woman designer and the many companies I’ve worked for – British companies and international companies.
“And the fact that I’m a working mother maybe played into that as well, so that was maybe part of her story,” Ms Waight Keller said.
As well as Prince George, and Harry’s six-year-old godson Jasper Dyer, the pageboys were seven-year-old twin brothers Brian and John Mulroney, who held the bride’s veil as she walked into the chapel – an element of the day which was down to Meghan.
Ms Waight Keller said: “That was really Meghan’s idea, and I think it was really such a poetic little moment.
“They were adorable, the two boys, and they did a fantastic job I have to say.
“It was important that they place themselves in the right spot so that the veil looked amazing.”
Asked if she was worried about anything going wrong, she said: “There’s always things that you think about, but I have to say they’re very good at rehearsing… and on the day, the boys felt very confident.
“They really were just loving the moment actually.”
The twins’ mother, Jessica Mulroney – a close friend of Meghan’s, posted on Instagram: “Proud friend. Proud mom.”
Ms Waight Keller said Meghan was “just glowing” after the ceremony.
“I think it was such a special moment for the two of them.
“They’re so in love, and I was just thrilled to be part of the whole thing,” she said.
Meghan’s five metre-long veil held in place by Queen Mary’s diamond tiara and featured flowers from all Commonwealth countries, as well as her native California.
Talking about how that became a feature of the look, Ms Waight Keller said: “Well there was a conversation early on about the story that we were going to tell through this wedding.
“And so part of what I wanted to do was talk to her about what those type of stories could be.
“And the fact that both her and Prince Harry will be actually working a lot within the Commonwealth was something I thought was really intriguing and something built on to be part of the day.
“So over a period of time, we had different conversations back and forth and I came up with the idea of maybe representing each of the countries – the 53 countries of the Commonwealth – through their flora and fauna.
“And we both love the story of that and it also meant that every single one of those countries also journeyed up the aisle with her, which I thought was a really poetic moment.”
She added: “She just loved it, absolutely loved it.
“I think it was something for her that meant a lot, so it was a wonderful decision in the end to do that.”
Ms Waight Keller said she is giving her final design sketches to Meghan as a keepsake.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here