The Duchess of Sussex reveals her glamorous black-tie style in Fiji - and gives a diplomatic nod to her hosts
On Tuesday, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex arrived in Fiji for the second leg of their royal tour. From a fashion perspective, the tour has allowed Meghan to define her personal style, with looks ranging from smart/casual and sustainable high street to a wear-everywhere Hollywood style formula.
But Tuesday night revealed a new element of Meghan's style: black tie glamour. Certainly she's no stranger to dressing up: as an actress, she often appeared on red carpets in high octane designer gowns. But since marrying into the British royal family, Meghan has relied on demure shift dresses with a few slick trouser suits thrown in for good measure: pared back and Duchess-appropriate, and some miles from the slinkier, punchier pieces she'd worn in the past.
The black-tie dress code in Fiji called for a dressier look, and Meghan's floor-length dress by London label SAFiYAA delivered in spades. The simple lines of the dress and bold shade of blue made for a slick, modern style statement. Then - lest we think Meghan's look oversimplified - she added a pair of drop earrings featuring gobstopper-sized diamonds.
German-born designer Daniela Karnuts founded SAFiYAA, which is named after her daughter, in 2011. Gwyneth Paltrow and Jennifer Lopez, and new-gen supermodels Gigi Hadid and Kendall Jenner, have all worn her designs. A similar pink caped dress is currently on sale for £1760.
In an earlier interview, she told the Telegraph that she doesn't make statement pieces - she wants them to be timeless classics that will be passed on through generations. Timelessness is certainly a style preoccupation of Meghan's - though it will be a while before the royal baby, should it be a girl, will be old enough to borrow mum's clothes.
The glamour of this outfit might have been a gear change for the Duchess, but the dress also draws parallels with more casual options she's worn in the past. For the opening ceremony of the Invictus Games in Australia last week, Meghan re-wore a navy cape-sleeved Stella McCartney dress that she'd previously worn to the Queen's birthday concert at the Royal Albert Hall. Cape-dresses might be unusual, but they're fast becoming a staple for Meghan, as Tuesday's amped-up floor length iteration proved.
The colour seems to be another of Meghan's go-tos: she is often seen in shades of blue, and this particular dress was a near-perfect colour match for the Jason Wu dress that the Duchess wore to a gala concert for military veterans in September. But there could be more to the colour choice than that. The shade of blue is also very similar to that of the Fijian flag, which is symbolic of the surrounding Pacific ocean. Meghan hasn't always trodden the diplomatic-style line - her French wedding dress a case in point - but perhaps Tuesday's choice was a step in that direction.
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