Mr Viral
Out and about in Vancouver with Prince Harry for the 2025 Invictus Games, Meghan Markle took a leaf from the style playbook of one famously glamorous relative. To watch the finals of the wheelchair basketball over the weekend, the Duchess of Sussex donned a simple but elegant outfit: a navy jumper, flared jeans, and heeled boots. But it was a distinctive blazer, thrown casually over the top of her look, that caused royal fans to do a double take.
The slate gray tweed Duccio jacket from California brand Dôen—which features two lines of faux-leather buttons, exaggerated lapels, and a chocolate brown velvet collar—looked remarkably similar to one worn years before by Meghan’s late mother-in-law. Princess Diana donned her gray pinstripe coat with a velvet collar numerous times, first stepping out in the design on a 1984 visit to a health center in Lisson Grove, London—she styled it with black heels, a white shirt, and a ribbon bow-tie. A few months later she wore almost the exact same look for a trip to Barnado’s children’s charity, although this time she debuted a brand-new slightly longer hairstyle that also hit the headlines.
The late princess wore her Jan Van Velden design on numerous occasions, including on a visit to a health center in Lisson Grove in 1984.
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For several years Diana continued to wear her favorite coat, made bespoke for her by London-based designer Jan Van Velden, who was responsible for several other famous outfits in her wardrobe (such as the red suit the princess wore to leave St. Mary’s Hospital with her newborn son, Prince Harry, in 1984). The timeless gray style, however, was one of her most popular, which makes it little surprise that both of Diana’s daughters-in-law have similar pieces in their own wardrobes. On a visit to Essex in 2018, the then Duchess of Cambridge debuted a black-and-white tweed Smythe blazer with a velvet collar, which she teamed—as Meghan did—with a low-key outfit of jeans and a jumper.
The then Duchess of Cambridge put her own spin on the trend for a visit to Coach Core Essex at Basildon Sporting Village in 2018.
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Those familiar with Meghan Markle’s style will know that this isn’t the first time the duchess has emulated Diana’s fashion sense. Markle is fond of pairing straight-leg jeans with oversized shirts (a look worn time and again by the late princess) and owns a Christian Dior Lady D-Lite bag—the style made so famous by Diana, it was renamed after her—embroidered with “DSSOS,” shorthand for her royal title. And while Kate may be in possession of perhaps Diana’s most well-known piece of jewelry, Meghan also frequently borrows from her mother-in-law’s collection.
The Duchess of Sussex wore Diana’s emerald-cut aquamarine ring for her wedding reception in 2018.
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During her royal tour of Australia with Prince Harry in 2018, Meghan was spotted wearing the butterfly earrings and matching necklace Diana had once worn during a trip to Vancouver in 1986; she also owns the cuff bracelet that completes the set, which she sported for the launch of her clothing collection with the charity Smart Works in 2019. On her wedding day, meanwhile, Meghan wore one of Diana’s most eye-catching pieces: an enormous aquamarine cocktail ring, made by Asprey in the 1990s and gifted to the princess by her close friend Lucia Flecha de Lima. Diana memorably wore the striking ring with a Versace dress for a fundraising gala in Sydney in 1996 and only donned it on one other occasion: a party celebrating the launch of her dress auction at Christie’s the following year. The ring served as Meghan’s “something blue” for the couple’s evening wedding reception at Frogmore House in 2018, for which the bride wore a sleek halter-neck gown by Stella McCartney.
It’s not the first time Meghan has taken style inspiration from her late mother-in-law; on the same occasion, she also wore Diana’s Cartier watch.
Karwai Tang
While she has several knockout pieces for special occasions, one of Meghan’s most worn items of jewelry is the gold Cartier Tank Française watch that Princess Diana was also seen in countless times. It’s said that, following their mother’s death, Prince William chose to keep the watch, while Prince Harry opted for the engagement ring. The brothers later swapped when William decided to propose to Kate, and Harry passed the Cartier timepiece on to Meghan, who is rarely spotted without it. (She also has a Tank Française of her own, which she bought while filming Suits.) Indeed, the classic watch could be seen peeking from beneath the cuff of her tweed blazer at the Invictus Games, in another sign that Meghan always has the princess in mind—in style as well as spirit.
This article first appeared on Tatler.
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