The second season of Meghan Markle’s Netflix show, With Love, Meghan, is now streaming, focusing on the Duchess of Montecito fantasy.
However, as with many of Meghan’s post-royal ventures, it’s hard to escape the contradictions at the heart of her latest rebrand.
Which is precisely why the fashion choices in her glossy series have raised more eyebrows than any recipe for roast chicken or segment on pressed petals.
The Duchess of Sussex, who once complained she was forced to wear only muted tones in the royal family, has now opted, freely, deliberately, and very publicly, to wrap herself almost exclusively in exactly those same neutral colours.
It is a contradiction so glaring it leaps off the screen. In that now-infamous Meghan & Harry docuseries, Markle shared that she rarely wore colour during her time as a working royal.
The reason? To avoid clashing with senior royals, particularly the late Queen, or overshadowing the Princess of Wales. She explained that royal women should not compete visually with one another, and so she resorted to beige, camel, navy and white, a palette she described as suffocating and inauthentic.
The claim fed into her broader narrative of control and constraint, the woman of Hollywood sparkle forced into sepia tones by ‘The Firm’.
Fast-forward to 2025, and in episode after episode of With Love, Meghan, we see her in a parade of neutrals, wearing a uniform of camel cashmere, soft oatmeal cardigans, and crisp striped linen, mirroring her royal wardrobe.
When Meghan Markle stepped out for her visit to Canada House in 2020, she did so in what she later implied was a uniform imposed upon her, a muted Reiss coat layered over a bronze satin Massimo Dutti skirt and top. Yet fast forward to her latest venture and she is seen in an almost carbon-copy look, a neutral Zara dress paired with a luxurious Los Padres Polo Team cashmere wrap
Back in the summer of 2018, Meghan Markle made her debut at Wimbledon wearing a crisp Ralph Lauren blue and white striped shirt. Polished enough for royal duty, yet subdued in line with the neutral, understated aesthetic she claimed was dictated to her as part of palace protocol. Fast forward six years, and that very same shirt resurfaced as she prepared food in her Montecito kitchen.
Stepping out in Tonga in 2018 dressed in a striking Martin Grant shirt dress which featured crisp stripes and a neatly cinched waist with a full A-line skirt, Meghan followed her royal dress code. However once again it seems the same styling was followed in With Love, Meghan as she revisited an almost identical look. This time, she appeared in a Carolina Herrera shirt dress where echoes of her Tongan look are unmistakable, right down to the tailored structure and restrained palette.
In 2019, during an engagement at Windsor Castle, Meghan opted for a sleek burgundy co-ord, a fine-knit sweater paired with a matching midi skirt by Hugo Boss, yet in the new series history appears to repeat itself. On screen, Meghan is seen in a strikingly similar ensemble, this time a burgundy sweater teamed with a coordinating pencil skirt, both from French label Sézane
During the Sussexes’ royal tour of Australia in 2018, Meghan stepped out in a Martin Grant striped midi dress. The sleeveless number, with its bold monochrome lines and fitted bodice, was part of her carefully curated conservative royal wardrobe. Yet in her glossy new Netflix series we were struck by a sense of déjà vu. Appearing on screen in a Veronica Beard dress, Meghan chose a near-identical silhouette in the same monochrome stripes
There is irony too in Meghan’s insistence on accessibility. Throughout the series, she positions herself as relatable, a mother cooking, gardening, laughing with friends.
And yet her neutral wardrobe comes courtesy of labels such as Carolina Herrera, Ralph Lauren, and Gabriella Hearst, brands with price tags that are anything but beige to the average viewer.
These pieces are the unofficial stealth wealth uniform of the ultra-rich who want to signal sophistication without screaming status.
By adopting this style, Meghan also repositions herself in the fashion conversation. Rather than competing with Kate’s polished coats or the late Queen’s rainbow of bright dresses, she is aligning with Gwyneth Paltrow’s Goop minimalism.
Meghan once lamented that life as a royal was so tightly constrained with a ‘woe is me’ narrative about her uniform of invisibility. However, in true Meghan Markle fashion she appears to have circled back on herself in the same neutrals she once branded oppressive.
The irony hasn’t gone unnoticed. Meghan can’t have it both ways, first casting the palette as a royal muzzle, then adopting it as her own signature.
But the contradiction is striking. If beige was once a symbol of control, why is it now a hallmark of self-expression? Meghan would argue that this time the choice is hers, proving yet again that she will frame every narrative to suit her present purpose.
