In a new interview, McDonald was asked about possibly dressing other members of the royal family. However, when it came to Meghan Markle, his response was quite telling. While heaping praise on Kate, McDonald bluntly stated that he had no interest in ever dressing Meghan. He said of Kate, “I love Kate. She wears my clothes so well. She’s so elegant and confident.” But then, when Meghan’s name came up, McDonald remarked, “I wouldn’t really look to dress Meghan Markle.”
Now, whether his intent was outright shade or not, the contrast between his effusive praise of Kate versus his refusal to consider Meghan was glaring and caught many off guard—not to mention the headlines it generated. So why exactly did Julian McDonald seemingly throw Meghan under the bus here? Was it just creative preference, or was there a reason to politely distance himself? Let’s take a deeper look.
Firstly, it’s worth noting that McDonald is a proudly flamboyant designer whose signature styles tend toward bright colors, bold prints, and sexy silhouettes. Meghan’s personal aesthetic generally skews toward understated and sophisticated pieces. Given Meghan’s role in the royal family represents tradition while using fashion activism, his bold looks may simply not align with her vision or duties. So purely on a design fit level, his refusal makes sense creatively.
However, some felt there were hints of McDonald pandering to critics of Meghan by distancing himself so definitively. She’s faced an undercurrent of backlash from some within the British press for essentially modernizing traditions, like anyone else would upon joining such an esteemed institution. Any public diss of her from an established name, however subtle, gets lapped up as proof she’s disliked among elite UK circles, and saying you’d never dress her, period, had a subtext of judgment beyond just creative tastes not matching up.
Additionally, while Julian professed admiration for Kate, one wonders if he sees her as safer and less controversial, given she’s been in her role much longer without rocking the boat as much. Associating only with her and not Meghan maintains the status quo.
So in summary, was his refusal 100% about design philosophy alone or an unnecessary dig motivated partly by careerism and a misguided need to pander to anti-Meghan sentiment brewing in parts of British society and media? Personally, I think it’s the latter, whether consciously or not. But the key is it did nothing constructive—just fed narratives meant to divide women and missed the forest for the trees. Regardless of individual feelings on any royal, publicly dismissing another in this industry serves little purpose beyond petty, surface-level drama mongering at someone else’s expense.
Both duchesses promote charity through fashion in their own ways, and that’s what really matters. In the future, hopefully, we’ll see less polarized takes on the women and their styles—room for appreciating each separately based on their own merits and impacts versus tearing one down to prop another up. Differences in aesthetics don’t necessitate outright refusal or judgment of character.
At the end of the day, neither Meghan nor Kate should have to conform perfectly to any single designer’s vision anyway. They represent far bigger platforms for good. Perhaps Julian McDonald could stand to learn from their examples of bringing people together through uplifting compassion over division.
