Today, Meghan visited Smart Works, a women’s charity in London, as she announced four new royal patronages.
Smart Works is a London-based charity that helps unemployed women with interview coaching, and provides interview outfits and capsule workwear wardrobes. Meghan played stylist at today’s event, helping to style women for their upcoming interviews, and learned more about the coaching services that Smart Works provides.
Image via Kensington Palace
Meghan’s look showed off her maternity styling, and demonstrated how, baby bump or not, she loves a good neutral and structured design. Even in pregnancy, Meghan is sticking to her favorite color palette (neutrals!). This time, she added a bold pop with some edgy cow print shoes.
ZED JAMESON / BACKGRID (LM)
Coat: Oscar de la Renta Cotton Twill Coat
Heels: Gianvito Rossi Cow Print Plexi Heels
Ring: Missoma Interstellar Ring
Earrings: Kimai Felicity Earrings
Dress: Hatch Collection “Eliza” Dress
Purse: Victoria Beckham Vanity Box Bag
Love Meghan’s look today? We asked the team to come up with some of their favourite #MirrorMeg options:
Coming soon!
What did you think of Meghan’s look for the Smart Works London visit?
** Please note that this is a draft of the post which will be finalized as more pictures & details are available. Stay tuned! **
If ever there was an occasion to wear high street clothes or to wear something worn before, this was it. Instead, another new beige coat, another new black bag. Tone deaf, I’m afraid.
Her other coats may not fit at this point, and the dress is relatively inexpensive. As for the bag, it is new to us but who knows how long she has had some of these pieces? I’m sure she collected an enormous number of shoes and bags while acting. I hope that when she gives birth we will see some clothing rewears, but I will cut her a break on that til she gives birth. I am glad she is actually wearing a maternity dress that fits finally.
These were “low street” clothes. The dress is cheap and the coat is an old coat she has had for years. I have seen her wearing it in pictures from years ago. I think you need to go to the RACIST newspapers and comment with the other haters!!!
To be fair, Imogen did not say anything about Meghan’s race. Let’s keep it civil.
Aren’t these women deserving of Meghan’s best? For her to wear something that she wouldn’t wear to any other engagement would be the real slight.
Well the dress is most definitely high street pricing. She’s worn that coat before, She may have had it for years. Remember she entered this marriage as a wealthy woman who had a fabulous wardrobe already . She is going to be criticized for whatever she wears as we’ve entered a bash Meg phase in the media which is extremely sad but inevitable with any woman in the public eye. Love the shoes . You seldom see a patterned shoe on a royal. Looks like she may have a March baby.
I love the outfit personally. Finally a pair of interesting shoes instead of boring pumps. I am of the opinion that if you wear simple clothing you have to bring it with the shoes so this works. I normally do not like swing cut coats because they almost always make the wearer look pregnant, but that is fine here since she actually is. The hair is great, too. And I loved the looks they put together for the clients!
I’m so happy to hear about Duchess Meghan’s choosing Smart Works as one of her four four new royal patronages. This is an organization she will be able to shed a lot of attention on, and it plays well with her love of fashion while also helping other women to feel great, and to more importantly, become financially solid through acquiring employment 🙂
The Duchess is sticking to her neutrals, which is not surprising, but she looks quite elegant today. I love the Oscar De La Renta coat in particular (but I wish it was a fabric that didn’t wrinkle/crease so much, as it threw off the look a little for me seeing it from the back).
The dress was perfect for the baby Sussex bump and I love the choice of the Plexi cow print pumps to bring an unexpected touch color and pattern to the outfit. The earring choice was also a little unexpected and very “Meghan”.
All in all, I think it was a chic look that was appropriate for this type of event with women in need who are trying to enter the work force. Her hair choice was a neat, professional look – not overly glam, which again was the right decision.
What a great patronage for the Duchess. Smart Works what a terrific charity and so worthwhile, the services it provides fantastic !. That should be the focus not the negative comments. Good on the Duchess she is doing the best she can.
I like Meghan’s outfit very much, with the exception of the coat material which clearly wrinkles too badly. At this type of function, I would think she would need to dress in a very neutral style, but the earrings and pumps add a touch of pizzazz. I do like that her hair is pulled back in a very chic bun.
Are they having a warm spell in London? A cotton twill coat? Again black dress paired with a neutral topper. No surprises here. Black handbag, gold jewelry; but the shoes are cute and different. Are the shoes clear plastic on the sides? They appear that way in the photo of Meghan but in the close up they look like an shoe made entirely of calfskin.
Nope it feels freezing. I’ve been wondering around in my thick winter coat, scarf and hat. Supposed to be warming up at the weekend though.
She is definitely wear shoes with vinyl cutouts – which I hate. Had she just worn patterned pumps (like the photo close up) I would have been fine with it.
I wonder if she has a coat like this but in red? The shoe pattern added some interest that we don’t normally get with the royals, even though I’m not a fan of the PVC element, but I would love to see a pop of colour, just like we saw with the bright blue coat and black pieces underneath. Not too keen on the earring style, but on the plus side it’s lovely to see some larger jewels, I hope we’ll get to see some more statement earrings for black-tie events as well. It’s also nice to see her wearing some high street brands and I’m sure this company will reap the benefits of her endorsement, hopefully we will see more of this.
I had never heard of this charity before Meghan’s patronage was announced so if I ever find some good quality clothes that don’t fit, I will definitely be donating them to Smart Works.
This visit was about helping vulnerable woman who are unemployed with not much money find clothes for interviews etc, and Meghan showed up wearing a £5000 outfit? You can’t be serious?! As someone commented earlier, if there was ever a time to wear something high street this was it. How the outfit looks is not the issue, the price tag is. She could have easily found an outfit from Zara or another label to wear. If she wanted this look she could have easily reworn one of the many robe style coats that she wears unbuttoned and the Victoria Beckham black stretch dress she wore at Christmas. The pieces she is wearing here have not been owned by her for years as they came out not that long ago. Of course the women with her wouldn’t know the value of her outfit but she knew the media would and yet she still wore it even though her spending has been out of control and she was recently named as the highest clothes spending royal! She has a great figure and I like her style, I just don’t know how you can be this tone deaf..
I don’t understand this tired type of criticism…this woman is a royal! Of course her clothes will be super expensive. This trend that many believe should be the norm of very rich and influential public figures showing up in clothes priced for the every day consumer…should end. How many expect the Queen to show up in ‘normal’ priced clothes…she was, after all, patron of this organisation for years. And no, don’t use the lame excuse that she is THE QUEEN. Senior royals are senior royals. Those women need as much encouragement as possible in improving their quality of life…seeing an extremely well put together professional woman is an incentive. Go back during the first few years when Diana and Kate came on the scene and check the reports of their spending on a ‘proper wardrobe’…it is unfair your judgment now for Meghan doing the EXACT same thing.
What a wonderful charity to support . It is actually a mirror of the North American program, Dress for Success. Glad to see that women around the world are being supported in this way. I love when Meghan wears her hair up like this. She looks so beautiful. I also love the gorgeous natural makeup and earrings. The dress is not flattering. As another commentator mentioned, the Victoria Beckham dress that she wore at Christmas would have been perfect. From the pictures that we saw it looked to be a beautiful classy, elegant dress that fit perfectly. These skin tight so called maternity dresses flatter no pregnant woman and more often than not look extremely uncomfortable on the wearer. I hope that Meghan will find a stylist like Natasha Archer (Kate’s stylist) that knows what is appropriate in a royal setting and what is not whilst still keeping the things that make Meghan, Meghan. Despite the current attempt to bash yet another woman in the media, Meghan is doing a wonderful job in her current role.
So because these women are unemployed and poor, they don’t deserve the best from their new patron? Should she wear “cheap” clothes to visit those less fortunate and only wear “expensive” clothes when visiting affluent people? The Queen Mother believed that all people deserved to see their royal family members looking their very best, not just the rich but the poor too.
I get your point about royals looking their best. We all want to look our best. However, I don’t think looking one’s best is synonymous with wearing expensive clothes, which your comment implies. (This is a general comment not specific to the DoS).
True but the press details the cost of the royal ladies outfits at every engagement so it would be known by all if a royal lady wore a less expensive outfit versus a more expensive one.
Like the shoes for sure. In other photos she was carrying a pair of gloves, which I felt didn’t quite work with the rest of the outfit.
Love the shoes!! Hopefully she will wear more of these kind off shoes in the future. rest off her clothing is a bit boring. Not in style, but camel and black. We see that all the time…
I feel the dress is way too tight. If she went up a size, it would be great.
I have to agree with the comments that the dress is too tight. I don’t understand why this is a “maternity” style; it just looks as if she is squeezed into a knit dress. I have never been a fan of the tight “sausage” maternity style no matter who is wearing it.
The first thing I noticed was the earrings. The coat is beautiful, but one of those coats only worn for the look. A coat you lay in the back of your car and put on after you arrive at your destination. Well, now we know. I could care less how much her clothes cost. She’s worked her entire life and was a wealthy woman before she met Harry. I love her style and always want to know what she’s wearing.