With the arrival of Memorial Day, the unofficial start to summer in the Northern hemisphere, it is now time for many of us to officially pull our favourite summer pieces from storage (if we haven’t already) and to start planning out how our summer wardrobes will shape up for the summer. With Meghan on maternity leave for the next few months, it’s unlikely that we’ll see her summer style much this year, but we decided to team up with one of her fave handbag designers, DeMellier, and take a look at not only their gorgeous new colours & styles of handbags, but also share how Summer 2019’s hottest trends are those that we know Meghan would love – and were perhaps inspired by her.

Shrunken Handbags

If previous years saw the rise of the maxi handbag, this year is definitely the season of the shrunken version. It’s time to ditch all the notebooks, and get back to basics with a smaller handbag this summer. Meghan has become the master of the clutch, showcasing numerous smaller handbags whilst out on royal engagements in her time as the Duchess of Sussex. But this season, it’s about the handbag themselves being shrunken into what DeMellier has cleverly dubbed the ‘Nano‘ size.

Take DeMellier’s ‘Venice’ bag as an example (you might recall that Meghan owns the bag in the mini size in Forest Green). The bag comes in four sizes – the Venice, the Midi Venice, the Mini Venice and now the Nano Venice. The Nano Venice is the perfect way to capture all the style of their bestselling larger bags – the same luxurious details like the pale gold hardware, the playful tassels and the cross-body strap – into the shrunken trend. Oh, and don’t worry… It’s still got space for your phone, keys and cards!

DeMellier’s ‘Nano Venice’ Handbag | Image via DeMellier

If you’re in the market for your own shrunken handbag and love the nano trend by DeMellier, the brand has generously offered Meghan’s Mirror readers a 10% gift code for use on their website. Simply enter code MAYMM10 when completing your purchase and voila! You’ll be on top of summer 2019’s hottest trend before you know it. (Just hurry, because the code is only good until May 31, 2019!)

Animal Instincts

The runways were awash in both bold and wild prints for Summer 2019. Meghan is definitely onboard with this trend, having in the past worn a pair of Sarah Flint Emma print pumps in leopard and a bold cow print plexi pump by Gianvito Rossi as homage to the fun prints. The way that Meghan keeps the look from being overpowering is by adding the bold print & colours (or textures, as she did with a small croc embossed handbag) to smaller details of her look, partnering the accent as an accessory to her more classically tailored and coloured clothing.

We are sure Meghan would love the newly re-imagined DeMellier ‘Venice’ bag (she already owns the bag’s mini size in forest green!) in some of their new croc effect colours. The bag is a perfect way for those of us enamoured with Meghan’s style to dip into the trend while still staying true to the minimalist, chic style that Meghan is famous for. We particularly love the grey croc effect bag, which would look perfect with a summer-approved cream look as the brand showcased for us.

DeMellier ‘Nano Venice’ in Grey Croc | Image via DeMellier

Our stylists couldn’t help also putting together some of their favourite animal-inspired pieces that would look perfect in Meghan’s closet – or the closet of any woman who would like to peek into it!

Soft Hues

Meghan’s wardrobe largely consists of neutral, monochrome style colours (think greys, whites, creams, blacks or navy blues) with a modern edge added through jewelry, accessories or the to-die-for coat. When we do see colour, we occasionally see a bright hue (think the yellow Brandon Maxwell dress or the red Valentino dress from Morocco) but more often than not, we see pastel type hues reflected in her choices. These pale colours really showed up on the runways as well for summer, with paler shades of pink (blush), blue (azure) and purple (lavender) being showcased around the world.

DeMellier has captured the soft hue trend perfectly this season – they have released several of their bags in a soft, dreamy blush pink colour which is the perfect accompaniment to either a monochrome look a la Meghan Markle or with. The Editors are particularly enamoured with the azure colour that pops up on DeMellier’s ‘Naples’ and ‘Oslo‘ styles… While Meghan has carried several pink handbags (think the Valentino V-Ring bag or the Mulberry Clifton Rosewater bag), perhaps with a baby boy now having made his way into her life, she’d turn to a baby blue handbag?

DeMellier’s ‘Vancouver’ Bag in Blush | Image via DeMellier

Our stylists couldn’t help also putting together some of their favourite soft hue styles that would look perfect in Meghan’s closet – or the closet of any woman who would like to peek into it!

Colours of Tartan

Given that Meghan is married to a man who is the Earl of Dumbarton in Scotland (Dumbarton is a Scottish town west of Glasgow), we expect to see several plaid looks on her in the future – and have seen several in the past (think of her Burberry Tartan Coat or her Theory Off-the-Shoulder Blazer). This summer, the tartan/plaid trend was everywhere on the runways and on the streets, often with the bold print on suits, blouses and trousers.

The traditional colours of tartan such as deep red/burgundy shades, deep blues, and forest shades of green also showed up in DeMellier’s collection. Their bags come in perfect colours to accompany the trend, like a rich cognac, a forest green, a deep burgundy and a lush navy. The bags are all perfect to fit into the closet of a Meghan Markle fan (or the Duchess herself, if she needs a new bag or two!) because while they all pair with the tartan trend for summer, they’re also all classic enough to be a staple in your wardrobe for years to come.

DeMellier’s ‘Gothenburg’ Handbag in Navy | Image via DeMellier

We also asked our stylists to pull some of their favourite tartan pieces that we would love to see on Meghan in the future.

Exclusive Gift Code

DeMellier has graciously offered Meghan’s Mirror readers a 10% gift code to get a stylish royal-approved bag of your own this May! Use code MAYMM10 to get an exclusive deal on any of the brand’s gorgeous handbags – like the ‘Dubai’ handbag that is a favourite of Princess Beatrice, or the ‘Mini Venice’ as carried by both Meghan and Camilla!

It’s very rare to carry a multi-generational, multi-royal stamp of approval as DeMellier does, and we love that the brand not only values female empowerment, integrity and giving back to the community, but DeMellier also created the ‘A Bag, A Life’ campaign where, for every bag sold, a set of life-saving vaccines is given to a child in need through SOS Children’s Villages.

We are so excited about summer that we couldn’t help but turn these rules into a fun video for you to peruse as well!