Meghan constantly wows with her fashion choices - here's her secret. Photo / AP
When the Duchess of Sussex visited some of her charity patronages in January, just hours before she and Prince Harry announced their intention to "step back" from the Royal family, she chose a quintessentially Meghan look for the outing.
An affordable, timeless navy wrap coat from Massimo Dutti and a striped shirt by her friend, Misha Nonoo. The ensemble was chic yet relatable, but the choice of Nonoo's 'Husband' shirt was also laden with added significance; it was the same style which Meghan wore in September 2017, when she was photographed with Harry for the first time at the Invictus Games in Toronto, meaning that the "Husband' was there at both the start and the end of the duchess's royal life as we've known it. The next day, she jetted back to Canada to begin a new chapter.
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It's a personal project for Nonoo who is expecting her first baby with her husband Mike Hess, heir to the Hess energy corporation (he was once labelled "the hottest oil heir in town"). "What I wanted to emphasise the most was that just because you're pregnant, you don't have to change your style," Nonoo explains. She's created two pieces: a longer, oversized version of the Husband shirt and a dress, available in classic blue and white colourways.
Nonoo has leaned on friends for maternity dressing advice. "I know some brands on the high street have maternity sections, but none of us would go there because of our concerns for sustainability. We looked at second hand places like The RealReal and just buying a size up," she says. Indeed, Meghan wore vintage designer trapeze coats for many of her public engagements when she was expecting Archie last year.
And she'll no doubt be on board with Nonoo's philosophy of buying with post-partum in mind ("If you're going to invest, think about something you'd be happy to wear in a more oversized way when you're back to your pre-pregnancy size") given she's re-worn dresses she debuted when pregnant since giving birth. "I think you have to become very comfortable when you're pregnant with wearing seven pieces in your wardrobe again and again on rotation - which I'm already comfortable with," Nonoo adds. "It becomes your default, you know what looks good and what you feel confident in."
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Nonoo, who is the daughter of Iraqi businessman Meir Nonoo, whose family established the Bahrain Finance Company, is an exception in the fashion industry, having chosen to produce her tightly-edited collections on an on-demand basis, meaning items are only made when they're ordered, to minimise waste. "I love fashion and genuinely believe in the transformative power of clothes, but I didn't want to contribute to the wastefulness any more. But I thought if I can't contribute in a meaningful, sustainable way then I'm going to have to follow a different career path, which I didn't want, so I decided to do it this way. Now, I wouldn't change it, I genuinely believe it's the way of the future."
Nonoo and Meghan have been friends since long before Harry came on the scene (she was even rumoured to have introduced the couple) but since the duchess has become one of the world's most famous and influential women, their friendship has developed into a powerful fashion partnership.
Nonoo's pared-back aesthetic and commitment to sustainability chimes nicely with Meghan's preference for simplicity and meaningful sartorial messages, and as a result Meghan has worn the brand for key moments including a skirt at the launch of the 'Together' cookbook and a crisp white shirt for the debut of her Smart Set collection, which saw Nonoo, M&S, John Lewis and Jigsaw team up to create pieces which would be sold for the charity Smart Works, of which the duchess is patron.
'We were so honoured to work with the Duchess, she's so extraordinarily thoughtful," Nonoo tells me on the phone from New York. "I'm honoured when we see her wear something. The Smart Set collection was a great example of her thinking about others. She's so conscious when she's putting her wardrobe together" - you don't get more conscious, after all, than wearing a shirt called the "Husband" when rumours are swirling of an imminent engagement announcement.
Meghan will surely be keeping a close eye on Nonoo's latest project. Today, she is launching a capsule collection of maternity-friendly designs in collaboration with US label Hatch which has ushered in a new take on pregnancy dressing, recognising that women want pieces which they can wear beyond birth.
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The designer is so aware of her commitment to sustainability that she even admits to having struggled with feeling guilty when she was designing her own wedding gown last year. In September, a who's who of the world's rich, powerful and beautiful descended on Rome's Villa Aurelia to see her marry Hess. Ivanka Trump, Karlie Kloss, Paul McCartney and James Corden rubbed shoulders with Katy Perry, Orlando Bloom, Princess Beatrice and the Sussexes (Meghan wore an £8,900 crystal-strewn Valentino gown).
Having enlisted Oscar de la Renta to create the dress for her first wedding, to British it boy and friend of Harry's Alexander Gilkes in 2012, this time Nonoo took up the challenge herself, creating a beautiful guipure lace design with elegantly long, slim sleeves and a ten metre silk tulle veil.
"To be honest, it was an amazing process but I was torn about it from a sustainable perspective," Nonoo admits. "I'm really happy that I did it but there were moments when I thought 'I'm only going to wear this dress for eight hours and that's it'. I have so many happy memories from it. You want to make sure that your husband is wowed by it, that you feel really comfortable in it and can dance, put your hands in the air. It felt a bit selfish designing for myself but I gave myself a hall pass."
After a busy few months which have involved getting married, launching the Smart Set collection with Meghan and now releasing these maternity pieces with Hatch, Nonoo is probably ready to slow down for a while and prepare for her baby's arrival. But with Meghan now carving out a new role for herself, are the friends tempted to follow up on the success of the Smart Set with a new partnership?
"We shall see what happens in the future," says Nonoo. "I'd be honoured to work on anything with her. She's so passionate about the work she does."
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