A trailer released on January 3 shows the Duchess of Sussex alongside celebrity guests including actor Mindy Kaling, chef Roy Choi and husband Prince Harry.
The first week of 2025 also saw Markle return to Instagram after five years, activating a new personal account @meghan. Posts include a video of the Duchess at the beach and the trailer for her new show.
In the trailer for With Love, Meghan, the Duchess of Sussex conveys a very polished take on wholesome domesticity. The Telegraph’s Clara Strunck analyses what Markle’s outfit choices for the show suggest.
For the Duchess of Sussex, peddling the wholesome-yet-elevated Californian dream (alongside other lifestyle gurus such as Gwyneth Paltrow and Martha Stewart) is now not just a hobby, but a full-time job.
On Thursday, the Duchess announced her hotly anticipated Netflix series, With Love, Meghan by posting a trailer on her own Instagram page (which, conveniently, she relaunched one day prior). “I have been so excited to share this with you! I hope you love the show as much as I loved making it,” she wrote in the caption.
The eight-part series, which drops on January 15, is touted by the streaming platform as a blend of “practical how-to’s and candid conversations”, with Meghan sharing “personal tips and tricks” and “embracing playfulness over perfection… in the kitchen, the garden and beyond”.
Nonetheless, perfection is the overall impression. Displaying tanned, toned arms in feather-light cashmere tanks as she chops, sifts, drizzles and sautes alongside a host of famous friends, Meghan is the picture of low-key, Montecito cool.
Her colour choices are mostly neutral and cuts are fuss-free. Photo / Netflix
Clearly, she got the memo that “Mocha Mousse” is Pantone’s colour of 2025: throughout the trailer, she rarely deviates from a palette of cinnamon, muted gold, clotted cream and caramel.
The few outliers – a chambray shirt and a gunmetal grey, knitted tee – semaphore a clean living style as delivered by brands such as J.Crew, Posse and Zimmerman (specifically a pair of £706 ($1570) pinstriped shorts from the Australian label).
Meghan’s is an aestheticised perfection that combines “quiet luxury” with an idealised sense of the bucolic; it is the ultimate in carefully curated nonchalance.
This curious dichotomy – a trend embraced by most of the fashion crowd – is at its most distilled in Netflix’s promotional poster for With Love, Meghan, which shows the Duchess snipping a bunch of peonies in a lush, LA garden dressed in a floor-length slate blue gown by American designer, Ulla Johnson.
An Ulla Johnson dress makes a prominent appearance in the promotional stills for the series. Photo / @netflix
The Grecian-inspired, crinkle silk chiffon “Freesia” dress – which retails for £975 – is an example of last year’s “nouveau boho” trend, and typical of Johnson’s eponymous brand.
Founded in 1999, it specialises in designs that are feminine yet refined; among its fans are Dakota Fanning, Michelle Obama and Katie Holmes – high priestesses of the low-key luxe look, who worship at the brand’s Bleeker St flagship in New York. Now, there’s a second outpost in New York, as well as a shop in LA (naturally, Goop is also a stockist).
What might this slate blue gown (and rest of the colour choices in this wholesome palette) signify?
According to Jules Standish, a colour consultant and analyst: “Meghan’s choice of colours are soft and muted, blending with her surroundings, allowing the colourful drinks and food to be the stars. Wearing blue shows how at ease she is, sharing a sense of peace and harmony, along with the importance of communicating with others. Blue projects an image of trust and honesty, whilst grey is working in a neutral way, that is professional and practical. Cinnamon evokes a warm and friendly approach, with cream highlighting clarity and an open-mindedness. Overall she conveys a sense of joyful wellbeing.”
Meghan wears a simple button-up shirt in the kitchen. Photo / Netflix
Designer Ulla Johnson is also a considered choice for the hero dress of the launch campaign. “I firmly believe women dress for themselves,” the designer told Vogue in a 2023 interview. “If you wear something that makes you feel you can be truly seen for who you are… well, then – my work is done.”
In Meghan’s case, that person (or at least, the version of herself she wants to present to the world) is the embodiment of blissful domesticity, with a healthy dose of high-end polish. It’s a look in which Ulla Johnson specialises – making it no surprise that Meghan has worn the brand several times before.
In February last year, she stepped out in a pair of black satin trousers from the label for lunch with her wedding dress designer, Clare Waight Keller; in September, she was pictured over Labor Day weekend in a pair of Ulla Johnson culottes, paired with a navy jumper and Cartier jewellery.
The brand’s eco-friendly credentials are also likely to have chimed with Meghan, who has long patronaged ethical labels across a broad price spectrum, including Gabriela Hearst, Kimai and Rothys.
Sustainability and social responsibility are important founding principles of Ulla Johnson, which employs artisan communities to make its pieces and is dedicated to careful material sourcing.
“It’s not something we ram down people’s throats,” Johnson told The Telegraph in 2017, “but how and where it’s made are incredibly important… trends aren’t why I do this. Making something beautiful that lasts is.”
The fashion showcased during this short trailer is surely just a taster of what we can expect when With Love, Meghan lands on screens in a few weeks’ time.
Actor Mindy Kaling, one of the celebrity guests on the show, perhaps summarises the whole endeavour most succinctly when, presented with a slice of cake, she laughs that it’s “probably one of the most glamorous moments of my life”.
The art of sprinkling the humdrum with Hollywood stardust (and carrying the whole thing off in creamy cashmere) may not read as totally authentic – but it sure does look good.
