Alexi Lubomirski/Kensington Palace/TwitterSince Prince Harry and Meghan Markle announced their engagement at the end of last month, there has been plenty to talk about.
This time, it’s people complaining about the couple’s latest photoshoot.
It’s nothing to do with the pose, but something Meghan’s wearing. Can you tell?
Prince Harry and Ms. Meghan Markle have chosen to release three official photographs to mark their engagement. pic.twitter.com/apijm0axiV
— The Royal Family (@RoyalFamily) December 21, 2017
In a series of beautiful photographs taken by Alexi Lubomirski, Meghan is wearing a couture dress by the English designers Ralph & Russo.
Described as a ‘black tulle gown with silk organza skirt, hand appliquéd with silk tulle ruffles and embroidered with gold feather thread-work’, it’s reported t0 have cost £56,000.
Which, the Mirror points out, is almost ‘twice the average national wage’ – and as you can imagine, people aren’t best pleased.
The amount of money Meghan Markle [allegedly] spent on her engagement photo shoot dress would pay my rent for the next 7 years… Merry Christmas everyone
— Anna Owens (@owensav) December 21, 2017
So, there’s people starving and Meghan Markle wears a one time engagement dress that cost £56,000. ?
— ?Didds? (@Diddipops1) December 22, 2017
Not sure wearing a £56,000 dress for her engagement pictures will endear Meghan Markle to the British public!
— Beverley Parker (@bevelynnparker) December 22, 2017
So apparently Meghan Markle’s engagement photo shoot dress cost £45k – the same amount as my student loan debt ???
— Angharad (@AJGallimore) December 22, 2017
Thing is, it could have been borrowed for the shoot, or, if she did buy the dress outright, she has earned her money with being an actress, so yes, I appreciate some people may think it’s lavish, she’s probably not doing it to be in anybody’s face.
The Royal family have been in the news again today, this time, Princess Michael of Kent. And again, because of something she wore.
She was off to meet Harry’s future wife, at a Christmas dinner hosted by Her Royal Highness, The Queen.
GettyThe Princess, who’s married to a cousin of the Queen, was wearing a beige coat, black turtleneck and a brooch which raised a lot of eyebrows.
And no, not the turtleneck.
It was in fact, the brooch. It is a piece of ‘Blackamoor’ art, a movement which has been at the centre of a fierce debate for years, owing to how it depicts men of colour.
It tends to show men of colour in positions of servitude and the aesthetic is not too distantly reminiscent of certain archaic blackface traditions.
The brooch was spotted by Lainey Gossip, who pointed out its problematic origins:
There’s history to that kind of jewelry [sic]… These kinds of pieces depict – and fetishise – Africans in subservient roles. To put it bluntly, this is a piece of jewelry [sic] made out of slave imagery.
And a woman who once told black people to ‘go back to the colonies’ at a restaurant decided that would be what she would wear to the Queen’s Christmas lunch, where the Queen’s grandson was introducing his fiancée, who is biracial, to the extended family for the first time.
GettyPrince Harry gave a rare public statement when his relationship with Markle, a UN Women Ambassador, became public and was subjected to some pretty despicable scrutiny from racists.
Harry released a statement through a spokesman from Kensington Palace, saying while the Prince feels ‘lucky’ to have ‘warmth’ extended to him from so many supportive members of the public, there’s some things he can’t ignore, and, this past week ‘a line has been crossed’.
It added:
His girlfriend Meghan Markle, has been subject to a wave of abuse and harassment… the smear on the front page of a national newspaper; the racial undertones of comment pieces’ and the outright sexism and racism of social media trolls and web article comments.
No time for that.
