Sorry Meghan but you can’t beat the Kate effect: How the Princess of Wales transformed the fortunes of British designers – but the Duchess has had her own impact on the fashion world

As a working royal, the Duchess of Sussex was known for her love of expensive designer brands such as Givenchy, Dior and Oscar de la Renta.

But this week, with a measure of self-importance, she revealed that she wears brands she wants to put in the spotlight globally, in order to boost their sales.

“I support designers who I have really good friendships with, but also smaller, emerging brands that don’t get the attention they should,” she told the New York Times.

When Meghan, 43, joined The Firm in 2016, there was no doubt she was giving the fashion industry a boost. But the Princess of Wales, 42, was putting British brands in the spotlight long before her.

Market analyst Mintel estimated that the ‘Kate Effect’ was responsible for a £1 billion increase in government spending in the year following her wedding.

So, which of the two women – the classic working royal or the California actress turned humanitarian – has had the biggest impact on the fashion industry?

The brands Meghan has amplified

Strawberry

Strathberry’s £17million turnover can certainly be attributed to Meghan, who wore the Scottish brand’s £495 Tricolour Midi Tote on her first walk with Prince Harry in Nottingham in 2017. The bag sold out within 24 hours and changed married couple Guy and Leeanne Hundleby’s lives overnight, rocketing the fledgling company into the big leagues.

The Kate Effect was just as powerful: the £295 Multrees Chain Wallet also sold out within hours when she stepped off the train in Cardiff with one in December 2020.

Leeanne Hundleby says diplomatically: ‘Every time Royals makes a sale, there’s interest in the brand and an increase in traffic to the site.’

Winner: Meghan

Aquazurra

In June 2016, Meghan posted a photo on her now-defunct lifestyle blog The Tig of 39 pairs of her shoes, neatly arranged side by side and worth an estimated £20,000.

Six of them were Aquazurra, designed by Colombian Edgardo Osorio, who said at the time: ‘She likes strappy, sophisticated, sexy shoes, which is totally our style. Her look is usually elegant, simple and clean, and she always accentuates it with a nice pair of shoes.’

It made sense, then, that she would wear his £420 Matilde stilettos when she announced her engagement to Harry on November 27, 2017.

She has since inspired a generation of royals to wear the brand, including Kate, who wore Aquazzura’s £645 105 suede bow-tie pumps at the National Portrait Gallery in 2023, as well as Beatrice, Eugenie and Zara.

Winner: Meghan

To see

It was Meghan who discovered the company Veja, founded by Frenchmen Sébastien Kopp and François-Ghislain Mori-llion, who created the world’s first eco-friendly sneaker. Meghan wore their £120 white design, with a black V logo, to the Invictus Games in 2018, while Kate wore the same sneaker, with a gold V, in London 2022.

Winner: Meghan

And how Kate changed the fortunes of these British designers

Emilia Wickstead

Kate definitely set the trend when she wore a £1,150 green Emilia Wickstead dress to the St Patrick’s Day Parade in 2012.

A firm favourite of the princess, she has a wardrobe full of Wickstead designs. Other royals have followed in her footsteps, including the Duchess of Edinburgh, Princess Beatrice and Meghan, who wore a bespoke green dress – a mix of the designer’s different styles – to her last official royal appearance at Westminster Abbey in March 2020.

Winner: Kate

Self-portrait

Malaysian designer Han Chong’s Self-Portrait label has become a favourite of the royal family, but it was Kate who discovered it first. She wore his £320 white lace dress to the premiere of A Street Cat Named Bob on 3 November 2016. That year, Selfridges sold a Self-Portrait item every six minutes, and the brand has continued to grow.

Chong discovered the princess had worn his dress when someone tagged a blurry photo of her on Instagram. ‘I couldn’t sleep that night,’ he said. ‘I was too excited. I always saw her wearing Self-Portrait but I never thought it would happen.’ Meghan followed suit, wearing his £300 green floral midi dress to the 2018 Invictus Games reception.

Winner: Kate

Travel

When Kate wore a cream Reiss £159 Nanette dress in her official engagement photo, the brand’s website crashed for two hours. The posh High Street brand re-released the dress, but it sold out again.

Always thrifty, she wore it again in Canada in 2011. A few years later, Meghan’s £185 black-and-white Reiss Azzura dress on International Women’s Day in 2019 didn’t cause the same fuss.

Winner: Kate

Monica Vinader

Monica Vinader’s bohemian jewellery is a feast for the eyes of actresses, but it was when Kate wore her £745 Riva Collection earrings and £2,000 necklace to a gala at the Natural History Museum on 21 October 2014 that the designer hit the jackpot. They sold out instantly in the US.

“I was on holiday in Florence, sitting outside a café,” she said at the time. “The friend I was with suddenly looked at a man reading a newspaper and said, ‘Isn’t that the Duchess of Cambridge with your earrings on the front page?’

“It was a very surreal moment. I was so excited.”

It wasn’t until 2020 that Meghan first wore her £125 Linear Friends bracelet in public, by which time the brand had become established.

Winner: Kate