The Duke and Duchess of Sussex kicked off the day with a visit to a market place and a walkabout. Meghan gave an empowering speech to women about work ethic an studying at University to forge a future and career. The Duchess wore a beautiful coloured dress featuring pom poms, and carried a traditional Fijian purse.
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The Duchess wore Figue ‘Frederica’ floral-print silk crepe de chine maxi dress, retailing for £1,250. A v-neck wrap dress with long, loose fitting blouson sleeves with elasticised cuff, self-tie obi belt with coloured pom pom detail. The maxi skirt has a playful tiered structure that dances together with the pom pom embellishments. The dress is crafted from floral silk crepe de chine. The dress part of the Frida Kahlo-inspired collection.
Many royal fashion watchers were not fans of the pom poms on the dress, however, it does add a little bit of fun element and casual vacation style. If you do not like the pom pom details, you can always cut them off and tie up the string into a double knot, or simple secure another piece of decoration to the end of the rope like a shell, pearl or something similar. We think that Meghan looked simply stunning in this piece.
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You can purchase this dress here, here and here. The dress also comes in a white pattern, purchase here. The same floral print fabric comes in a top, wide legged trouser and tiered skirt.
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Meghan wore her Karen Walker ‘Temptation’ studs, retailing for £192.58. These petite earrings are made from 9ct yellow gold, with a freshwater pearl inlaid amongst varied sized gold barbs in a sun pattern.
These studs are still available for you to purchase the earrings here. Try these to get the look for less, purchase here.
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Meghan wore her Castañer ‘Carina’ canvas wedge espadrilles, retailing for £80. These casual and versatile wedges feature a slightly raised jute platform with woven wedge heel, black canvas toe vamp and beige canvas heel cover. A thin black lace wraps around the the ankle to tie them into place.
You can purchase these wedges here, here, here and here. Try these as a great replicate. Purchase here.
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Meghan wore her Shaun Leane ‘Gold Serpents’ bracelet, retailing for £701. This very edgy bracelet has a sharp segmented design in gold-plated sterling silver. The bracelet features a clasp fastening. We are not huge fans of the design of this bracelet as it looks like the bones in a spine. Do you like this bracelet?
You can purchase the bracelet here, here, here and here.
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Meghan also wore two other bracelets that remain unidentified. One is a very thin gold cuff (we did think this was her Zofia Day cuff, but upon closer inspection, it appears not to be) A thicker gold bangle we have seen Meghan wear on at least two other occasions, that we still are yet to find out information on.
Meghan again accessorised with two of her Catbird NYC Threadbare rings, retailing for £34. These rings do not seem to have left her fingers for the past few days of the tour. They are a simple and classic piece that won’t ever go out of style. We would love to see Meghan stack them all on one finger on one of the days of the tour, just to keep us on our toes a bit and mix up the way she wears the stackable rings. If you haven’t bought yourself one of these rings yet, we suggest you do as they are one of Meghan’s most affordable pieces she wears.
You can purchase the rings here.
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Meghan wore her hair in a very pretty up-do, with white frangipanis applied into the style for a chic island look.
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Meghan carried a very interesting clutch that had us fashion watchers scratching our heads at first, trying to find the designer of the piece. What appeared to be a simple tribal woven straw envelope clutch was actually much more. It turns out that Meghan was carrying a traditional style of Fijian clutch that was handmade by ladies who wore in the Suvi Markets that she was visiting. It is a very intriguing piece and we have done our best to try and find out some more background information behind this clutch as it is completely new style of bag.
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The clutch is what is known as a Fijian Tapa Bark Cloth Purse or Clutch. The clutches are sometimes woven from Pineapple bark or straw. The tapa cloths come from bark fibres from inner bark strips of specific tress such as mulberry trees, breadfruit or fig trees. The cloths are hand made and the prints can vary widely with each being unique to represent a specific tribe, region, town or island. The clutch has been woven into a flat envelope style; the flap of the clutch is held down by two small woven circles with loops to secure them in place. Some tapa clutches are purely in a woven style, with different woven patterns of black and beige throughout (see below). Meghan’s clutch has a printed fabric cloth attached over the top of the clutch. The cloth is in a Masi printed pattern. Therefore Meghan is carrying a Fijian Tapa Masi Bark Cloth Purse.
Below we show some styles and designs of a typical Tapa Clutch. You can purchase a Tapa Clutch here.
We have scoured the internet high and low to try and find anywhere that we could purchase a clutch similar to Meghan’s. We managed to find the same Masi Print fabric that appears on Meghan’s clutch from vitichicByNaniVK’s Etsy Store. This fold-over clutch is made in black or brown leather with the Masi Print on the top. You can view the Etsy store here.
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We also found a local Fijian designer Pepe and Pepe who sell a range of wears with the same printed Masi fabric, on couch cushion covers, small clutches, larger clutches and other items. You can follow them and enquire about their designs through their Instagram account, here.
We loved today’s look on The Duchess of Sussex, she looked beautifully vibrant in her bright pink floral dress. We think this our favourite look to date on the tour so far.
As something a bit different today, we have added in what Harry wore. Prince Harry showed he is ever much the diplomatic dresser as his wife by wearing a shirt by local Fijian designer S. Naginda. Harry wore the brands ‘Akamu Mens Slim Fit Bula Shirt’ retailing for £38. This shirt has a pointed down collar, short sleeves, breast pocket and brown button down front. The shirt has a fun and distinctive blue and white palm leaf print, giving a very resort wear style. We love that Harry also is confident in his fashion choices. You can purchase Harry’s shirt here. Many thanks to @MeghansFashion for sharing this information with us.
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Akamu Brand, Bula Shirts from Fiji’s very own S. Nagindas. #RoyalsVisitFiji #Fiji #Bula #DukeandDuchessofSussex #Fashion #FijiMade #FijianMade ??? pic.twitter.com/SQ4O9ANqiY
— Jacquee Speight (@JacqueeSpeight) October 24, 2018
You can get Meghan’s perfect island style here:
with thanks to @whatmegwore @MeghansFashion (dress and Prince Harry shirt info) @MadAboutMeghan for their fashion insights