Meghan Markle took on her recent tour of Colombia armed with an edit of South American designers, business separates, meaningful jewelry, and investment accessories. All this came at a price: around $100,000, in fact, if we trust the poor tabloid journos tasked with totting up every pair of Manolos.
Orchestrating this kind of charm offensive does not mean shelling out thousands as soon as the PJ is booked. Markle, of course, already owned her Cartier Tank timepiece, Love bracelet, and Juste Un Clou choker before she began picturing how they would sit against her new Johanna Ortiz separates. Ditto her signature Ray-Ban aviators. But the ornate pieces by local designers, such as Ortiz, Andres Otalora, and Silvia Tcherassi, represent hours of research by Markle’s Montecito squad—as well as those hefty price tags. It will be up to Meghan to rewear these detailed garments back in LA in a way that feels authentic and not at all like they are token purchases or holiday buys.
Was the Loro Piana Loom tote (just shy of $5,000) necessary for visits to say, the drum school on the beach of La Boquilla? Perhaps not, but, like her Chanel sling-backs ($1,100) and Lorraine Schwartz Evil Eye bracelet ($19,500), it forms part of Markle’s personal armor. She knows, according to her inner circle, that Loro Piana is considered a bread-and-butter staple for the one percent. Even the addition of a $50 plain Mango shirt could not detract from the investment buys on display or the overarching “polished” aesthetic of a media mogul in the making.
For all the photographs of a beaming Meghan at the Afro Women and Power Forum and Petronio Music Festival, the Colombia visit was an advert for her new lifestyle business. We might still be waiting for her strawberry jam to hit American Riviera Orchard’s taupe virtual shelves, but the intention of the Santa Barbara export selling luxe home supplies is clear from Meghan’s own uniform. She’s a Veronica Beard woman, a St Agni separates devotee, a Carolina Herrera disciple, and a die-hard Altuzarra suit wearer, with a The Row habit in the making (she’s presumably holding off for fear of looking too Jenner) and her gaze firmly fixed on the success these brands represent. Markle—unlike her sister-in-law, the Princess of Wales—is not a natural Zara model. And now that she is divorced from the family’s diplomatic obligations, she doesn’t have to be. Was the six-figure sum worth it? The Loom tote suggests the career trajectory Meghan is seeking is very much in the bag.
