It was obvious from her appearance in Paris during this month’s Fashion Week that Meghan was planning to place a dainty, size-six foot in the fashion world.
For while the Duchess of Sussex may have accumulated many baubles, one long-held dream still eludes her: being awarded the cover of a high-end fashion magazine.
Her Paris jaunt led to much speculation she was soon to announce she had made the cover of Vogue.
Indeed Meghan, a bold networker, shared hugs and air kisses with all-powerful global Vogue boss Anna Wintour and with American Vogue’s new editor, Chloe Malle, at the Balenciaga show in Paris.
She also met with Malle when she was in New York on Friday last week. The two women were seen sharing what appeared to be cocktails in a booth at the Whitby hotel.
But while I’ve been told the Duchess is intent on building up her relationship with the venerable Conde Nast magazine, and does have a fashion magazine cover in the pipeline, it is not with Vogue.
Rather, my sources exclusively tell me, Meghan has made a deal to appear on the cover of Harper’s Bazaar, published by media giant Hearst.
This cover will be a first for Meghan – who made the cover of Vanity Fair while dating Prince Harry – as she has yet to land the attentions of a high-fashion magazine. (While she guest edited the September 2019 edition of Vogue, she didn’t put her own face on the cover.)
Her Paris jaunt led to much speculation she was soon to announce she had made the cover of Vogue. Meghan on the cover of Vanity Fair in October 2017
Prince Harry and the Duchess of Sussex at Project Healthy Minds’ World Mental Health Day Festival earlier this month
Her meetings with Vogue supremos Wintour and Malle are, I can reveal, better viewed as Meghan trying to ‘reset’ relations.
Because, as we shall see, there was a falling-out between her and the then UK Vogue Editor Edward Enninful three years ago, after the Duchess made high-handed demands of him – and it did her few favours with Anna Wintour.
While there was much talk of Meghan being pictured with Wintour, few remarked on her appearance at the Balenciaga show with Samir Nasr, the editor in chief of Harpers Bazaar. But it is Harper’s which has secured the Meghan ‘scoop’.
You can almost read the satisfaction on Samira Nasr’s face in the image of them together.
So is Meghan ‘on manoeuvres’ –and is this magazine cover step one of a comprehensive relaunch? Meghan 3.0, if you will?
Well-placed insiders tell me the sudden burst of activity – which included an appearance at the Fortune Most Powerful Women event in Washington this week – doesn’t quite indicate anything so thought-through.
The source said: ‘Her PR team are just putting her out there in a hopeful way without a plan.
‘They aren’t being discerning and protecting her from herself. It seems they think every media opportunity is a good one and that’s insane.’
The source adds: ‘There is no strategy here. It is thoughtless and directionless.
‘One day she is in Paris at the fashion show, positioning herself in that world, and then she shows up in Washington with Fortune magazine and wants to be regarded as a female founder.
Meghan at the Fortune Most Powerful Women event in Washington this week
‘But she’s got nothing to launch, nothing to announce and nothing to say. It’s a mess. The Sussexes seem to be spiralling. They are throwing spaghetti at the wall and seeing what sticks
‘I don’t understand why she would do a magazine cover when she has nothing coming out. It is evident that either she isn’t being advised properly or else she isn’t listening. Honestly, whoever is in charge shouldn’t even be putting this stuff in front of her, to protect her from herself.’
That assessment may strike some as harsh. But the development of a coherent brand identity for Meghan – vital for success in this competitive ‘influencer’-driven market – is shaky, to say the least.
There is some confusion about whether Meghan is selling herself as a cosy jam-making domestic goddess, a ball-breaking corporate genius or a sleek fashionista.
And – dangerously – without a product to sell, and a branding direction to pursue, any publicity she engages in looks rather like publicity for publicity’s sake.
The obvious dissonance between Meghan seeking this kind of attention, and her husband Prince Harry’s desire for privacy, need hardly be laboured.
The reverberations are still being felt from her ill-advised visit to Paris.
As this newspaper revealed last week, Meghan previously turned down invitations to Paris, ‘because of H’s mom’ Princess Diana, who died in a car crash in the city.
She then surprised everyone by attending Paris Fashion Week, and posting an Instagram story showing her resting her feet on the seat of a limo being driven alongside the Seine at night, a route which mirrored Diana’s final journey.
This was taken by some who saw it as the height of insensitivity.
Meghan apparently suggested she wanted to have a ‘global cover’ and be on the front of both the US and UK versions of Vogue, writes Alison Boshoff
Further PR gaffes were made during her candid conversation in Washington on Tuesday night.
She made a string of statements which must have had her publicity team – Meredith Maines and Emily Robinson – choking on their matcha tea in horror back in California.
For the Duchess made it sound very much as if her Netflix show With Love, Meghan, wasn’t returning – with the reason given, somewhat astonishingly, that it was all too much like hard work.
To recap, she filmed two seasons of the show and a Christmas special over a six-week period in April and May last year.
She said on Tuesday: ‘I think, looking at that format – again, with a year of learns – we’re able to say eight episodes for two seasons, it’s a lot of work.’
She added: ‘Having done Suits for seven years, I remembered what goes into a production.
‘I also recognise how much people want content in different sizes.
‘It’s amazing to be able to sit and watch a show for 30 minutes, but how can I give you a recipe in two minutes, and where can I share that with you and how that continues to grow As Ever?
‘So, we’re exploring all the options of what it could look like.’
Decoding this is difficult for those unused to the Duchess’s particular style of Californian business speak – but she appears to be indicating that she is looking to make ‘content’ which isn’t as labour intensive as television.
What is less labour intensive is social media videos – the ‘different sized’ content Meghan appears to be referencing.
But a future in which the Duchess feels it’s too much effort to make any more Netflix series – and just posts TikTok or Instagram or Facebook videos of recipes in order to ‘grow’ her lifestyle business – sounds very much like a future in which she will not be earning money from Netflix.
The Duchess met with chief editor of Harper’s Bazaar, Samira Nasr, in Paris this month
It feels quite unlikely that revenues from TikTok will outpace the money which Netflix have been paying her, although she may manage – like wannabe chef Brooklyn Beckham – to get Facebook owners Meta to stump up the money for a micro-series made specifically for social media.
There are broader implications for Meghan’s businesses too, if she does go down the social media micro-series route.
Such a move will involve some awkward squaring the circle with Netflix, as they are the backers of her As Ever business. They have invested in it, take a large slice of whatever profits and have seconded staff to help her to run it. Sources at the streamer have conceded for some time that they think it’s ‘unlikely’ she will bring the show back. No further filming is planned and no permits have been filed by her production company with authorities in Santa Barbara.
In short, it seems Meghan has lost enthusiasm for her lifestyle-cooking-jam-making wheeze.
Part of this dip in enthusiasm on Meghan’s part could surely be traced back to the sting that her and Harry’s hugely lucrative Netflix deal was renewed as a mere ‘first look’, rather than an overall deal in September. You could read this in her face-saving reference to being in the same boat as the Obamas, who were similarly down-graded by Netflix with their Higher Ground projects – because they were also deemed to not be worth the money.
Meghan explained: ‘My husband and I were in an overall deal with Netflix and then, not just similar to Higher Ground in the Obamas’ deal, once that had come to its term, the extension of it – which was such an incredible sign of the strength of our partnership – was now being in a first look deal.
‘Which is also exciting, because it gives us flexibility to go to our partners first and then, at the same time, to be able to shop content that might not be the right fit for Netflix, but has a home somewhere else.’
Again, it’s not easy to understand but it seems she’s trying to make it clear that Archewell is actively developing a host of new projects which may or may not go to Netflix.
Crucially, I understand Netflix is continuing to pay the overheads for Archewell productions – said to stand at an estimated $3 million a year. So to carry on in the TV production business, even unsuccessfully, is not costing the Sussexes anything. Despite Meghan’s attentions moving to different spheres, Netflix still has plans for her lifestyle brand As Ever.
The next step is to go from the current direct-to-consumer model to putting her wines, jams, teas and biscuit mixes into selected retailers.
My sources exclusively tell me, Meghan has made a deal to appear on the cover of Harper’s Bazaar, published by media giant Hearst, writes Alison Boshoff
Then the idea is to expand into homewares – such as table linen and bowls for ‘elevated’ entertaining, again online and then in retailers.
If there’s still appetite, there could be a cookbook in the coming years.
However, one obvious problem is this activity should be linked to a hit TV show – and Meghan at this moment doesn’t have one, nor does she seem to have the idea for one either.
Several sources attest the Netflix deal, while comprehensive in terms of potential homeware ranges, has no plans for a clothing range. Presumably Netflix can see the potential pitfalls: others in the lifestyle space, such as Gwyneth Paltrow, have attempted fashion – without success.
So why is Meghan so keen to re-enter the world of fashion?
It’s true she had a clothing range at the retailer Reitman back in the Suits days. That she recently closed down her online ShopMy page – which earned her commission for product recommendations – is seen as an indication she may announce a micro-line of clothing in collaboration with a retailer such as Zara or Uniqlo.
Indeed, the latter is now the home of her close friend Clare Waight Keller, who made her wedding dress while at Givenchy.
The pair have stayed in touch, and Waight Keller, now Uniqlo’s creative director, has a diffusion line at the brand.
Such a move to High Street fashion would be a huge pivot, but you can hear Meghan preparing the ground.
The only problem is such a twist requires her to downgrade her authenticity as a lifestyle influencer at the same time.
The way Meghan now presents it, her foodie business came about almost by accident, because of Covid. She explained on Tuesday: ‘I think five years ago was a very different situation for all of us. Archie was so little and I had just gotten pregnant with Lili around that same time.
‘So we were nesting. Nesting and healing. And also, I don’t know if I had the bandwidth at that time to think about what the “big picture” dream was. There was no plan.’
The Duchess continued: ‘Then I said “OK, I’ve always loved being able to share, I’ve always loved being able to cook and entertain… is there a business here?”
‘And I think it was probably most people’s assumption that if I was going to go into business it would be fashion and beauty.’
It was this statement which surprised many, as Meghan had never been associated with high fashion.
And if she now is to make the leap, it’s essential she has the blessing of Anna Wintour, with whom there was a cooling in relations when a collaboration planned for 2022 fell through.
According to a report in Page Six (the New York Post’s celebrity gossip column) Meghan had been working with Edward Enninful, then the editor of British Vogue.
The Duchess apparently suggested she wanted to have a ‘global cover’ and be on the front of both the US and UK versions of Vogue.
This, for the uninitiated, is virtually unheard of. Only once has someone had both Vogue covers spanning the Atlantic – and that person was Adele in 2021.
As well as this demand, Meghan also wanted control over the photographer, writer, final edit, photos and cover lines.
These requests, while draconian, are not unusual in the world of magazine covers.
However, Enninful already had supermodel Linda Evangelista booked for the September 2022 cover – the advertising-heavy September issue is the most lucrative of the year – and would not drop her.
Meghan, bruised, pulled the plug and their relationship is now said to be icy.
She is then said to have scheduled a Zoom call with US Vogue editor Anna Wintour, who had Serena Williams in place for her cover, and who also declined the idea – politely – of featuring the Duchess.
Getting back in Anna Wintour’s good graces must be a priority for Meghan if she wants to make it in fashion.
It can be revealed that a key figure in Meghan’s plans is fashion-conscious actress Blake Lively, a long-time friend of Wintour’s, who has put Blake on the cover of Vogue more than once.
Blake is genuinely close to Meghan and Harry, and I’m told the Sussexes quite often stay with her and her husband, Ryan Reynolds, at their penthouse when in New York.
Others say the arrangement allows the Duke and Duchess to benefit from the Hollywood couple’s excellent security.
With the backing of Blake, and Anna, plus a ready collaborator at Uniqlo and the support of Harpers Bazaar, Meghan might be on to something.
But – as ever – the question remains whether the public want to buy what she’s selling…