When Meghan Markle stepped out of the car to wed Prince Harry at St. George’s Chapel at Windsor Castle last May, more than 1 billion eyes were on the actress-turned-royal — and her haute-couture wedding dress.
“I had no idea how momentous it was going be. The last time there was a royal wedding there was no Instagram, really, or any of those huge social networks. So it really took me aback, actually,” Markle's dress’ designer, Clare Waight Keller for Givenchy, recently told TIME of the viral attention her creation received.
MEGHAN MARKLE STUNS IN CLARE WAIGHT KELLER FOR GIVENCHY AT ROYAL WEDDING
Markle, now the Duchess of Sussex and is due any day with her and Prince Harry’s first child, donned the fitted, pure white mermaid gown with a bateau neckline, three-quarter length sleeves and chapel-length train on her special day. She paired the dress with Queen Mary’s Diamond Bandeau tiara and an extra-long cathedral-length lace veil embroidered with flowers.
“The idea of that purity was just really modern. I think it was right for now, and it was right for her,” Keller added about the dress.
Keller, who was recently named one of TIME’s 100 Most Influential People of 2019, and her dress for Markle even received a nod from actress Julianne Moore, who penned the designer’s essay for the publication's listicle.
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“Clare stood out because she learned the business so successfully and artfully, and because her clothes reflected the innately human and beautiful. Clare’s simple wedding gown for Meghan Markle was exactly that — a reflection of the lovely and modern young woman who just happens to be a 21st-century princess,” Moore wrote, in part. “The world gasped when they saw that bride, and everyone wanted to know who had made that dress.”
The dress also received approval from one of fashion's fiercest critics: Vogue Editor-in-Chief Anna Wintour.
Fox News' Janine Puhak contributed to this report.