Two weekends ago, the British media started a rumor about how the Duchess of Sussex would soon get a brand ambassadorship with Dior. It was all over the place in the British press – the Telegraph, the Mail, the Sun and the Mirror all ran multiple stories about how their “sources” claimed that Meghan would soon sign up with Dior and what did everyone think about it and blah blah blah. What’s weird is that… there was nothing there, no evidence that anything like that was happening. Team Sussex eventually shut it down and then Camilla turned up at Royal Ascot in a tent-like, sad-sack Dior and I guess that was the end of it. Camilla was the source, and she wanted to make a point of wearing Dior. I still don’t understand that whole British-media-exclusive obsession with that story. Now the Telegraph has an even more ridiculous follow-up: “How Marmite Meghan can still rule fashion.” Subhead: “The Duchess could have a renaissance in the industry if she chooses her moment correctly.” All of this was just an excuse for the Telegraph’s fashion reporter to speak to British fashion industry people about how they all hate Meghan (yet they’re all obsessed with her).

“Over my dead body,” said one independent luxury fashion consultant when I asked whether they could imagine ever advising any of their clients to sign a sponsorship deal with the Duchess of Sussex. This was early last week, when stories were still circulating about the couple’s putative lucrative agreement with Dior. The denial was swift and came not from Dior, but from the Sussex camp. No surprise to anyone who knows anything about the powers who run Dior. A formal contract with the Duke and Duchess, especially one that would supposedly pay Meghan $200,000 (about £157,300) for every post on her resurrected Instagram account showing her in Dior (the rumour-mongers were having a field day) was never anything but entertaining speculation.

The fact is, the Duchess splits opinion dramatically – this week, YouGov reported that Meghan is the least popular she’s ever been in the UK, with a positivity rating of -47 per cent. Few people are neutral about her and while for some brands association with a live wire, deftly handled, can be beneficial – maybe Marmite could pull off a witty, knowing collaboration with the Duchess – it’s the last thing Dior, still mindful of the spectacular fallout from its former creative director John Galliano’s anti-Semitic ramblings in 2011, wants to ignite.

No brand does at the moment. Kanye West’s recent (also anti-Semitic-related) implosion at Adidas, and the outrage directed at Balenciaga at the end of last year for the cavalier way it juxtaposed images relating to child abuse with its product, have confirmed to the industry the need to stay away from anything or anyone that might be contentious. The public mood is too volatile to take risks. Objectively, Harry and Meghan have never said or done anything remotely as heinous as Galliano, West or Balenciaga, although their insinuation that the Royal family and by extension the UK is institutionally racist wasn’t an endearing move. Harry’s autobiography also infuriated many.

“Personally,” says another fashion industry veteran who’s worked with international brands for two decades, “I don’t like what they [the Duke and Duchess] have done. It makes my blood boil. But putting my own feelings aside, they’re just too divisive for a big, international brand to take on”. This view turns out to be widespread across a sector which once embraced Meghan. Publicly, the fashion industry’s tone is non-committal – no one wants to go on the record criticising the pair in case they’re dragged into a social media brouhaha, accused of being envious or out of touch with Gen Z, who have traditionally been more supportive of the Sussexes than other demographics. But nor is anyone gushing.

When the Sussexes’ spokesman confirmed on Monday that the couple weren’t officially involved with Dior, the overriding response at the 77-year-old French house was probably relief. It meant it was spared the embarrassment of having to issue its own denial, which might have looked churlish.

[From The Telegraph]

So… because of the six-year sustained hate campaign against Meghan in the British media, Meghan is deeply unpopular in the country she left over three years ago, and the British fashion industry doesn’t want any part of Meghan. And because this is a British fashion reporter writing in a British newspaper, we’re to assume that Britain is the only possible market for a potential brand ambassadorship? That’s what gets me – like, I realize that Meghan is unpopular in the UK. We don’t have to unpack why that is, we all know why. But why does it follow that the international fashion industry would balk? London is not the center of the fashion universe. Britain is not the weathervane for global popularity or global style. Besides that, almost every designer wants to work with Meghan and they all hope she wears their stuff. You know why? Because she’s incredibly popular and stylish and everything she wears makes news.

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