Since announcing her engagement to Prince Harry last November, Meghan Markle has become a style icon and given the world plenty of trends to talk about. Take, for example, her fierce advocation for the underrated messy bun. She's a rule-breaker, but in a way that makes people say "Wait, lol, what rules?"
In the nine months since she officially started her journey to become a duchess, one neckline in particular seems to have become a default Meghan look: the boatneck, or bateau neckline. Glamour reports that since she and Harry got engaged, Pinterest noticed a 104 percent jump in saves for the style, and searches on eBay for bateau-neck tops and dresses have jumped 830 percent.
Originally popularized by Chanel's founder Coco Chanel, Meghan chose to wear this style on the one day she knew the entire world would be watching — her wedding day. Her dress was a custom Givenchy designed by Clare Waight Keller.
But she's worn it multiple times before and after. Here, a short history of her relationship with the ever-classic bateau.
She wore this jacket in Cardiff, Wales on January 18 for one of her pre-wedding engagements. She paired the Theory coat with black skinny jeans and suede ankle boots. This print is called Prince Wales check, coincidentally, and it's a favourite of Kate Middleton's as well.
The next time she wore the style wasn't until four months later on the night before her wedding, May 18. She wore this navy Roland Mouret dress when she arrived at Cliveden House with her mother to get her beauty sleep before, arguably, one of the most important days of her life (no pressure!). The neckline is almost a combo of boatneck and asymmetrical necklines, but the general idea is the same.
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And, of course, the boatneck to end all boatnecks: her wedding dress. She wore this on May 19, in case that date isn't burned into your brain!
If you need a second to stare at those pictures and remember how MAGICAL that day was, take your time.
Okay, moving on, the post-wedding bateaus! You could argue the first time she wore one post-nuptials was at the Trooping the Colour on June 9. If you wanna get ~technical~ about it, this is probably closer to an off-the-shoulder situation, but we're not here to be technical AND it's pretty, so there. This dress is by Carolina Herrera.
After that, she wore a lavender Prada two-piece skirt-suit to attend the Queens Young Leaders Awards on June 26 with Queen Elizabeth and Prince Harry.
Then, she wore a STUNNING canary yellow Brandon Maxwell dress on July 5. She was a literal ray of sunshine.
The yellow was fun, but so was this olive green Ralph Lauren number she wore to Prince Louis's christening on July 9. She paired it with a matching olive fascinator, shoes, AND gloves. That's commitment.
Next up, this navy blue Dior she wore on July 10. If it's giving you major déjà vu, it's probably because it looks really, really similar to her wedding gown, but with a shorter cut and not in white, obviously. Still beautiful!
Less than 24 hours later she wore another one. This is Roland Mouret, and if you compare it to the navy Roland Mouret she wore the night before her wedding, the dresses are strikingly similar (in a good way, obvs). She wore this during her first international tour on July 12 with Prince Harry. They were in Ireland.
There you have it! That's every single one of the nine times Meghan has bared a sliver of clavicle for the sake of fashun. Considering bare shoulders are a breach of royal protocol, here's hoping Meghan keeps up her rebellious streak.
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Emma Baty is the Senior Entertainment Editor at Cosmopolitan, where she shapes TV, movie and music coverage, writes celebrity profiles, edits stories across both print and digital, and generally obsesses over all things pop culture. Prior to this role, she worked as Cosmopolitan.com’s News Writer, writing celebrity news stories daily and covering live events like the Oscars. Originally from Grand Haven, Michigan, she currently lives in Brooklyn.
