Meghan embraces the 'nap dress' trend for her cameo with Prince Harry and James Corden
Since leaving the UK for California, we’ve seen the Duchess of Sussex’s style transform to suit her new life. In place of the sleek shifts and tailored coats which she wore for royal duties, Meghan has turned to laidback shirts, casual shorts and breezy dresses to reflect a relaxed approach to this new Santa Barbara chapter of her life with ‘Haz’.
In a brief Facetime appearance during Prince Harry’s segment on James Corden’s Late Late Show, the Duchess offered another insight into her West Coast wardrobe.
Although only the top part of her outfit was visible, it seems that Meghan may be embracing the ‘nap dress’ trend which took hold last summer when women around the world were looking for effortless but beautiful dresses to wear around the house and in the garden during lockdown.
One key detail of a nap dress is smocking, which looks romantic and nostalgic but also makes a garment stretchy and comfortable to wear. In the shots of Corden speaking to Meghan from outside the mansion where Will Smith’s Fresh Prince of Bel Air series was filmed, we see that she is wearing a smocked dress or top.
The term ‘nap dress’ was coined by Nell Diamond, the founder of Hill House Home, a New York-based home linens label. She introduced a collection of the dresses in 2019 which sold out within a day. She describes the style as ‘like a pretty vintage dress that’s so comfortable, you’re ready for a nap at any time’.
It doesn’t appear that Meghan was seen in one of the Hill House Home designs. But it has been suggested that she was wearing a $29 ‘puff sleeved smock dress’ by Velvet Torch, an L.A-based label which says that its aim is to ‘make you feel comfortably sexy, playfully fun and at home in your body’. Many of Diamond’s nap dress iterations include the same puff sleeves which gives the styles the feel of being straight out of an Austen character’s wardrobe.
Meghan isn’t the only royal to embrace the nap dress look. When Princess Eugenie left the Portland Hospital with her newborn son August two weeks ago, she was wearing the $125 ‘Ellie’ nap dress from the Hill House Home collection which has the same smocked bust and pouffy sleeves as Meghan’s look.
Like the flowing Carolina Herrera maxi gown which the Duchess chose for the portrait she and her husband released to announce that they are expecting their second child, a nap dress evokes freedom and ease but also glamour. Meghan enhanced the latter with her long, wavy hair tumbling over her shoulders and a blue stone necklace which coordinated with her dress. After all, she may have been nodding to the nap dress trend, but with an Oprah interview coming up, a baby on the way and numerous work projects on her plate, the Duchess is doing anything but nap.
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