Style 11 Ways Meghan Markle's Fashion Has Changed to Adhere to Royal Protocol

© Getty Images Since becoming the Duchess of Sussex in May and joining the royal family officially, Meghan Markle's fashion has undergone a dramatic transformation from her actress red carpet days to now. This is partly due to royal protocol and the expectations of how the royal family dresses for work events representing the Queen.

Since becoming the Duchess of Sussex in May and officially joining the royal family, Meghan Markle's fashion has undergone a dramatic transformation from her actress red carpet days to now. In part, that's due to both royal protocol and unwritten expectations about how the family dresses for work events representing the Queen. Of course, some of the changes in her clothing are probably her own choices-she is a human woman, after all.

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Despite reports that Meghan has broken protocol for showing her shoulders or this or that, Myka Meier, Beaumont Etiquette's founder/director and a British-American trained by a former member of the Queen's household, told ELLE.com that Markle actually hasn't ever broken royal etiquette. “She’s doing a fantastic job," Meier said. "People sensationalize and make stories about the smallest movements when really, she’s done amazingly. Where she’s in just one year is pretty incredible. At the end of the day, royal protocol is meant to show respect to the Queen and to the country and to its citizens and to the attendant event. If you think about royal protocol in that way, I don’t think anyone can say that she has been intentionally disrespectful. And therefore she has not broken royal protocol."

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True, Meghan's transformation over the last year spans "from her wardrobe and makeup-down to her body language, the way she’s carrying herself and the way she’s walking and meeting and greeting people." Meier said. Here, she breaks down how Meghan's wardrobe has changed in particular.

Meghan's wedding gown tailoring-critics thought the dress was ill-fitting-had everything to do with preference and nothing to do with royal protocol. "She would not have been told exactly about the tailoring. If anything, usually people would expect that protocol would say ‘it shouldn’t be tight.’ With the Duchess of Cambridge [Kate Middleton], it was perfectly tailored to her figure. I think it’s just a matter of preference between her and her designer.”

© WPA Pool - Getty Images Prince Harry Marries Ms. Meghan Markle - Windsor Castle

Meghan's Trooping the Colour off-the-shoulder two piece, despite reports, did not break protocol; it just broke tradition. "There’s no actual protocol. And that was her version of formal attire. There was nothing that said ‘you have to have your shoulders covered.’ She dressed respectfully [although] it was a little bit more skin than we’d ever seen traditionally worn at Trooping the Colour. If you look back at all of the female royals throughout history at Trooping the Colour, we haven’t seen an outfit quite like that."

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© Samir Hussein - Getty Images Trooping The Colour 2018

Meghan gets the final say with what she wears, but she now has a team of aides presenting her with appropriate options. In regards to Trooping the Colour and really any event, "they would not have given her the option to do something disrespectful. She has an entire team of aides that call [in] pieces...they would have pulled appropriate pieces. The palace is very involved in what she wears and her presentation. And of course she has the final say, but there wouldn’t have been any of her breaking rules."

© Stefanie Keenan - Getty Images Meghan at ELLE’s Women in Television Celebration in January 2013; Meghan at a reception at Glencairn during her visit to Ireland in July 2018.

Meghan can no longer accept freebies. "Sometimes dozens and dozens of pieces are laid out for her [by aides for events]. She picks them out, tries them on, and anything that doesn’t work goes back. She doesn’t get freebies like she used to. She literally is not allowed to take freebies. So everything goes back."

Meghan is carrying smaller bags. "As she attends more formal events she’s naturally going to take on a more formal dress code," Meier said. "So for instance, her handbag: We used to see her carrying these rather large bags that could fit so much. Now, we see her with very small bags, for may reasons: one, the bags have to match the formality of the event and two she has less to carry. She has a whole team of royal aides with her at all times to supply everything she needs."

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© Monica Schipper - Getty Images Meghan at the Misha Nonoo fashion show in February 2015; Meghan at Westminster Abbey for the RAF service in July 2018.

Meghan is no longer wearing sleeveless clothes. "She used to wear a lot of totally sleeveless, strapless [clothes]. Now we see her with the tight sleeve or even a full sleeve."

© David Krieger/Bauer-Griffin - Getty Images Meghan visiting New York City in May 2015; Meghan visiting Croke Park in Ireland in July 2018.

She's wearing longer hemlines. "We used to see her a lot on the red carpet-which would have been a formal event for her then-in short, cute little skirts. Now we see her with conservative hemlines down to the knee or even below."

© Karwai Tang - Getty Images Meghan at the 2013 MuchMusic Video Awards in June 2013; Meghan at the Sentebale ISPS Handa Polo Cup in July 2018.

...and less revealing clothes, period. "Nothing is too tight, it’s still tailored but not too revealing. We don’t see cleavage. We just see her dressing very respectfully. I think she knows she’s representative of the royal family and a role model for so many."

© Karwai Tang - Getty Images Meghan at the Herve Leger By Max Azria fashion show in September 2013; Meghan at the Nelson Mandela Centenary Exhibition in July 2018.

Open-toed shoes and sky-high stilettos are out. "We used to see her on the red carpet or at a formal event with open toed shoes during the day, now we see her with closed toed shoes during the day. She does not typically have too much, if any platform on her heel, which she used to. We know that either polish or suede are typically the most formal for closed-toe day attire, and we see her with a lot of those colors."

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© Taylor Hill - Getty Images Meghan at the 51st New York Film Festival in October 2013; Meghan in Ireland during her royal visit in March 2018.

Her jewelry is minimal instead of statement-y. "Her jewelry is very simple, very elegant. If we look at older pictures of her style, she used to have lots of bracelets or little tie bracelets that were woven together in stacks. Now we don’t see those anymore. We see more polished jewelry. And in terms of her presentation, we see of course catch her wedding ring, her marital jewelry."

© Max Mumby/Indigo - Getty Images Meghan at the CFDA Fashion Fund Awards in November 2015; Meghan during her first solo event with the Queen in June 2018.

© Karwai Tang - Getty Images Meghan at the London Global Gift Gala in November 2013; Meghan visiting Irish President Michael Higgins in July 2018.

She's wearing fancier hats. "We’ve never seen her [in them]-besides a fedora and a couple of straw hats. Now we see her following very British traditions of wearing hats, which really is cultural and shows respect for the formal events she’s attending."

© D Dipasupil - Getty Images Meghan at USA Network’s 2012 Upfront Event in May 2012; Meghan at Charlie Van Straubenzee’s wedding in August 2018.