Meghan Markle's wedding dress sure to spawn thousands of bridal copycats

The ‘Kate effect’, the ‘Charlotte effect’, the ‘Meghan effect’: all these fashion buzzwords really signify is that anything one of the younger British royals deigns to wear is immediately coveted and copied by adoring commoners, especially when the article in question is (gasp!) off-the-rack.

So it virtually goes without saying that Meghan Markle’s choice of wedding gown is guaranteed to change the face of bridal fashion in the years to come.

And she's certainly not the first royal bride to become a major trend-setter. 

Queen Victoria is credited with establishing the tradition of wearing a white wedding dress. At the time of her marriage to Prince Albert in 1840, her choice of a white bridal gown was fairly outlandish; her contemporaries generally favoured strong colours for their bridal regalia.

The late Princess Diana’s wedding dress is still one of the most iconic trousseaus of all time, even if, today, we are more likely to respond to it with nostalgia, than we are to want to copy its voluminous, ruffled design.

The quintessentially ’80s, silk taffeta and antique lace gown was the work of husband-and-wife duo, Elizabeth and David Emanuel.

Less than 100 hours after Diana’s ill-fated wedding to Prince Charles was cemented, designers were already advertising the availability of lookalike dresses.

Indeed, as late as 2011, Elizabeth Emanuel reportedly confessed that she still receives requests for ‘Diana’s dress.’

Kate Middleton’s dress, designed by Sarah Burton for Alexander McQueen, was a striking departure from Diana’s layered, billowing gown.

The lace-festooned, form-fitting silhouette ushered in an era of formal simplicity and understated elegance; designers such as Oscar de la Renta suddenly debuted bridal collections that emphasized long-sleeves, sharp necklines, and sweeping trains.

In short, since Kate’s dress made its debut, the once-ubiquitous sleeveless ‘princess gown’ has taken a backseat.

But the art of profiting off royal trend-setting is more precarious than one might imagine.

When, in the immediate wake of Kate's wedding, David’s Bridal released almost-exact replicas of Burton’s design, they found – much to their astonishment – that the copies didn’t sell.

Women were quite happy to incorporate elements of Kate's dress into their own, but they weren’t enthused by the idea of wearing an out-and-out rip-off on such a personally significant occasion.

So while it’s almost certain that Meghan's wedding dress is going to influence bridal fashion going forward, only dedicated (obsessed?) royalists are likely to duplicate her look in full.