Big problem with Meghan’s $12k outfit - NEWS.com.au

That style standard was one that the next civilian-turned-HRH, Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, initially deployed too – mixing affordable pieces with high-end designer duds.

Specifically, the former actor chose a $8000 cashmere coat and $2316 pants from Italian label Loro Piana to meet with children from PS 123, a school that serves 12 shelters, including seven for women and children escaping domestic violence.

Images of the royal exile, along with husband Prince Harry, hugging and talking to the students were jarring, the juxtaposition of such a blatant show of wealth in one of the city’s poorer neighbourhoods and where 28 per cent of the population lives in poverty.

The New York Times has previously reported that school meals comes in at a cost of $US1.75 ($A2.40) per day, so the cost of Meghan’s coat, pants, belt and shoes alone, never mind her jewellery, would equate to paying for 5083 meals for kids in New York.

Things get even more uncomfortable when we look at how Meghan, with Harry in tow, spent time with the students – namely by reading to the group of seven-year-olds from her very own book The Bench.

On Saturday, Australian time, the same day that Meghan was in Harlem, Nessa’s sister led a candlelight vigil.

The contrast between these two moments – two women married to princes, two women presented with moments to use their platform to support women and girls – could not be more removed from one another.

But that image – all those crushingly conservative coat dresses and nude heels – belied a woman biding her time because the duchess we have seen emerge since 2017, when she and William became full-time working members of the royal family, has become a vocal and highly informed voice intent on tackling mental health, homelessness, and addiction.

Why do Meghan and Harry scupper themselves.

For this outing, Meghan wore a white crepe Valentino mini dress that cost $6185.

Why, time and again, do the Sussexes emerge from their vinyasa-loving, vitamin D-dappled lives to take up the cudgel on truly important issues and then sabotage themselves by doing it while Meghan is dressed like Imelda Marcos’ shopaholic cousin.

She can’t, nor should she, pretend to be normal – Meghan is the only self-made millionaire to have married into the royal family.