Duchess Meghan’s Oz tour generated $51.6 million in media impact value

We could sense, in real time, that the Duchess of Sussex’s Australian-tour style was making a huge impact. Every time she stepped out in an Australian designer’s clothes or jewelry, the designers were immediately giving interviews, praising her for highlighting their brands and discussing how they managed to get their products in front of her (more times than not, it involved a personal note asking her to consider wearing their products). An added bonus for everyone involved was that Meghan’s new OneOff account was instantly identifying her outfits and directing people to the designers’ sites. As we’ve seen before, the Meghan Effect is transformative for so many small brands and woman-owned labels. They’re getting global exposure and an immediate uptick in interest and sales. Well, Women’s Wear Daily broke down the numbers of Meghan’s impact on Australia’s fashion industry with the Sussexes’ four-day tour. Long story short: there’s a reason why every designer wants Meghan to wear their products, because holy sh-t.

According to Launchmetrics data supplied to WWD, the tour generated a total of $51.6 million in media impact value between the dates of April 14 and April 17, with Australian fashion and jewelry brands major beneficiaries of the attention. Meghan Markle’s tour wardrobe showcased at least 16 local brands, including Karen Gee, Scanlan Theodore, St. Agni, Camilla and Marc, Matteau, P Johnson, Beare Park, Paspaley, Friends With Frank and Rolla’s Jeans.

One key development since 2018: beyond the plethora of Markle-style blogs and media outlets that monetize her appearances through shop-her-look affiliate links, this time the duchess made her tour looks shoppable through the AI-powered, creator-led fashion discovery platform One-Off..

At the beginning of the tour the Los Angeles-based company revealed the duchess had partnered with the platform as a participant and investor. More than two dozen Australian products sold out, according to the duchess’ publicist, with OneOff cofounder and chief executive officer Emir Talu telling WWD “OneOff surpassed 1-plus million views of outfits on the site in the first three days since Meghan launched her page on the platform.”

“The Sussexes’ Australia tour is a reminder that the Sussex effect still translates into real brand performance. When Meghan wears a brand, the data follows,” said Launchmetrics chief marketing officer Alison Bringé, who revealed that Karen Gee’s custom-fitted navy double-bonded crepe Priscilla dress worn by the duchess for the couple’s first engagement on April 14 at Melbourne’s Royal Children’s Hospital generated $1.6 million in MIV in 48 hours for the brand. The ready-to-wear version of the dress sold out on the Karen Gee website within two hours, according to Gee, who was blindsided back in 2018 after the duchess also made her first appearance of that tour in a Karen Gee dress — simultaneously announcing her pregnancy and crashing the designer’s website.

This time Gee was ready for any sales chaos. “We had a contingency plan in place and were all organized to take preorders,” Gee said.

Later on April 14, the duchess changed into St. Agni’s brown suede Utility Cocoon bomber and matching pencil skirt for an engagement at the Australian National Veterans Art Museum, generating $998,000 in MIV for the brand over 48 hours.

After two of its products were showcased on April 16 at two separate engagements, Friends With Frank earned $575,000 in MIV in 48 hours. The duchess wore the brand’s camel Lou car coat for a tour of Melbourne’s Scar Tree Walk, later changing into Friends With Frank’s khaki sleeveless Anja sack dress for an engagement at Swinburne University organized by youth mental health organization Batyr. Both styles sold out on the brand’s website within 48 hours.

“The website didn’t crash, thank god,” said Friends With Frank founder and creative director Julia McCarthy. “We were prepared, we made sure all the pieces she had selected were well stocked and had preorder set up. We resumed U.S. and U.K. shipping the week prior. To be honest, naively, I didn’t know how much it was going to blow up. I also wasn’t even sure if she was going to wear the pieces.”

Scanlan Theodore reported the combined sales of three of its products featured on the tour were up 250 percent week-on-week. The duchess carried the brand’s Athos Shopper tote on two occasions and chose its putty-colored Cashmere Tie Sleeveless Tank and matching Italian Slouchy Trouser to wear for the upward of 2,699 Australian dollars, or $1,934, a head at Her Best Life luxury wellness retreat at Coogee Beach on April 17. The latter outfit generated $247,000 in MIV for the brand in 48 hours.

Melbourne label Rolla’s Jeans earned $109,000 in MIV after three of its jeans were featured. At the time of writing, sales for the Midtown Bootcut Jean in Iris Wash were up 800 percent week-on-week, with sales for all other Midtown Bootcut Jean fits up 150 percent week-on-week, according to Rolla’s Jeans cofounder and marketing director Rich Bell.

“We’ve got a very strong website, making sure that it can take those kind of hits from big influencers,” said Bell, who is no stranger to influencer-driven sales spikes, with the brand’s jeans seen on names such as Bella and Gigi Hadid, Sydney Sweeney and Helena Christensen. But the Markle effect, Bell conceded, is next level. “It’s bolting — absolutely,” he added. “It’s really a hurricane.”

[From WWD]

It’s so smart of Meghan and these designers to work together to a degree – the designers were obviously dying for Meghan to wear their stuff, but they also wanted to be prepared for when she stepped out in one of their items and all hell broke loose. $51.6 million in media impact value in just four days for a non-royal tour which was organized by the Sussexes’ small team, and none of the events were, like, state dinners or galas or anything. Bonkers. What’s even crazier is that even Meghan’s haters can’t acknowledge the simple fact that Meghan moves product like no one else, and that her impact on fashion is HUGE. There were hyperventilating royalists on British television ranting about Meghan’s clothes and how dare she profit from OneOff or how dare she wear this or that and how dare she wear “frumpy” clothes. Again… $51.6 million in media-impact value in four days.

The Meghan effect in Australia has been amazing to see! ✨❤️ pic.twitter.com/VCINYvIeFC

— MeghanxAsEver (@MeghanxAsEver) April 23, 2026

Photos courtesy of Backgrid, Cover Images, Her Best Life Instagram.