Eva’s Bridal Expects Designers To Recreate Meghan Markle Dress

ORLAND PARK, IL -- If you’re still swooning over the new Duchess of Sussex’s wedding gown designed by Givenchy's Clare Waight Keller, you can get some post-royal wedding bliss at Eva’s International in Orland Park and Eva’s Bridal of Oak Lawn. As wedding designers scramble to recreate the gown the former Meghan Markle used to dazzle Britain’s Prince Harry, Eva’s has pulled a similar gown as well as Markle’s Stella McCartney evening reception dress off the showroom floor for prospective brides and other romantics.

“The gown was very stylish, couture, and elegant. Most of the princesses in the UK and Europe are wearing the classic gowns,” said Ronia Ghusein, the third-generation owner of Eva’s Bridal of Oak Lawn. “We didn’t think it fit properly on top. Her bust and waist were too loose. She has a beautiful figure. The dress showed off her hips but the top was too loose.”

The former Ms. Markle kept the world in suspense for months over who she would choose to design her wedding dress, with British bookmakers placing bets on such couture fashion houses as Ralph & Russo, Christopher Bailey for Burberry, Sarah Burton for Alexander McQueen or David Emanuel who designed the late Princess Diana’s wedding dress, according to Harper’s Bazaar. Markle stunned when she entered St. George’s Chapel at Windsor Castle in a simple Givenchy A-line silhouette gown with a shoulder framing neckline by Clare Waight Keller. Markle’s gown was topped off by a show-stopping 16.5-foot silk tulle veil, herded by 7-year-old page boy John Mulroney, who definitely won the royal wedding internet with his excited grin.

“All these designers were sketching these elaborate dresses with trains,” Ghusein said. “[Markle] always said from day one that she liked the plain look.”

Ghusein pulled a Lane Berry dress off the showroom floor closest to the Givenchy gown worn by Markle, and the evening reception dress similar to the Stella McCartney design.

“Cathedral trains are in style,” Ghusein said. “[Markle’s] veil was beautiful. Tiaras are also in, but the plain dresses aren’t trending yet, at least not in the Midwest. Our version is a modified, A-line mermaid style dress that is fitted better on the top.”

Ghusein expects some prospective brides to come in and ask for the Givenchy style dress but doesn’t think they will go for it. Based on past royal wedding experience, Ghusein thinks replicas of Markle’s Givenchy dress should hit the showroom floor in the next few weeks.

“They’ll ask for it, but I think they’ll find it too plain,” Ghusein said. “If she’s having a big elaborate wedding, these Midwestern brides are still going to want to look like princesses, unless it’s a destination wedding.”

Two weeks after Kate Middleton married Harry’s older brother Prince William in 2011, replicas of Middleton’s bespoke gown by Sarah Burton for Alexander McQueen hit Eva’s showroom floors.

“We had the sample here,” Ghusein said. “Brides tried it on and we didn’t sell one dress. It was too plain for our Midwest brides.”

Princess Diana’s puffy sleeved, ivory taffeta gown, on the other hand, was a huge hit among local brides shopping for dresses in the early 1980s.

“We had it two weeks after Charles and Diana’s wedding and we sold 30,” Ghusein said.