At this point, you’re probably tired of hearing about Meghan Markle’s life is a “fairy tale.” We feel you.
But amid the weekend’s non-stop Royal Wedding fervor, you may have missed Thailand’s own small connection to the swank affair watched by hundreds of millions worldwide. Prince Harry’s ex-girlfriend Cressida Bonas attended the Saturday wedding in a Northern Thai-style dress — and locals are eating it up.
Bonas, 29, looked stunning in a bespoke, midi dress from British designer Eponine London. British tabloids reported that the colorful fabric used to make the dress is hand-loomed cotton sourced in Chiang Mai.
Many people flocked to comment on the designer’s Instagram account that the dress largely took inspiration from the traditional outfits of the Hmong, an indigenous people living across China and Southeast Asia — including several provinces across northern Thailand.
A Facebook post that’s going viral in Thailand encouraged people to call the dress what it is — a Hmong dress. Other Thais simply commented that they’re proud to see fabric from their country in the historic wedding.
Bonas, an actor and model, dated Prince Harry in 2012 and was once believed to be the woman he would marry, but the pair broke up in 2014, reportedly because Bonas didn’t “like the royal life.” An understable worry if you’ve ever seen an episode of “The Crown.”
She was one of the two ex-girlfriends to attend the royal wedding, the other being Chelsy Davy, who Prince Harry dated for seven years.
No one (so far at least) has publicly called out Bonas for cultural appropriation, the allegation that saw American teenager Keziah Daum the brief focus of worldwide attention when she chose to wear a Chinese cheongsam to her prom.
Of course, it didn’t help that Daum and her friends decided to do YouTube’s popular “Papa Bless” pose while in the dress, which many people thought to be a mockery of Chinese culture.
