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Having dressed Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, Australian designer Karen Gee has earned the right to compare herself with luxury labels such as Stella McCartney and Gabriela Hearst. Instead, Gee turns to fast food for inspiration.
“I’ve always related to something like Coca-Cola or Kentucky Fried Chicken,” Gee says proudly, as she prepares to launch her first ready-to-wear collection. “There are key ingredients to my dresses that people can copy, but they don’t know all the elements involved.”
Before 2018, few people knew about Gee, or her recipe for streamlined dresses offering sophistication without stuffiness. The former Mrs Australia Globe pageant winner had started her label four years earlier, with the assistance of one pattern maker and modern technology making up for no formal fashion training. “You can do a lot with Google,” she says.
Then along came Meghan, wearing Gee’s deceptively simple-looking white shift Blessed dress, on a visit to...