The New York Times - 12.09.2019

It could be observed that Ms. Nonoo was
as warm and bright as sunshine winking off
a private pond, and that words delivered in
her crisp accent piled up like stacks of
freshly laundered percale pillowcases. She
was friendly and self-deprecating and
dressed in a shirt (the best-selling Hus-
band) and skirt (Billie) by Misha Nonoo
with luminous Lucite earrings she de-
scribed as “old Celine,” by which she meant
approximately one year old.
When a waiter appeared at her shoulder
in the thick of a thought, she cut herself off
midsentence and said, “I’m still working!”
in a way that sounded like a compliment, a
secret and a “Hello from the flight deck.” (“I
always have that fear when people try to
steal my food,” she said after the waiter re-
treated, then imitated a panicked sob: “ ‘I’m
still going!’ ”)
It was easy to see why anyone would
choose her for a friend. Here, in her own
words, is how Ms. Markle did:
“We met at a lunch Miami during Art Ba-

sel,” she said (then murmured, “I think this
is all pretty well documented”). “And we sat
down and we started, actually, right from
the get-go, talking about a shared passion
for equality, women’s empowerment and
our love of dogs.”
Pressed about the plausibility of two
strangers at Art Basel ——
“Well, we were at a lunch.”
—— of two strangers at a lunch at Art Ba-
sel spontaneously declaring their love for
equality, Ms. Nonoo said, “Well, we got
there pretty quickly, I’ll tell you that much!”
Could context explain how pleasantries
veered to equality? Asked what the party
was for ——
“Well, it was a — it was a seated lunch.”
—— Ms. Nonoo said she could not “re-
member exactly,” but suggested, “I guess if
you’re sitting next to somebody at a seated
lunch, there’s an opportunity to, kind of, get
a little deeper than at a cocktail party or
something where you’re, like, standing and
your feet hurt and you’re like, ‘Ooh, ooh,
where am I going next so my feet aren’t
hurting anymore?’ ” She and Ms. Markle,
she said, “were introduced through a mutu-
al, very close friend.”

MS. NONOO DATEDthis occurrence to around
“eight years ago,” though a 2015 post attrib-
uted to Ms. Markle on her deleted lifestyle
website, The Tig (accessible via archive),
recounted that the two had met the previ-
ous December. (“And by ‘met,’ I mean
danced the night away and sipped cocktails
with,’ ” Ms. Markle wrote, describing Ms.
Nonoo as “the kind of woman you instantly
adore.”)
Photos captured in Miami in 2014, sold
through Getty Images, reveal that both
women attended a nighttime beach party of
which one host was the founder of Soho
House. (Soho House’s London location is
the rumored site of Prince Harry and Ms.
Markle’s first date.)
Ms. Nonoo said she and Ms. Markle be-
gan discussing a Smart Works collabora-
tion “ages ago,” before the duchess’s formal
connection to the organization was an-
nounced. “Because of the friendship,” Ms.

Nonoo said, the idea “was a conversation

before it was, I think, fully formed.”

“She said, you know: ‘I am going to be-

come royal patron of a charity that I think is

right up your alley. It’s all about empow-

ering women. It’s all about professional

women, women getting back into the work

force, and I haven’t figured out what we’re

going to do yet, but I would really like for

you to be a part of what we do,’ ” Ms. Nonoo

said. “And I said, ‘Great!’ ”

Despite not having “a totally clear picture

of what I was agreeing to” — she didn’t see

the other designs in progress, or learn de-

tails of the release until later (“I had abso-

lutely no idea”) — she said she told Ms.

Markle, “I love you and I will absolutely do

this.”

“She’s such a consistent person, that you

can speak to her about personal things and,

you know, a work situation like this, all in

the same breath” Ms. Nonoo said.

In subsequent conversation, Ms. Markle

outlined the idea, and which items she

hoped to feature. She had famously worn

Ms. Nonoo’s signature piece — an oversize

white cotton shirt with stud buttons — at

her first official public appearance with

Prince Harry. “ ‘And I would like for you to

be the white shirt that’s a part of this,’ ” Ms.

Nonoo recalled her saying.

The shirt, they agreed, would have to be

“something that would work for a lot of dif-

ferent body shapes and sizes” and make the

wearer “feel good every single day when

they put this piece on.”

Ms. Nonoo said that the resulting gar-

ment is a cotton/spandex blend, priced

$125. She described the shirt as “more tai-

lored” and “really, really, really close to the

body” compared with the Husband, which

she admits some find “too oversized.” Her

monogram, MN, is embroidered on the

nape of the neck.

Ms. Nonoo characterized Ms. Markle’s

touch as light. “I think, really being the per-

son that she is, for each brand that she’s

working with, she’s really entrusted us,” she

said. “She’s not a micromanager; she’s not

that type of personality.”

The items will be available for “at least

two weeks,” according to a document pro-

vided by a royal communications officer.

Ms. Nonoo said that because each contribu-

tor will handle the sales of their designs in-

dividually, the shirt will be sold exclusively

on her website and in her New York City

pop-up store according to her standard

practice, by which pieces are manufactured

as they are ordered.

While Ms. Nonoo did not consult with the

other designers, “she,” she said, meaning

Ms. Markle, “was talking to everybody.”

“I was never concerned from a control as-

pect of the other pieces because ultimately

the filter was always going to be Megan’s

tastes, and I trusted that implicitly — and

the messaging — and that it would all be

right,” Ms. Nonoo said. The two discussed

the project “mainly when we were togeth-

er” in person; otherwise, “we’d text about

it,” she said.

“Obviously, my experience is different to

probably a lot of the other partners,” Ms.

Nonoo said. “All I can say is that she is the

most generous, the most genuine person.”

OVER THE COURSEof lunch, Ms. Nonoo em-

phasized repeatedly that her friendship

with Ms. Markle remains unchanged post-

royal wedding. Assuming Ms. Nonoo’s reli-

ability as narrator, this a minor miracle.

In the last two years, Ms. Nonoo’s friend

has moved from a major metropolis to a se-

cluded country home enclosed within a pri-

vate estate on the other side of the Atlantic

Ocean; replaced her job with what is essen-

tially a public commitment to perform docu-

mented acts of charity for the rest of her life

until precluded by grave infirmity or death;

likely undergone anti-kidnapping training;

remarried; become a person with no legal

last name who attends church services on

Christmas morning for a religion she con-

verted to only last year, and who then gives

a present directly to the queen of England;

given birth to a son; and deleted her Insta-

gram.

And yet, if anyone’s life shows evidence of

having been charmed and fortified by mi-

nor miracles, it is Misha Nonoo, inasmuch

as it can be considered a minor miracle to

find oneself marrying into a family of bil-

lionaires (her fiancé is Michael Hess, as in

the energy company); to pose with wet hair

for a picture on a yacht next to a smiling

Beatle (Paul) who is using one’s shoulder

for support as he stands on tippy toes; to be

continually blitzed with a caliber of adver-

tising that money cannot buy when a young

member of the British royal family wears

one’s designs frequently at public events;

and to have “recently stayed at a castle in

Italy,” but have the actual point of the sen-

tence be that it “may have been haunted.”

“Nothing changes,” Ms. Nonoo said at

one point with a laugh.

“From, you know, the handwritten thank-

you letters that you receive, to never miss-

ing a birthday, an occasion, checking in,”

she said. “You may think because some-

one’s so busy that they’re not there, but that

has never changed, how genuinely thought-

ful she is,” she said at another point.

“I’m sure people probably think, like,

‘Things must be so different!’ et cetera, et

cetera. ‘That must affect her friendships!’ ”

she said. “But all I can say is that from my

perspective, she has not changed as a

friend.”

“From when I first met her, to a text that I

would send yesterday or today, nothing has

ever changed,” she said. “Nothing.”

Asked if their relationship had changed at

least logistically, a curtain fell over Ms.

Nonoo’s openness. “I definitely can’t speak

about logistics,” she said.

FOR THE MOST PART,however, she displayed

no more apprehension to speak about her

friend than occasional fleeting pauses be-

fore saying her name.

In fact, Meghan, Duchess of Sussex,

seemed to be one of the least off-limits top-

ics of the day.

By contrast, Ms. Nonoo refused to share

details about the size and location of her

wedding.

Asked to say one thing about David Gef-

fen’s yacht, which she and her fiancé have

been depicted enjoying multiple times on

Mr. Geffen’s Instagram, Ms. Nonoo de-

murred. “I don’t think I can,” she said.

It is actually quite difficult to look some-

one in the eye and politely yet firmly refuse

to answer her question. It is harder, even,

than telling a breezy lie.

It requires a high tolerance for awkward-

ness and a steely nerve. It is a skill well

suited to those whose friends travel with

armed security teams.

And while this was, on the surface, a chat

about her princess friend’s fashion collabo-

ration for charity, it was also a conversation

fraught with tension, requiring, as it did,

Ms. Nonoo to appear to casually discuss the

terribly normal life of a woman whose ef-

forts at privacy, alongside her husband,

have caused national uproar in Britain.

Back at the headquarters of Ms. Nonoo’s

label, in the NoHo section of Manhattan, the

faultlessly polite designer betrayed a hint of

relief as the conversation wrapped.

Asked what she had been dreading, she

responded that her worries lay not in the

questions, but in her answers.

“It’s more about, you know, ‘Keep it to-

gether, Me! Don’t get all crazy and you say

something that you’re like, “Whew, I did not

mean to say that!”’ ” she said, and chuckled.

The collection is available now.

ABOVE, ANDREW TOTH/GETTY IMAGES; ABOVE RIGHT AND RIGHT, ANDREW WHITE FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES

A Duchess and a Friend, Working Together

Far left, Meghan Markle and

Prince Harry at the Invictus

Games in 2017, their first

official outing as a couple. Left,

Ms. Markle and Misha Nonoo

in 2015 at the CFDA/Vogue

Fashion Fund Awards. Top, the

collar that was designed by the

duchess and Ms. Nonoo. Above,

the cuff.

‘She’s not a

micromanager,’

Misha Nonoo

says of Meghan

Markle. ‘She’s

not that type

of personality.’

NATHAN DENETTE/CANADIAN PRESS, VIA ASSOCIATED PRESS

CONTINUED FROM PAGE D1

D8 N THE NEW YORK TIMES, THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 12, 2019

Social change follows its own timeline. It
was in the prehistoric 1990s that I began to
report on racial inequities in fashion serious
enough to attract the attention of the com-
missioner of consumer affairs in New York.
In stories I reported at the time, industry
players demonstrated a startling lack of
concern about the prevalence of racism so
entrenched that one top designer would
blithely note that while, of course, he cast
black models for his runway presentations,
it was only for summer collections. Their
skin tones, he said, set off the colorful
clothes.
This was long before the formation of the
activist Black Girls Coalition and any num-
ber of later industry initiatives to rectify a
glaring imbalance between racial represen-
tation on fashion runways in relation to the
real world.
It would take decades to right a historic
wrong, and likely as not, it was market
forces that drove the push for diversity as
much as politics.
Yet there we were backstage at the Apollo
Theater on a beautiful Harlem evening, and
Zendaya, the onetime Disney child star
who, thanks to a career-defining role as a re-
covering teenage addict in the HBO series
“Euphoria’’ and an Instagram following
close to 62 million, has been transformed
into an unstoppable cultural phenomenon,
was extolling the advances made in repre-
sentation while noting problems left to
address.
This was in advance of a cinematic street-
side spectacle — as much raucous block

party as runway show — for Tommy X Zen-

daya, a debut collection that Zendaya, 23,

designed for Tommy Hilfiger. “There is a lot

that needs fixing,” the actress said. “But

representation and inclusivity is always at

the forefront.” There are doors left to open

and doors to break down, she said: “Every-

one needs to feel seen and like they are part

of the fashion world.”

The validity of her assertion was easy

enough to gauge from the backstage mob

scene that included producers, makeup art-

ists, hairdressers, dressers, publicists, ca-

terers, manicurists, sound and lighting en-

gineers, and assorted hangers-on. The ra-

cial composition — and that of the body

types represented — inside the Apollo was

not radically different from that of 125th

Street, Harlem’s main thoroughfare. The

shift felt as welcome as it was long overdue.

“For years and years it was inevitable

that, when I came into a show, I was the only

black person in the room, including the

models,” said Kayla Fenwick, a makeup art-

ist, as she took a break from applying a

“halo eye” and matte brown lip to women

like the gorgeous Dominican stalwart

Lineisy Montero, the Jamaican breakout

star Tami Williams and Grace Bol, a South

Sudan beauty discovered at a mall in Kan-

sas City, Mo.

“Growing up, you never even knew a

black model could be in the industry,” Ms.

Williams said.

Though at 21, she would seem too young

to have experienced the negative effects of

racism in fashion, that is not the case. “Oh, it

has changed drastically in the five or six

years” since she first entered the business

as a coltish 15-year-old, she said. “It is much

more diverse now, but there can still be

more in terms of different shapes and sizes

and colors.” In fact, as Mr. Hilfiger would

note later, he had cast this particular show

with an emphasis on hiring models across a

range of body types.

Just then, the disembodied voice of the

seasoned show producer Alexandre de

Betak came over the loudspeaker calling for

rehearsal, and all thoughts of politics were

forgotten amid a model stampede.

“Girls!” Mr. de Betak said in his burred

French accent. “We’re only doing one run-

through, so I need you to focus! Look

happy! Look very up! Look right into the

cameras and smile. And, if the girl in front of

you is slow, don’t walk on her.”

Zendaya Seems to Be on Track to Change the World

Above left, Zendaya striding

behind Tommy Hilfiger, at

center, in the finale of the

Tommy X Zendaya show at the

Apollo Theater in Harlem.

Above, the set built for the

runway show there.

PHOTOGRAPHS BY REBECCA SMEYNE FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES

By GUY TREBAY

The star’s Tommy Hilfiger

collaboration is a platform for

speaking out about diversity.