Meghan Markle’s Chartreuse Dress Had Everyone Talking — But Not For The Reasons You’d Think

Meghan seems to have a natural talent for sparking conversation about her fashion choices, but it’s hard to tell whether she does this on purpose, or if people just love to pick her apart and create a narrative around her. This was proven once again when Meghan and Harry attended a recent Netflix event together.

The tastemaker event for Beef Season 2 was hosted in Montecito by Netflix CEO Ted Sarandos. The guest list, of course, included the stars of the show, Oscar Isaac and Carey Mulligan, but it was also stacked with other high-profile celebrities like Justin Trudeau, Katy Perry, and Orlando Bloom (what wouldn’t you do to be a fly on the wall when these three cross paths?).

So what was it that got everyone talking? Did Meghan trip on the red carpet? Was it a wardrobe malfunction? Did she say something weird or make a speech that fell flat? Well, there are actually two reasons. The first reason is simply the color of Meghan’s dress.

Meghan wore a Heidi Merrick “Gale” gown in chartreuse, a color that is very trendy and “in” this season. We’ve seen this color all over the catwalks and in various fashion outlets, critics and writers are promoting it as the hot new bold statement for this season. But of course, when Meghan wears it, suddenly it’s because apparently there was a dress code at the event and everyone was supposed to wear black and white, and only Carey Mulligan was supposed to stand out it chartreuse. If one were to consider the opinions expressed online, it is suggested that Meghan intentionally violated the dress code in order to attract attention.

The second reason for the situation being blown out of proportion was the implication that Meghan and Harry attended the event solely because their relationship with Netflix is strained, their projects aren’t receiving the expected views, and they are trying to smooth things over.

Is there any truth to this claim, or is it all gossip? When it comes to Harry and Meghan’s strained relationship with the streaming platform, Netflix’s Chief Content Officer Bela Bajaria, publicly dismissed the speculation. Their coverage of the event showed Meghan’s appearance as a positive sign that the partnership is going well, and they plan to continue and do more projects in the future.

When it comes to the dress color, it’s hard to know for sure. The rumor mill keeps insisting that there was a dress code, but that’s impossible to confirm. No official coverage mentions a strike dress code. It seems to be a case of people making assumptions based on a few photos where others predominantly wear monochrome outfits, so Meghan stands out in comparison.

So according to invitations & reports the guests were instructed to ONLY wear black or white as they wanted the lead actress, dressed in Chartreuse to stand out, well colour me green, ONE guest wanted to be the star, guess who!
Here's a hint #MeghanMarkle
So disrespectful https://t.co/cnFrmssvIK
— EnglishRose (@EnglishRose543) April 12, 2026

People sure love framing Meghan as the villain. There were quite a few theories circulating on X ranging from petty to insane. Some were saying this was orchestrated by Netflix, others were convinced it was Meghan’s evil plan to upstage Carey Mulligan, and some even claimed to know what the invitations said.

However, there were some people who were trying to be reasonable and attempted to defend Meghan while expressing how offensive the color chartreuse is to them. All in all, it seems like it could be a classic case of trying to follow the trends that got blown out of proportion. So did Meghan choose that dress because she knew Carey Mulligan would be wearing the same color, or because she was trying to make a bold fashion statement, or was it pure coincidence? I guess we’ll never know.