Meghan Markle has officially been named the most powerful dresser of 2019

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Much like Princess Diana and her fashion secrets before her, Meghan Markle has a few sartorial tips up her sleeve to make sure she always looks impeccable during royal outings (putting her own royal protocol too many times, and off duty too.

And it looks like her hard work has paid off, as she has officially been named the most influential royal for 2019, according to date pulled by Lyst from over 104 million shoppers. The site found that on average, there was a 216% increase in searches for similar pieces to the ones the Duchess wore right after being photographed.

For example, after wearing shirt dresses on the Royal Tour of South Africa, searches for the category grew 45% over a month, whilst the Club Monaco dress she wore sold out in less than 24 hours, following a 570% spike in searches.

Here are a few of her style secrets which might explain her success.

The hidden meaning behind Meghan Markle's clothes

The Duchess if Sussex thinks each outfit through carefully, and where appropriate, she likes to hide a secret meaning in them, like that time she had the Commonwealth flora embroidered on her wedding veil, or a piece of the blue dress she wore on her first date with Harry sewn into her wedding dress.

Photo: Rex

Meghan Markle never accepts free clothes

When Meghan was a Hollywood actress, she probably got given lots of designer clothes for free, however that all changed when she got married, because it's agains royal protocol to accept gifts. However, the royal family are often give a discretionary discount.

Meghan Markle breaks royal protocol

The Duchess has earned herself the reputation of being a little bit of a sartorial rule-breaker, thanks to the unexpected outfits she wears which don't always follow the rules. For example, she wore this mini dress for an outing in November, when it's often recommended for women in the royal family to wear under-the-knee clothes. She also wore black nail varnish at the British Fashion Awards, when nude is the colour of choice for the Queen.

Meghan Markle wears shoes that are too big for her

You might have spotted the fact that Meghan often wears heels that are slightly too big for her, but there's an excellent reason behind it. This is to avoid blisters, as new shoes can often be uncomfortable when they've not been worn in - though the Queen has someone who breaks her shoes in for her for this exact reason.

Meghan Markle uses a special method to roll up her sleeves

Not metaphorically, but physically. She apparently uses the J. Crew method to make sure her shirt sleeves stay rolled up but still look chic and casual while out and about.

meghan markle sunglasses

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Meghan Markle wears body suits

When the Duchess wears skirts and trousers, she sometimes wears body suits to avoid her top becoming untucked. Especially handy on windy days.

Meghan Markle has a skirt trick

Ok, so it's not just Meghan, Kate Middleton uses this skirt trick too. She sometimes get weights sewn into the hem of her skirts to avoid them blowing up in high winds and risking flashing everyone. They also tights to increase static to avoid this situation.

Penny Goldstone

Penny Goldstone is the Digital Fashion Editor at Marie Claire, covering everything from catwalk trends to royal fashion and the latest high street and Instagram must-haves.

Penny grew up in France and studied languages and law at the Sorbonne Nouvelle University in Paris before moving to the UK for her MA in multimedia journalism at Bournemouth University. She moved to the UK permanently and has never looked back (though she does go back regularly to stock up on cheese and wine).

Although she's always loved fashion - she used to create scrapbooks of her favourite trends and looks, including Sienna Miller and Kate Moss' boho phase - her first job was at MoneySavingExpert.com, sourcing the best deals for everything from restaurants to designer sales.

However she quit after two years to follow her true passion, fashion journalism, and after many years of internships and freelance stints at magazines including Red, Cosmopolitan, Stylist and Good Housekeeping, landed her dream job as the Digital Fashion Editor at Marie Claire UK.

Her favourite part of the job is discovering new brands and meeting designers, and travelling the world to attend events and fashion shows. Seeing her first Chanel runway IRL at Paris Fashion Week was a true pinch-me moment.