Meghan Markle’s Fashion Choices Are a Boon to Her Adopted Canada

ince time immemorial—or whenever credit cards were invented—wherever royals go, charges follow. There’s the Kate Effect, which has helped move A-line and knee-length product for almost a decade now. Then came the George Effect, and soon after that came the even larger Charlotte Effect. (It began with the blanket she was swaddled in the day she met the world in 2015.) And as one might have already predicted, the Markle Effect has been going strong since it became clear that the actress Meghan Markle was serious with her now-fiancé, Prince Harry. What separates Markle’s retail push from the others, however, is its uniquely Canadian bent, according to reporting from The Cut.

Markle grew up in southern California, but has lived in Toronto for seven years, where she was filming the USA series Suits. It’s also where she befriended her stylist Jessica Mulroney, who has also worked with Sophie Grégoire-Trudeau, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s wife. Mulroney dressed Markle for Monday’s announcement, per Women’s Wear Daily. They chose a $750 white coat by Ontario-based brand LINE the Label, and earrings by Birk. The coat sold out “within minutes” according to the brand’s co-founder and president, John Muscat, despite the fact that its site crashed several times on Monday. Muscat told WWD, “We’re not a huge company and it’s the end of the season so we don’t stock a lot of these coats. They are all handmade.”

(If there’s a lesson in all this for Line, its management might look to Kate Middleton, Markle’s soon-to-be sister-in-law, who engendered a similar reaction when she and Prince William’s announced their engagement in 2010. Middleton‘s dress—which has its own Wikipedia page, mind you—sold out within hours as well. The Brazilian designer of the small label, Issa London, recently said that she wasn’t able to finance such high demand, and called it quits.)