The Duchess of Sussex wanted to highlight causes both big and small, international and local, cultural and political, with her guest-editorship of British Vogue. Apparently, there’s something about Luminary Bakery in the September issue of British Vogue. Luminary Bakery is a London-based bakery which educates, trains (through an apprentice program) and then hires women to be professional bakers. These women are survivors of domestic violence, survivors of trafficking, or women released from prison. And they learn a useful and beautiful trade and everybody wins.
As I said, Meghan chose to highlight the bakery and not only that, she’s apparently sent out personalized notes and small gifts to all of the people and businesses she chose to highlight. That gift? A black leather notebook with “Forces For Change” on the cover. The Luminary Bakery posted a photo of the notebook and the note, with Meghan’s personalized stationary and her beautiful penmanship. The bakery transcribed what she wrote to them too:
“When I knew I would be secretly guest editing the September issue of @britishvogue, including Luminary Bakery was a non-negotiable. The work you do, what you represent to the community, the spirit of the women there- you all embody what it means to be “forces for change”. Thank you for being a part of this special project.” — HRH The Duchess of Sussex @SussexRoyal⠀
[From The Luminary Bakery’s IG]
Lovely note. And I literally spent 20 minutes looking through the bakery’s Instagram because apparently, looking at photos of pretty cakes, brownies and cookies calms the hell out of me. I imagine Meghan doing the same – lingering over photos of the lovely cakes and researching Luminary’s business model and deciding to grant The Meghan Effect.
The Daily Mail thinks the leather notebook is from Smythson, a very fancy stationery/paper shop, and that it would have been a special order, obviously. I… can’t wait to see how that’s ripped to shreds. Diva Meg special orders elitist, virtue-signaling notebooks as GIFTS, she costs too much! Also: I’m obsessed with Meghan’s personal stationery. A gold “M” with a crown? COME ON, that’s amazing.
Photos courtesy of Instagram, Avalon Red.
I feel like she took a handwriting course once she started dating Harry. No one just writes like that.
She used to teach calligraphy years ago.
When you look at it, it’s basically nice cursive with a handful of judicious swoops.
What is shown in these notes is not calligraphy aside from the swoops.
Even if this isn’t calligraphy, the background certainly helps explain how she would have such nice penmanship.
@ hunter
Quick google search says Calligraphy is simply “the art of producing decorative handwriting or lettering”……her writing looks to me like the very definition of the word.
It would be interesting to know what else you’re expecting for her efforts to qualify as Calligraphy. (Or if you even think she can *ever* attain the lofty heights of cursive penmanship)
MrsBanjo…it can’t be that she took calligraphy and taught classes because that would take away from the more reasonable narrative, “she was plotting to meet a prince all along.” smh
@Bella Dupont
Since you’ve asked, the key to quality calligraphy lays in the angle at which one holds the pen, reliably and continuously, in a way that draws both a fine and a wide stroke.
Most commonly in true calligraphy, each letter is a composite of multiple strokes, the lower-case E alone is two different strokes.
So. I identified it as nice cursive yet you ask if I think she could ever attain it… I am not sure you’re reading everything you’re replying to.
I’ve studied calligraphy a bit & I’ve learned that there are styles . . Copperplate, Spencerian. It’s quite formal. Meghan has improvised her own style. (Characterized by the swoops Hunter refers to.) It’s lovely handwriting, but it doesn’t fit the traditional structure some Calligraphers would recognize.
Just to clarify that misunderstanding. . .
By all accounts her handwriting is very typical for the Catholic girls’ school she went to.
She was then able to make a living from her calligraphy.
Palmer method was taught in most Catholic schools and I see some of it in her B, D, L and her T. But she obviously built on that with her own style, her A and V are not rounded. The top loop may be something she learned from calligraphy classes. It is her own signature style and it is unique, elegant and classic. I also admire her thoughtful thank you letters. I used to, but now I send a text. 😕
Sunnee- interesting! I wouldn’t know, my handwriting is horrible, LOL! I have taken Chinese calligraphy but that’s it.
@Sunnee is totally Palmer method, i study in my school but in my case it didnt work.
My dad also went to catholic school and can do fancy letters, but his everyday writing is illegible doctor script. Lol.
She did calligraphy for an event planner or something like that after college. I have a friend who did the same and her penmanship is amazing too.
In an interview with Craig Ferguson (before she married Harry) she said she worked as a calligrapher as a side job.
She was a professional calligrapher in college. So yes no one just writes like that. And they certainly don’t decide to learn to write like that because they meet a guy. It takes training.
Valiantly…not Duchess Meghan. They can’t give her credit for anything without implying she was angling for a prince. And we wonder why the world is in the shape it is.
Even if she hadn’t done it before Harry, in her shoes – I would have regardless after I met Harry. That handwriting is amazing and fit for a royal duchess.
@tw- nah, she learnt to do calligraphy from her all girl’s Catholic secondary (high) school, and as a working actress, she’d do wedding invitations between jobs.
I tell you, a good high school makes all the difference. Even more than a good college. The soft skills she’s learnt from then (handwritten letters of thanks), decent penmanship, art skills, is immense.
Grad school utterly destroyed my penmanship, so I’m looking for a calligraphy class in the desperate hope that I can write as beautifully as Meghan. Her penmanship really is wonderful.
You can get tons of work books on amazon. I was looking into the “modern” calligraphy books for a while but never got around to ordering one. I’d imagine there’s a ton of printables online as well
himmiefan…Lol!
Well, it is impressive! I can’t read my own writing when I make shopping lists lol.
how does one get penmanship like that? anyone have any pointers or links? i hardly write anymore by hand and it all looks like chicken scratchings.
She made a living doing calligraphy work and teaching classes in a paper store years ago. I tried learning calligraphy and gave up. It’s pretty difficult!
You can take lessons or get handwriting/calligraphy/handlettering guidebooks cheaply on amazon. Just be mindful of the kind of pen you use.
@A random commentator,
Yeah, this page is a good guide. Also the paper is important. You want smooth, white paper that will take wet ink. European exercise books (the ones from the continent) like Clairefontaine is a good place to begin.
@Des, there are loads of videos on youtube. But the best thing is to get the narrow lined books (that school children use for letters an example is here), and a decent fountain pen with a calligraphy nib. (go with cheap, I think),.
Try for two styles at first (Meghan seems to favour a standard italic script) and work on it from there. The trick is to relax your hands, and go for fluidity as well as consistency. I think she’d probably use a cotton glove on her hand so as not to smudge the paper (even though I think she’s an old hand, so I imagine her style being relatively fluid – sans cotton glove).
At my school I had to do old English for my art class (we had to to do two styles of fonts for the graphic/calligraphy section) and that was hard, y’all.
wow thank you so much for those pointers!
@Des – try for cheap calligraphy pens this post is helpful. Go for heavy paper (Clarefontaine is a good brand) of exercise books to practice with instead of recycled newsprint. Or if you really want good and cheap, go for brown wrapping paper until you feel confident to graduate to the big stuff. Good luck!
Mine is just awful, too. It looks like a right-handed child wrote something with their left hand to prove she’s ambidextrous. I’m borderline embarrassed by it, especially when I look at these elegant notes.
yeah i always feel like there’s nothing more elegant that handwritten notes and then i look at my handwriting and … not so much, lol.
thank you all for the tips! i’m off to get some notebooks and pens
That stationery with her insignia is stunning. And will most definitely trigger the haters lol.
This was a lovely gift and Luminary Bakery sounds like an amazing place.
Needless Information you might be interested in:
Samantha Cameron designs for Smythson. Smythson also sells high end leather goods.
@BayTampaBay – UGH, if there’s a name I don’t ever want to hear again, is bloody Cameron. A pox on all that they touch, honestly.
The letter M with crown is her official monogram, made to work with Harry’s and their joint one. Haters will be triggered, but it is her official monogram.
I know.
As someone said: this is her individual ‘cypher’. One was created for her & one for Harry and another was made to intertwine when correspondence is from both: https://www.insider.com/meghan-markle-prince-harry-official-monogram-2018-8
And as I said above- I know.
OMG her handwriting is so beautiful!
Loretta, don’t say that! The haters will start saying she probably put a spell on the pen. smh
LOL!
Holy moly. She sent gifts of thanks. That’s what people with CLASS do. Good Lord. Yeah, this too will be ripped the shreds. Just like the M with the crown above it (which I would do as well, eff ‘em – she married a PRINCE of royal blood). Love her handwriting.
Let’s be honest, chutney can’t compete here. 🤭
It is very thoughtful to send handwritten notes and not typewritten ones. It shows the writer actually took time to think about the message and didn’t delegate it to a staff member. I have seen a few examples of Camilla also having done this in the past as well so the protocol police really don’t have a basis to criticize her.
Good to know because the haters will be out.
Let’s see, the Daily Mail will soon say that “Forces For Change” is the code for the Meghan supporters to rise up, storm Buckingham Palace with bananas and avocado toast, overthrow the Queen, and install Meghan as the monarch. That’s why Meghan has a crown on her stationary. Piers Morgan will whine that he’s not her consort.
lmaooooooooo
The Piers Morgan part made me laugh the hardest.
Wow. Her penmanship. Does anyone know if she learned how to write when she became Royal? Or has she always written like that? And damn, I wish I wrote like that. (And had the desire to learn. LOL.)
She was a professional calligrapher
She was a professional calligrapher, but the flowery bits (the squiggles off her d’s, t’s, l’s) is a fairly recent addition to her handwriting. Most likely before Harry but not a lifelong habit—personal letters of hers have been published over the years so you can kind of track the evolution if handwriting is your thing.
Meghan appears to be a truly thoughtful person. Thank you notes and gifts are part of a bygone era. I was taught to always sent a handwritten thank you note but I have admittedly failed there (and everywhere else, it seems). My goal for this year was to bring back handwritten letters and I’ve only gotten a few out. I’m going to get on that during my day off tomorrow.
Matt Haig, the guy who wrote the Beach peom that was featured here the other day, also got a Thank You card, and what he posted n his Insta was so lovely:
“Got home to some unusual mail, amid all the bills and magazines.
An envelope from Kensington Palace.
HRH Duchess Meghan called me a ‘force for change’ and now I can die happy.
This year is beyond anything I imagined, years ago, getting rejection after rejection from publishers.
I would love to go back in time and tell my young hopeless suicidal self about all of this magic to stay alive for.
Persist. (I have now enrolled for handwriting classes.)”
Just goes to show, you never know when someone will be lifted up by an act of kindness. Kudos Duchess!
I wish this man the best & I’m glad Meghan’s attention had a positive impact on him.
But. . . external validation isn’t what it’s all about & it sounds to me like he’s giving way too much importance to it.
@xo That’s true, it isn’t. But no one can say what state anyone is in to be affected that way. So, for him, if that’s what gets him through, more power to him.
She is such a class act.
Yes!!
What a lovely gift. If people make a big deal about the fancy notebook – and I’ll wait to see if that happens – they can go pound sand. A fancy notebook is a lovely and useful gift that you can use as a special journal, a phone/address book, etc.
She’s inspiring me to take a calligraphy class. My handwriting wasn’t bad at one point, but now it’s just gone to poo. I think all the typing we do now has something to do with it. Even if I try and focus, or esp when I do, it’s like my hand just spazzes out. Very thoughtful and kind on the personalized notes and gifts. She takes that extra step that just shows how much she cares.
I absolutely think the typing we do on a daily basis affects it. I haven’t written extensively with my hands beyond short notes since high school – it’s all been on computers since. I’ve been trying to clean up my cursive.
@Ladiabla – ballpoint pens are the devil too. You don’t have to think about writing, positioning, etc. Whereas with a fountain pen does force you to focus on your writing. I’d try out a fountain pen if I were you, and try to write in a cheap day planner or something and see how you go. Right now, I’m journalling in my target language so my handwriting has recovered somewhat.
I was heartbroken when my children’s elementary school dropped its handwriting curriculum for keyboarding. A lot of the kids can’t even read cursive now. When several of us went to the principal to complain she was truly upset. She said that there had been huge discussions at the district level, but that the students needed keyboarding and computer skills more than they needed cursive, and there were only so many hours in the day.
I understand why you and the other parents are upset, but your principal isn’t wrong, either. Schools keep getting new things added to their requirements by their states, and short of adding more time to the day, something’s got to go.
Do I understand this correctly: Keyboarding is being taught in the second and/or third grade??????
@Giddy – yeah, it’s terrible for the school, but I can see why they dropped the writing for keyboading. You really need to know to how to touch type in these streets. But the thing is, touch typing can be taught in six weeks (I did summer school for touch typing on an old kenwood typewriter YEARS ago), so the school really could just do six weeks touch typing and then six weeks cursive/penmannship.
She’s so classy. What a lovely note and gift.
I have no chill with regards to this woman. I love her.
Me neither. I spent ten minutes this morning waxing poetic about her with my mom. She really is just wonderful.
lol, same. same.
Duchess Meghan is such a class act! I have always made it a point to pen letters or send cards to friends, family or businesses to express gratitude. We never know what people may be experiencing internally and notes have the potential to add a little sunshine to their days.
He penmanship looks…immature as in something she hasn’t been doing long. Also, not pretty. I’m so over this gal, the thirst, the fakeness. I loved her in the beginning but, next!
Well, I guess she faked Robin Thicke and Paula Patton’s wedding invitations, since she did those! She was probably plotting to catch Harry then too, huh🤔🙄. Oh, the hurt is hilarious 🤣🤣
Oh yes, the thirst, the fakeness. The girl who learned her handwriting style in Catholic school was scheming the entire time to become a Duchess. She just couldn’t be sincere, kind, and thoughtful?
Actually my first comment! Longtime lurking. But, these are Camilla Tomelly (or however her name is spelt) people right here…🤣🤣🤣
Glad you’re here!
LOL. She literally did calligraphy as a side gig, but hey, I’m sure yours is much better, internet stranger.
“ I loved her in the beginning but, next!”
Why do the haters always add lines like this as if no one can tell they’ve never liked Meghan?
IKR. Only a very sad and bitter soul would come on this thread to leave such a stupid comment. But, I guess it’s better that the OP (@Delibabe) left her confession of envy here than directly attacking Luminary Bakery on IG for wanting to share it’s excitement. These trolls have no self-awareness. They hate everything that is good and decent about the Duchess, and will lie just to support that hate.
It really burns you inside that she did something thoughtful doesn’t it. Stay pressed troll.
No need to go fly off the handle, ladies. Didn’t CB called HRH’s venture “Cringe worthy (by CB’s words, verbatiem)? She is cringe worthy, lately. And no, I wouldn’t pay her to do invitations. Nice gesture? Sure. It’s called manners.
https://www.celebitchy.com/630118/gossip_with_celebitchy_podcast_24_duchess_meghans_guest_editing_makes_us_cringe/
CB thought it was cringey writing not a cringey project.
What’s so bad about sending personalized gifts?
@delibabe. Daily Fail is missing you. Get over it, troll.
She was accomplished long before she met Harry and apparently has been consistently thoughtful leaving beautiful handwritten thank you notes. I think her Forces for Change is the counter to Kate’s Heads together.
Re: her stationery
The crown on the stationery is actually a ducal coronet, and part of her official cypher, monogram and coat of arms!
“Duchess Meghan’s cypher, which is kind of like a royal monogram, features a script uppercase ‘M’ underneath a coronet. It is very similar to the cyphers of Prince Harry, Prince William, and the Duchess of Cambridge.
The crown above the ‘M’ appears to be the one approved by a Royal Warrant of 1917 for the sons and daughters of the heir apparent. It features two crosses patée (a type of Christian cross), four fleurs-de-lys and two strawberry leaves, though not all of them are seen on the letterhead.
That coronet is also featured in the Duchess of Sussex’s new coat of arms (below), which also pays homage to her home state of California.”
https://www.townandcountrymag.com/society/tradition/a20915252/meghan-markle-duchess-sussex-monogram-letterhead-stationery/
She is so classy and awesome. Let the haters hate. She’s amazing. 😀
YEP!
Yes!!
So classy! And yes, I just spent a good amount of time looking at Luminary’s IG. So pretty.
This is so on-brand for Meghan. I am here for it. May we all write more thank-you notes and present thoughtful gifts in thanks. Love her handwriting, too!
Very nicely done, Meghan. A hand written note shows care and appreciation. Her handwriting is beautiful.
It was very thoughtful. I must be old, this is basically cursive handwriting, which most people don’t do anymore.
In an old interview she said that she learned it in catholic school and when she wrote a thank you note to a friend’s mother her side career as a calligrapher started. She was even hired to write the wedding invitations of Robin Thicke and said she always wore socks on her hands while writing, as to not smudge or stain it. The things I know…
Definitely a Smythson notebook.
British aristocracy & landed gentry are all about handwritten thank you notes. Completely standard having received a gift, stayed somewhere as a guest, etc.
Indeed, and as we know Meghan has been doing so for years, perhaps she’s better suited to her role than some might like to think!