Everybody, shush. The Duchess of Sussex is trying to send us one last coded message before she and her husband smoke-bomb out of the UK.

Meghan and Harry will officially be off the royal payroll by the end of the month, free to live their glorious new, unemployed existence in Canada: no public funds, no ‘Sussex Royal’ branding, no responsibilities, no worries. Until then, they’re still technically senior working royals.

And as we all know, if you’re a senior working royal, you’re not actually meant to break the rules by voicing controversial opinions that go against royal protocol. Them’s the rules.

So… Coded messages.

Watch: Meghan, Duchess of Sussex’s style before and after becoming a royal. Post continues after video.

Meghan carried out one of her final official duties this week, and I have now convinced myself that the equality advocate was signalling to us through the metaphor of fabric.

Hold my tinfoil hat while I break it down.

It was Saturday night’s Mountbatten Festival of Music at London’s Royal Albert Hall; the Duke and Duchess’ curtain cull on royal life. A sombre occasion, surely.

The pair has made it very clear through, and since, their resignation in February that it was a reluctant decision, one made for the sake of their son and because they crave independence and “space”. Plus, the Palace hasn’t hidden the fact that it’s caused tension (Meghan and Harry not only seemingly blindsided Her Majesty, but broke up the ‘awesome foursome’, leaving the reinvigoration of the monarchy squarely on the shoulders of the Cambridges.)

One would, therefore, expect Meghan and Harry to slink away mutedly. If not, awkwardly. To just fade into the distance.

But instead, this….

With that bright red Safiyaa gown and equally bright red Aquazzurra heels and Manolo Blahnik clutch, the Duchess of Sussex basically fired a glitter cannon on the way out the door. The effect was bright, dramatic, and will stick around for a long, long time.

Of course, sartorial signalling is nothing new. Take Meghan's sister-in-law Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge, wearing green and white, the national colours of Ireland, while in Ireland. You can basically hear the plebs chanting. One of us, one of us.

More than PR, it can be political, too.

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Nancy Pelosi and their female Democratic Party colleagues wearing white — the colour of the suffragettes — to President Donald Trump's 2019 and 2020 State of the Union addresses.

Female actors wearing black to the 2018 Golden Globes in solidarity with the Time's Up movement that called for an end to sexual harassment in the workplace.

'But that's clearly conscious, deliberate, agreed upon beforehand,' I hear you say.

True. But rest assured, nothing a royal does (in public, anyway) is by accident. Every single decision made before they step out in public is considered, projected, analysed and assessed, with full knowledge that cameras are waiting, the public is watching and columnists are poised over their keyboards.

Columnists like this one, who start reading into the fact that the Duchess' last three outfits as a working royal were red, white and blue  — the colours of the British flag. Oh, and also the American one! Her two homelands.

And... AND... now that I think of it, her last outfit was red, which is the colour of her next one — Canada. And...

OK. OK. I'll stop. Hand me back that tinfoil hat.

Feature image: Getty.

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