Why Meghan Markle's Royal Wedding Dressmakers Had to Wash Their Hands Every 30 Minutes

Meghan Markle walked down the aisle of St. Goerge's Chapel in a pure white royal wedding dress, and it took a lot of hand washing to keep it that color.

Markle's pure white silk wedding gown from Givenchy featuring a 16-foot-long train, a cathedral-length veil, three-quarter length sleeves, and an open bateau neckline was fit for a princess, and reportedly required the dressmakers to wash their hands every 30 minutes.

"The workers spent hundreds of hours meticulously sewing and washing their hands every 30 minutes to keep the tulle and threads pristine," Kensington Palace explained in a statement.

British designer Clare Waight Keller, who designed the dress, said that the hand washing was a necessity in order to maintain the pristine pure white color of the gown.

"Over a period of time, you build up oils on your hand and when you work on something of such purity — absolute pure white — you need to keep it immaculately clean," Keller said, according to PEOPLE. "So this was part of the process when you are doing embroidery that you need to keep your hands very fresh. There were many people involved in the workmanship, and obviously it took an enormous amount of hours to do it."

The dress, touted by The Royal Family as "a timeless minimal elegance referencing the codes of the iconic House of Givenchy and showcasing the expert craftsmanship of its world-renowned Parisian couture atelier founded in 1952," came as a surprise to many, as Clare Waight Keller had not seemed a contender for the dress designer.

Prior to the big day, numerous designers were thrown out as possible contenders.

Speculation that Markle would be wearing a gown from Burberry were sparked after her mother, Doria Loyce Ragland, was spotted arriving in London ahead of the wedding with a Burberry garment bag. At past royal weddings, fashion houses have designed multiple looks, and some believed that Burberry had designed both Markle's gown and her mother's ensemble.

It had also been reported that Inbal Dror could be the possible designer, as Markle allegedly reached out to them for a sketch.

David Emanuel, the designer of Princess Diana's 1981 wedding gown, was also speculated to be the gown designer after he was spotted at Windsor Castle just a day before the wedding.

The top contender seemed to be Ralph & Russo, the designers who created Markle's $75,000 engagement photo dress. Prior to walking down the aisle, it had even been reported that Ralph & Russo had created a "hand-stitched" and "heavily beaded" gown with a hefty price tag of $135,000.