The last secret of the enigmatic bag of Isabel II
The manufacturer of her inseparable accessory reveals that he has made a lighter model to make it more comfortable for the queen, who uses it to send encrypted messages to her assistants
One sees Elizabeth II with her inseparable bag and it is irremediable to wonder: what will the queen wear in such an accessory when she is followed by a court of assistants and bodyguards ready to meet each of her royal needs? Aside from what may trigger the imagination, it is also normal to wonder why the British monarch is so unimaginative in her choices and once she does one, she does not mind repeating the model over and over again. She happens to him with her bags, with hats, with shoes and even with her characteristic blazer suits. She changes the color, the place in which she wears them, the person in front of whom she shows them, but there is her short-handled bag strategically hanging on her arm as a modern armor. After all, she is always around someone to conveniently disappear for at least a few minutes if the act requires more ease and the freedom of both arms.
Now the queen has made a change but it is so personal that only experts in the field or the creator of the star accessory of her wardrobe come to appreciate it. Gerald Bodmer, CEO of Launer, Elizabeth II's favorite handbag brand, has revealed that his latest designs are “lighter” to make them more comfortable for the queen, a woman who, in addition to being the monarch who has been in the business the longest. the throne has already passed 94 years
The brand in question is the one that has had the honor of hanging from the arm of the British queen for 60 years in almost identical versions. Leather and black, preferably. A choice that the wardrobe managers of the new season of The Crown have not forgotten either, the series about the history of the British royal family that arouses passions among viewers and more than one suspicion among its royal protagonists. However, Bodmer, 88, is delighted with the publicity that both give his brand, although he has been quick to point out that the monarch "does not have a lot" of his bags, but that "they are all very good quality".
He himself has given some details about how this accessory gets to the queen's dressing room. Angela Kelly, who is in charge of her dressing table, is the one who orders the ones she needs each year and it is essential that the bags are made in the United Kingdom. Bodmer also admits that Elizabeth II "knows what she wants from her and if she doesn't like what we've done to her, she won't use it." To which he added: "We usually work on a bag that we already have and then customize it with what Angela knows the Queen wants or with specific needs according to certain commitments." If the customizations are not very demanding, each model, according to the prices that appear on the firm's website, is worth between 1,700 and 2,500 pounds or what is the same, between 1,900 and 2,800 euros.
But although the handbag manufacturer does not know what secrets its creations keep, details about its content have been leaking over the years. For example, a lipstick believed to be the same shade she commissioned from Clarins to match her coronation robe in 1953. An S-shaped hook so she doesn't have to leave her bag on the ground . A glasses case. Mints or some chocolate. A pen. A 5 or 10 pound note that, according to one of his biographers, Sally Bedell Smith, she uses to toss into the donation basket when she attends a church service, the only time she uses cash. And sometimes, the crosswords that her collaborators cut out every day from the newspapers, family photographs or miniature dogs, horses and saddles that she wears as good luck charms and are gifts from her children. Even if the act she attends allows it, a small camera to practice her love of photography.
But even more curious than its content is the meaning of the way it is used. Because the bag serves the British queen to convey discreet messages to her collaborators. A kind of encrypted code that requires attention, codes and custom of interpretation.
As revealed in 2017 by the historian and expert on the British royal family Hugo Vickers to the American magazine People, if the monarch passes the complement from one hand to another, it means that she is ready to end a conversation. When she lays it on the table while at an event she wants to notify her bodyguard that she is ready to go. If she is leaning on the floor, she indicates an uninteresting conversation and what she is asking for is the intervention of her companion, who will arrive to help her in a few seconds. A message that she also sends if she turns her wedding ring and that will provoke a discreet and natural intervention that will get her out of trouble without disturbing her interlocutor.
Launer's next invention may be to sophisify her handbags and figure out how to incorporate some technological gadget against unrepentant heavyweights. After all, it is already said that the monarch has a discreet doorbell at Buckingham Palace that she uses when she wants to in her official meetings. If it rings, the staff at her service know that it is time to open the doors that signal to the guests that it is time to get up and leave the room. Secrets of a queen with 69 years of office.
