“She once told me that she doesn’t feel dressed without a bag,” Launer’s CEO Gerald Bodmer tells Vogue. “And I completely agree, of course.” The company was founded by Sam Launer in 1940, received a royal warrant in 1968 and Bodmer took over the company in 1981. It was during his tenure that the Queen commissioned Launer bags via her steadfast personal advisor and senior dresser, Angela Kelly—the Royale and Traviata were her go-tos—and she was gifted Launer by her children (likely King Charles III, according to Bodmer).
Before Launer, the Queen and the Queen Mother acquired bags from British shoemaker Rayne, which sold styles made by Launer. (It has been widely reported that the Queen received her first Launer from the Queen Mother in the 1950s, but Bodmer was unable to confirm.)
Her Majesty visited the Launer factory in Walsall, just outside of Birmingham, in 1991, to watch her favorite styles being made. Each bag is handmade and takes around eight hours to complete, equating to a considerable price tag (the Traviata is upwards of £2,090).
Clearly captivated by the artisanal process, she was apparently “really interested” and spoke to every member of staff separately. “The Queen had a charisma, a very good sense of humor,” Bodmer remarks. As for the rumors that she gave signals with her bags, from swapping arms to placing it on the floor or a table? “You don’t need to when you’re like that,” he affirms.
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