Bethan HOLT
Bethan Holt explains how the British brand’s classic bags came to symbolise the Queen and Margaret Thatcher’s relationship
‘There were three of us in this marriage, so it was a little crowded,” Princess Diana, once said. But her marriage to Prince Charles isn’t the only coupling in the fourth series of The Crown, released on Netflix at the weekend, with a significant third wheel.
The relationship between the sovereign and prime minister may be famously sacred, but once Margaret Thatcher storms to election victory in 1979, Launer handbags – the Queen’s favourite brand – are seen playing piggy-in-the-middle to her and the monarch.
The name may not be as globally renowned as Chanel or Hermès, but the quietly chic British “It” bags – distinguished by their discreet, abstractly woven-together L logo – feature in significant scenes through the series, laden with symbolism.
One of the rare occasions that the Queen doesn’t have hers hooked over her elbow, or sat on the floor beside her like a patient corgi, is when she’s Barbour-ed up for a day of stalking at Balmoral in the second episode. So when Mrs Thatcher arrives to join her at the Land Rover in a crisp Tory-blue jacket, touting her pristine Launer Olympia, it only emphasises the new PM’S observation that “places like this are all about what you wear and when” – and just how much she’s misjudged the rules.
In a later episode, the tables turn as the prime minister gives Her Majesty one of her famous “handbaggings” after the sovereign’s displeasure at Thatcher’s refusal to impose sanctions on South Africa is revealed by the press. “I think we have enough respect for one another personally to ask one another some of the bigger questions, woman to woman,” says the PM tersely – wielding her Launer in front of her like an axe, before unzipping it to pull out the newspaper cutting.
Launer was established in London in the Forties by Sam Launer, who fled Czechoslovakia after it was occupied by the Nazis and set up a workshop in Soho, crafting timeless, formal handbags for society ladies.
Queen Elizabeth (later the Queen Mother) was among his earliest customers. Later, Launer’s son Freddie took over the business, and the Queen began carrying bags by the label, which was awarded a Royal Warrant in 1968. For years, she has carried Launer exclusively for daytime engagements.
By the dawn of Thatcherite Britain,
however, all was not well at Launer. Enter Gerald Bodmer, a one-time musician turned importer and manufacturer who swooped in to rescue the ailing business, just as power dressing gripped the nation, with two women at its helm. While the Queen was a long-standing customer, Bodmer sent a bag to Mrs Thatcher and she, too, became a loyal client.
“They’re both very smart ladies, and we’re an iconic name,” says Bodmer, now in his eighties and giving a rare interview to The Daily Telegraph to mark Launer’s starring role in The Crown. “In the early days, people maybe gave [the Queen] bags but perhaps they weren’t the ones she wanted to carry,” he adds, hinting at her penchant for Launer’s elegant frames and high quality leathers.
During the period covered by the programme, Launer’s priority was ensuring its two most high-profile customers never had the same bag as the other. “Years ago, I met a guy, a small manufacturer, who did designs for the Queen,” Bodmer remembers, “and he told me once that Mrs Thatcher and the Queen had the same item and Mrs Thatcher was furious. Luckily, we didn’t have that problem.”
Though Bodmer has yet to see the series, he’s delighted when I tell him how prominently his bags, which are made at Launer’s factory in Walsall, feature. “That’s so good,” he squeals with boyish excitement, “in those days I wasn’t quite as famous as I am now.”
In fact, The Crown’s costume department visited the Launer showroom to select four styles for Olivia Colman and Gillian Anderson to carry – we see Mrs Thatcher clutching the Olympia as she enters No 10 for the first time and the Bellini hooked over the Queen’s elbow as Diana picks out her engagement ring.
The brand’s fortunes seem to have traced the same ups and downs as the Royal family. In the late Nineties and Noughties, the label had dipped in popularity. It was the Queen who came to the rescue, unwittingly, when in 2011 she carried a customised version of the Lisa bag to the wedding of Prince William and Kate Middleton.
“That really set us off, it completely lifted us,” says Bodmer, who saw sales rise by 60 per cent in the weeks after the ceremony. When Baroness Thatcher died in 2013, nostalgia for her distinctive look prompted another 53 per cent boost in sales.
Since then, the brand has attracted a new generation of customers around the world, helped by the introduction of its website and the possibility of ordering the bags in a vibrant array of colours
– black now accounts for just 10 per cent of sales (though it is still the Queen’s favourite).
“Twenty years ago, if we had anyone under 55 buying we thought we were lucky,” Bodmer tells me, “but we’r we’re getting a lot of younger p people buying now.” Int Interest comes not just from the UK but America, Australia, Japan and South Korea. The £ £1,900 Traviata – carried in w white by Olivia Colman – is t the most popular style, pe perhaps thanks to the Qu Queen’s status as a nonagenarian nonagen style icon.
“The Queen doesn’t do have that man many, but they’re all ve very good quality,” he notes, dismissing the rumou rumour that Her M Majesty owns 200 differ different bags. In fac fact, her dress dresser Angela Ke Kelly orders only what she need needs each year. “Lately, I’ve m made them a bit lighter t to make them more comfor comfortable for her,” Bodmer reve reveals, adding that it’s “im “important to them [the Quee Queen and Kelly] and us that the bags are made in the UK UK”. The Queen vivisited visited Laune Launer’s factory when it wwas was based in Hackney in 1991,, 1991, spending a an afternoon seeingg seeing how her ba bags were made. The Duchess of Cornw Cornwall visited its new Wwalsall Walsall base in January. “Shhe “She is such a sweetie, a very nicee nice lady,” Bodm Bodmer says. Prince Chcharles Charles also so sources his wallets fr from the company. Each L Launer handbag takes seven to e eight hours to create and is mad made up of around 80 piece pieces. Bodmer, who has bee been joined in the bu business by his 50 50-year-old son An Andrew, is as passionat ate about keeping pr production in England no now as he was when he bought the label. Th This year has presented ma many new challenges, not least that the Lau Launer concessions in Fo Fortnum and Mason an and Selfridges have be been unable to do their usu usual brisk business. ““When I go through the W West End, it’s so dead it’s frightening,” says Bodmer. “I will kee keep on though, I’ve liv lived through quite a few crises in my life.” G Given that some 73 million viewers ha have devoured The Crown’s Crown previous series and season f four is expected to be just as much of a blockbuster, the Queen E Effect may come to Launer’s res rescue yet again.