According to various royal experts, Queen Elizabeth II did not wear her iconic handbags solely for fashion reasons. They also helped her communicate secret messages to her staff.

In Newsweek’s The Royal Report podcast, royal commentator Kristen Meinzer explains that if the Queen swapped her purse from one arm to the other, that meant she wanted her ladies-in-waiting to extricate her from an ongoing conversation. 

Another example given this time by The Telegraph and quoted by Metro refers to the Queen putting her bag on the table during dinner. 

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If royal experts are to be believed, such a move indicated that the Queen wanted to leave the dinner “in the next 5 minutes”. Similarly, if Her Majesty put her handbag on the floor, it meant the time had come to leave. 

“If she happened to be taking callers at Buckingham Palace, there was also a handy secret buzzer the Queen could use to signal that it was time for her guests to leave,” – Metro continues. 

The Queen was known for her sense of style and virtually never travelled anywhere without one of her iconic purses. The evolution of her outfits and accessories was scrupulously monitored by fashion lovers worldwide during the seven decades of her reign.

The Queen’s favourite handbag brands were Clarins, Selfridges & Co., and Launer London.

Image: Sutterstock

Author: Sébastien Meuwissen