EVERY woman should own one handbag that has been made exclusively for her.

So believes Rosemary Ringrose, who produces such creations from her Poole atelier.

Surrounded by the tools of her trade; bradawls, a heavyweight sewing machine that looks as if it came out of Mike Baldwin’s factory, and rolls and rolls of jewel-bright silks, organzas and leather, she creates the type of handbags seen swinging from the arm of the mother-of-the-bride, or adding the finishing touch to a knockout evening gown.

Rosemary’s bags have been worn by the Duchess of Kent: “I used to watch her at Wimbledon to see if she was using one of mine,” and by the singer Elaine Paige, and by foreign royalty although, as Rosemary admits: “You didn’t always get to know the customers as they were very private.”

She worked with the iconic shoe-designer Jimmy Choo in his early days, after sharing a workshop in Hackney with him.

”I asked him if he ever wanted handbags to match his shoes and it started from there,” she says.

She made up samples and soon his customers – who included Princess Diana at the time – started ordering bags from Rosemary.

“I don’t know if Princess Diana bought any of my designs but I remember Jimmy telling me how down-to-earth she was, she’d sit cross-legged on the floor in the old building which we all worked out of.”

Rosemary’s career started at a tender age, fashioning bags from the scraps of leather her mother brought home from the tannery where she worked, near their home in Kent.

“I enjoyed doing that but ended up working in admin for the architect Sir Norman Foster,” she says.

“I loved the creative atmosphere but I wanted to do what they were doing, rather than what I was, so I decided to go back to college.” Research lead her to Cordwainer’s College, one of the world’s premier institutions for design and leather work, and she embarked on their prestigious leather goods diploma.

“I could have gone into footwear but didn’t because of the way you have to produce all these different sizes,” she says.

“I thought handbags would be easier to sell.”

Her course taught her everything from sewing leather handles, to making giant leather holdalls, to repairing ancient crocodile suitcases and was the best grounding in another way because: “That’s where I made all my connections; Jimmy Choo was at the college, so was Patrick Cox and the shoe designer Emma Hope.”

In 1997 Rosemary and her husband and children moved to Poole, where her parents had lived out the war and where she remembers spending many childhood holidays.

Three years ago she set up in business herself, selling via her website, through specialist craft fairs, and through the Artisan Gallery and Gift Shop in Poundbury, as well as Fab Frocks of Westbourne.

“I make everything from one-off leather bags, to clutches for evenings and for mother-of-the-brides,” she says.

“Sometimes they keep some material back from their outfit, other times I have to order fabric in and customers can to extraordinary lengths to achieve what they want.”

One lady wanted a bag to match her Dolce & Gabbana pink outfit and when Rosemary couldn’t find an exact match: “She went out and bought a Dolce & Gabbana skirt and told me to cut the fabric from that!”

The bag-making process is a laborious one, involving pattern cutting, and the application of backing, foam, lining, accessories, trims and finishes.

“It can take me up to eight hours for a fabric bag and much longer for leather,” she says. Rosemary admits to being obsessed with bags.

“I look at them all the time, I’m sure people think I’m going to steal theirs, but I’m just trying to see the design or the finish.”

She’s particularly interested in the array of clutches used by Kate Middleton.

“I would love her to be a customer of mine!” Until that time she will continue to produce a mouthwatering selection of delectable handbags in all colours of the rainbow because: “They are not just accessories, or even a place to put things. My bags are memories.”