Anya Hindmarch: the minister for accessories

Anya Hindmarch is an intimidating prospect. The 42-year-old millionaire handbag entrepreneur doesn't only design all manner of desirable leather goods, she is also a Conservative party fundraiser, Trustee of the Royal Academy and the Design Museum, mother of five and an MBE. As one would expect of the woman who invented a 'two-way diary'that you turn over so people like her sister ('who married the banker') can manage their two properties, seamless organisation is Hindmarch's defining characteristic. In fact, she is the human incarnation of one of her travel bags, which have pockets for everything imaginable, all cleverly labelled and everything in its place. As David Cameron says, 'Her creative and organisational energy is awe-inspiring.'

It is no wonder, then, that the Prime Minister goes to her for advice. 'I'm very interested in politics,'she says, and does not hold back her opinions. 'I feel I can tell David what I think. The moment someone becomes too grand or too rarefied, they're in trouble.'She calls the current government 'Coalition Street'. 'They're our generation,'she goes on. 'We're all gripped. It's like a soap opera.'

So embedded is Anya in the Tory fold that she made the satin Maud clutch handbag that was given to Carla Bruni-Sarkozy during the recent meeting between David Cameron and Nicolas Sarkozy at Downing Street. Anya is friends with Samantha Cameron and was one of the few, along with the television presenters Carol Vorderman and Kirstie Allsopp, to see the election results come in at the River Room in the Conservative party's Millbank headquarters. She also chaired the Conservatives' Black and White Ball in 2008, which was held in a cavernous tent in Battersea Park that Anya divided up into eight separate garden areas, each sponsored by a different donor and each with a different horticultural theme. It was a great success. 'Anya managed to create a party that was stylish and enjoyable while also raising a very substantial amount of money,' Cameron said gratefully at the time.

Well, I am certainly inspired when Anya arrives for our interview at her Pont Street shop looking groomed and glamorous in full make-up with her long golden hair carefully styled. We have been at many of the same parties (our children share a godmother), but I had never seen her in action before as a professional. Calm, polite and clearly possessing the patience of a Buddhist monk, she manages the needs of her staff (250 worldwide, 50 in London), clients in the shop and the ES team without so much as a flutter of stress. This she attributes to a combination of delegation, loyalty and total control freakery. The business is run by her husband of 14 years, James Seymour, while she is CEO and chief creative designer. 'I conduct the orchestra and play the cello at the same time,'she says.

The shop, which opened in 2009, is a showcase for Anya's bespoke range of 100 products including wallets, handbags, jewellery boxes, key sets, USB sticks, money clips, diaries, albums and luggage, all available to order in various colours and finishes, with embossed messages in the purchaser's own handwriting. And the shop itself is a thing of beauty, very traditional and old-fashioned, with a gold-lettered sign, vintage lights and antique wooden display cabinets from the V&A. Clutch bags are displayed like taxidermy in bell jars and in the back is the workshop where you will find an engraver and his state-of-the-art engraving machine.

The shop is a manifestation of Anya's sentimental world view and her belief that we should look after what we have instead of following trends. 'The reason I started my business in the first place was because I was very interested in craft. I also think England is going back to its traditions. We should be more proud of our history. I wanted to showcase old-fashioned things.'She loves all things British, including Margaret Thatcher – of whom she says: 'She made a huge difference to me. She said, "Get out there and change the country." I took that on board'– and the Queen. Elizabeth II would certainly approve of the beautiful English bone-china tea set from which we drink our Earl Grey.

However, Anya knows that we live in an era of impatience. With this in mind she has created a range of 'quick'bespoke items to buy online, which launches this weekend. Here you can order one of her two-way diaries (from £195) in two weeks. For children, a Father's Day bookmark can be personalised within a week for £40.

One of three siblings (her sister Nicole owns the upmarket children's shoe shops Papillon in SW1 and W1 and her brother William launched Best of the Best, which runs car competitions in airports), she was brought up in Essex by a successful entrepreneurial father who worked in plastics. After New Hall convent boarding school, Anya went to Florence on a gap year where she spotted a tasteful cloth duffel bag which she thought might be popular back home. She found a factory that could reproduce it and pretty soon (with the help of a £1,000 loan) she was off.

Anya opened her first shop on Walton Street, Knightsbridge, in 1993. 'Everyone came, even Princess Di,'she says. Her first mainstream success was the Be a Bag, the screen-printed tote which everyone from Claudia Schiffer to Sarah Ferguson personalised with photographs of their children or pets. Turnover has doubled every three years since 1993 and she is now worth over £20 million. Her handbags are sold in 54 stand-alone shops in over 19 countries. Anya became a household name in 2007 when she launched her limited-edition eco tote bag with the slogan 'I'm Not A Plastic Bag'for £5. The first run sold out in Sainsbury's within an hour and bags were soon being traded on eBay for £200; 90,000 bags were sold, but the phenomenon rapidly turned nasty. The supposed ethical bag was, in fact, manufactured in China, for which Hindmarch took a lot of heat. 'We were accused of being unethical because the bags were made in China, hinting, of course, that they were made by child labour, which they were not. I checked extremely carefully,'she said at the time. The common-sense idea (to spare the planet and raise money) made Anya an overnight political activist.

She was 25 when she met her husband, a recently bereaved widower with three children aged between 18 months and four years. Within three years they were married. He joined the company as finance director ten years ago, when Anya was pregnant with their son Felix, to allow her to take some time off. The family now live in a townhouse in Belgravia, with cool, contemporary interiors and, naturally, everything is wonderfully well-ordered. She admits she would still be labelling cutlery drawers if she didn't have this rather big business to run.

Apart from the handbag empire and her family, Anya has numerous other commitments, including chairing the Royal Academy's Summer Exhibition party for the past five years (this year it was with Tracey Emin). She also designs the Vanity Fair Oscar party bags most years. Gossips speculate that she wants to go to the House of Lords. She received her MBE in 2009 but she insists, 'I really, really don't want to be in politics. I am an opinionated spectator. I want to run a company. I am a grafter.'

Although she does a thousand other things, bags are what she dreams about. She has the words 'Everybody needs handbags'emblazoned in huge black letters on the white brick wall at the back of her Battersea offices. So unless her friend Dave appoints a minister for valises and vanity cases, I don't see Anya Hindmarch changing jobs any time soon.

anyahindmarch.com