10 September 2009
Welcome to Lesleys Diary

Welcome to Lesley’s diary.  Lesley is one of our very special customers, with a particularly busy 12 months ahead.  We are delighted that she has asked us to help her with the challenge of dressing her for 40 formal engagements throughout the year ahead in her new role as Mistress Cordwainer.

Mark, Lesley’s husband, swore his Oath as elected Master of the Worshipful Company of Cordwainers on Wednesday 8^th July 2009.

There are 108 City of London Companies, of which the Worshipful Company of Cordwainers is one.  Collectively known as the Livery they fundamentally started as trade and craft associations around the 12^th century.  They continue to flourish today by doing what they have always done – fostering their trade in a wide context, serving the community and embracing modern skills and professions, and have become unique in their survival, number and diversity.

A cordwainer is someone who designs and makes leather shoes, and the Worshipful Company of Cordwainers is "dedicated to the support of education and training in the design and production of footwear and associated leather accessories and the promotion of the footwear industry".  It has been in existence for 750 years.

Mark will hold his Office for one year and during this time will attend around 80 functions, to which Lesley will accompany him to around 40.    At the end of his term Mark will become a Past Master in the same Company. 

Over the coming months Lesley has kindly agreed to let us follow her as she goes about her engagements and to give us an insight into where her Anne Furbank outfits have travelled, and who she has seen in them.·

Contributor: Lesley

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