York College student Georgia’s fashionable medal moment
A twenty-year-old York College fashion student has demonstrated that the ancient craft of fine leather-working is alive and well.
Georgia Tyssen won the ‘Cordwainers Medal’, awarded each year to a first-year BA fashion student at the college by the Company of Cordwainers of York. Cordwainers were historically workers in fine leathers and the company is one of just seven craft Guilds and Companies which survives in the city today.
Georgia, who was born and bred in York, studied the technique of leather moulding and used it for the ‘body moulding’ on a chiffon and georgette dress. She took into account her own medical history and health when developing the details of her design, and outsourced the manufacture of the fastening detail to York College’s contemporary craft department, which used a 3-D printer.
She was presented with her medal by the Master Cordwainer of York, Ann Reid, at the Cordwainers’ recent Martinmas Feast.
