SHOEMARKERS TO QUEEN

Press, Volume CII, Issue 30192, 25 July 1963, Page 2

SHOEMARKERS TO QUEEN

Sales Director To Visit NX

(By ZALM THOMAS} LONDON, June 25. Would you like to be in the Queen’s shoes? If so you may be interested in the coming New Zealand visit of the sales director of H. and M. Rayne, Ud„ the firm which make* Queen Elizabeth’s footwear.

During ha* tour of New Zealand. Mr Brian Franklin will visit shops and (tore* which stock the firm’s shoe* and will be bringing with him the autumn collection. The firm wee founded in 1889 and among its first customers were Lily Langtry and George Edwards. In those days society women had no more than two or three model* to choose from but today each pair of court shoes is made in nearly 100 fittings. The present head of the firm. Mr Ed we rd Rayne (son of the founder) learned the trade the hard way. Hi* father insisted that to sell and design shoe® it was necessary for him to study every one of the 200 operations that go into the making of each pair of shoes.

Today Mr Rayne travels between 70,000 and 80.000 miles a year. He exports to 16 different countries and 1* one of the few persona in the world who personally directs a fashion business on both sides of the Atlantic. In 1961 he purchased a half interest in the Dalmen business in the United State* and formed Rayne-Delman Inc. of which he is president. Mr Rayne visited Christchurch early in 1959.