Charlotte Olympia: Our New Favourite Shoe!

Aug 18, 2012 No Comments by Sherice Major

Christian Louboutin has captivated the wallets and feetsies of many celebrities & hot steppers; from Tina Turner to Oprah, Beyonce to Kim Kardashian to LaLa and even me.

For years, they’ve held a spell over women with their eye-popping cherry bottoms and tall heels, but there is new sheriff in town ready to shoot your Loubs down!

British designer Charlotte Olympia Dellal has been causing tsunami’s with her 5-year-old shoe label even captivating the likes of Beyonce.

Her funky, fab and fierce heels are nothing like we’ve seen before and her incorporation of patterns, cut-outs, textiles and designs have made us fall in love!

We fell in love with Charlotte even more after reading her interview with NM Fashion Director, Ken Downing where she speaks about what inspires her shoe collections.

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KD: I love a good story, too. I am especially enamored with the web you are weaving for the coming fall season, pun fully intended.

COD: You’re referring to the Charlotte’s web that’s the embroidery on my flats. I always loved the story Charlotte’s Web as a child. Being my name, it only made sense. It’s become my signature, along with the Kitty flat that many people know me for. I love high heels, so when I design flats, I want them to be very special, very desirable. My first flat shoes were flat versions of the high heels. Now they are flats in their own right, and the high heels—well, what can I say?

KD: What can you say? I’m crazy for the Pierrot ruff on your signature heel.

COD: It’s a shoe with its own accessory. You can wear it with or without the ruffled ankle strap.

KD: With the ankle strap, please. Just sayin’!

COD: You are hysterical! I do love the ankle strap, too. The essence of the fall collection is the ’40s and ’50s, and mix of Pierrot clowns, harlequins, and moons that are inspired by paper moons of the 1910s. I have always loved paper moons—they were the theme of my wedding. I have always wanted to incorporate them into a collection; it just felt right for this fall.

KD: It certainly translates with the high glamour and the whimsy that we’ve come to expect from you. What starts your design process?

COD: I am forever thinking about what I want to wear, for me, as a woman. That’s where I begin.

KD: That makes perfect sense. With your passion for nostalgia and your ability to turn that nostalgia into design, are you a collector?

COD: Oh yes, I love to collect objects. I am obsessed with mermaids. I truly believe they existed in the day—and unicorns! Ceramic mermaids and unicorns from the ’50s are my favorites. They were the inspiration for my past spring collection. I adore the mythological ideas that surround them. I would fantasize about being a mermaid when I was a little girl.

KD: Given your love of shoes, it is fascinating to me that you would want to be a mermaid. They don’t have feet!

COD: Remember, it is a fantasy.

KD: Your love of the past is absolutely charming. It’s what drew me to your collection from the very beginning.

COD: I am nostalgic for the time itself, much like the character in Midnight in Paris who wants to go back to the 1920s. I find great inspiration from the beautiful ideas of the past. I was surrounded by lovely things from prior decades that bring me many ideas. My own home is my personal stage set, filled with inspiration. I bought a fantastic mermaid table online—a little bar on wheels that I am crazy for. I love to entertain at home.

KD: I would truly enjoy seeing the world through your eyes. What is that fanciful mind of yours dreaming about at the moment? Can you give me a hint of what we might expect for the coming spring?

COD: I am thinking about Parisian poodles, but you know I might change my mind. What do you think of when you think of a Parisian poodle? A pink poodle, right? A Parisian Pink Peppermint Poodle!

KD: Wow, that is pretty over-the-top—and quite original, I might add!

COD: I never imitate. I always want to create with my own ideas.