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Old-Glamour Inspired Footwear Since 2007

Designer Footwer label Known for the Signature Island Platform.

View Charlotte Olympia Footwear collections on London Fashion Review Blog

An Introduction to the Charlotte Olympia Brand

Footwear Designer Charlotte Olympia Dellal

Luxury accessories designer Charlotte Olympia Dellal, graduated from the prestigious London College of Fashion’s Cordwainers College in 2004. Cordwainers College is regarded as the world’s leading school in footwear design, with previous graduates also including British footwear designer Jimmy Choo and Beatrix Ong.

Following her graduation, Charlotte spent time working for fashion houses Ungaro and Giambattista Valli, before launching her namesake women’s footwear brand, Charlotte Olympia, in 2007. Since then the label has gone from strength to strength, collaborating with top international fashion designers for their catwalk shows.

Catwalk exposure of Charlotte Olympia has helped drive international expansion, transforming the brand into a global footwear label. As of 2011, in addition to the flagship store in London’s Mayfair, the collections are sold in some of the globe’s finest boutiques, including London’s Dover Street Market, Paris’ Colette, Milan’s Tessabit, Tokyo’s Isetan, New York’s Bergdorf Goodman and Beverley Hills’ Neiman Marcus.

Charlotte Olympia continues to collaborate with the world’s hottest fashion designers, for their catwalk presentations, including Peter Som, Temperley London, Clements Ribeiro Peter Som and Emilio de la Morena. Additionally, the brand has become a firm favourite with the fashion press, being regularly featured in Vogue, Grazia, Glamour and Tatler.

The Charlotte Olympia Aesthetic

“The higher the heel, the better you feel!” – Charlotte Olympia Dellal.

Since its inception in 2007, the Charlotte Olympia label has become synonymous with their signature 2 inch high island soles, fan detailing and leopard prints. The Charlotte Olympia design philosophy is focused heavily on femininity and creating classic shapes with a tongue-and-cheek twist. The designs are inspired by the old-school glamour of the 1940’s and 50’s as well as glamorous icons of the past, including Carmen Miranda and Agatha Christie. Each shoe is crafted by hand in Italy using the highest quality materials and finished with the label’s signature logo – a gold spider web, on the sole. The classic shapes and attention to detail have gained the brand many a celebrity fan including Katy Perry, Sarah Jessica Parker, Beyonce, Keira Knightly and Blake Lively.

Charlotte Olympia Courts With the Brand’s Signature Floating Island Platform.

Recent Collaborations of the Charlotte Olympia Fashion Label

Over its short history the Charlotte Olympia label has become well known for its collaborations with top international fashion designers to create capsule collections or for their catwalk shows. Recent collaborations include:

• Peter Som: The Charlotte Olympia label has long been collaborating with San Franciscan designer, Peter Som, to create footwear collections to compliment his catwalk creations. Recent offerings have included a peacock inspired platform boot and lace appliqué platform wedges.
• Pink Label London: In 2010, Charlotte collaborated with her best friend Juliette Offenbach of Pink Label London to create a collection of dresses that complement the shoes, rather than the other way round. The friends used shoe fabrics for the dresses, such as linen instead of traditional dress fabrics like chiffon, to give the dresses a casual feel. The fabrics of the dresses and shoes matched exactly, creating something “super kitsch”.

Charlotte Olympia Collaboration With Pink Label London, As Worn By Cheryl Cole.

• Temperley: For Temperley’s Autumn/Winter 2011-12 collection, Charlotte Olympia designed the shoes to compliment the neutral palette of champagne, cream, gold, and black with shots of red.

Future of the Charlotte Olympia Brand

In the future of the Charlotte Olympia fashion label expect to see further collaborations with international fashion designers, with some possibly leading to new product lines. In 2011, Charlotte collaborated with milliner, Victoria Brown to create a small collection of hats for the promotional film for the Charlotte Olympia Autumn/ Winter 2011-12 collection ‘To Die For’. When asked if she planned to branch out into hats the designer replied “I haven’t started to make hats, we just collaborated for this project and I have a shop, so we will see”. Additionally, for the collection the designer made a collection of gloves and hosiery “for fun”, or which she says she may sell “…at the end of the day if the buyers buy them, then I’ve got something to put in my shop”. So watch this space.

Visit the official Charlotte Olympia website.

If you like the look  of Charlotte Olympia, check out fellow British footwear labels Jimmy Choo, Beatrix Ong and Swear.

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