Charlotte Olympia is one of my very favourite shoe designers right now. I know we’ve talked endlessly here about that platform, and it’s a feature which turns a lot of you off these shoes. I, however, love the creativeness of the designs, and would love to add a pair of “Charlottes”, as I think I’m going to call them, to my collection. Speaking of collections, I’ve been adding quite a few of the Spring 2012 and Cruise collection shoes to my bookmarks folder recently, and I figured today was as good a time as any to show you them. The ‘Origami’ pumps shown above are available at Net-a-Porter, while the rest of the shoes in the gallery can be purchased at Louisa Via Roma. Take a look, and tell me what you think!
I have to admit, I’ve never been much of a fan of either Alexa Chung or shoes with animal faces on them, but for those of you who are, here’s Alexa wearing a pair of Charlotte Olympia’s ‘Kitty’ heels to the British Fashion Awards, where she won the British Style Award for the second year running
Alexa has been photographed in these shoes quite a few times now (and also in the flat version), so she’s clearly a fan. Are you, though? These are £455, and you can click here to buy them if you are.
(Aside: I think that may be the first time I’ve ever used the phrase “Wowser”. But it seemed appropriate, somehow…)
These shoes are by Charlotte Olympia, and they’re just a little bit over-the-top, with that silver and gold leather on top of the turquoise suede upper:
Too OTT, do you think? Well, maybe just a little: and the price is most definitely OTT, at £935. I think I could stare at them aaaallll day, though, so that means they get the thumbs up from me. Everyone should have a pair of totally out-there shoes in their collection, after all: click here if these are the ones for you.
I spotted these shoes at Louisa Via Roma yesterday, but figured I didn’t have a good enough excuse to show you them, given that I’ve featured so many pairs of Charlotte Olympia platforms here recently. (I know, it’s never really stopped me before, but sometimes I do think about these things!)
Today, though, I came across this photo of Hilary Duff wearing the very shoes, while out and about in Brazil, and that was all the excuse I needed! I know the Charlotte Olympia platform is always a source of controversy amongst Shoeperwoman readers, but I’m getting to like it more and more (Actually, Sarah Jessica Parker has been wearing Charlotte Olympia shoes almost exclusively while she’s been on London promoting her new movie recently, and every time I’ve seen photos of her, she’s confirmed how much I love this style of shoe.) and if I was rich, I’d snap these up in a heartbeat:
As I’m not rich, however, I’ll just have to content myself by admiring them on other people. Here’s one more for the road:
I sense a theme creeping into today’s posts. First I discovered those Office wedges, which I thought looked like they belonged on a cartoon character, and now I find these Charlotte Olympia pumps, which don’t even look like REAL SHOES to me. Not even a little bit. In fact, when I first laid eyes on them, I assumed I was looking at one of these shoe ornaments you sometimes see.
It’s not just the green felt upper (Great colour, strange fabric choice for a £400 shoes), or the little pair of red lips sitting atop the vamp: it also has something to do with the strangely elongated shape, which… well, it just looks odd to me. Maybe it’s just the angle of the photo, and these would look perfectly normal in real life? What do YOU think?
Hmmm. The issue of Footwear With Faces continues to be a controversial topic here at Shoeperwoman.com, and, once again, I have a feeling that these Charlotte Olympia ‘Cat Face’ pumps may divide opinion, in the same way as Marc Jacobs’ famous mouse flats, and the various other face-bearing footwear I’ve shown you.
These shoes are actually rather more subtle than the name “Cat Face” may suggest, and while they do, indeed, have a cat’s face right on the front of them, the fact that it’s attached to a simple black pump goes a long way towards making these less gimmicky than might otherwise have been the case.
Do you like them, though? Well, there’s no denying that they’re playful, whimsical, and all of those other words that tend to be attached to shoes that come in the shape of cats, or mice, or other cutesy animals. Personally, I prefer my shoes NOT to be staring up at me every time I wear them, but that’s just me, and while I wouldn’t buy these (probably not even if they weren’t $795), I don’t actively dislike them, either.
Charlotte Olympia’s ‘Bananas is My Business’ shoes didn’t exactly get a rapturous reception when I showed you them a few months ago (Although I actually tried these on last month and was rather smitten with them, I must admit), so I’m going to take a wild guess that Jeffrey Campbell’sshameless ripoff version of the style won’t be too popular either.
To be fair to Jeffrey Campbell, his Fruit Bowl Shoe isn’t exactly the same as the Charlotte Olympia version – and is significantly cheaper looking too, I think: no one’s ever going to mistake it for a Charlotte Olympia design, are they? Still, you have to admit, the placement of the fruits seems too similar for this to be a co-incidence. Both shoes feature watermelon on the toes, bananas on the sides, strawberries at the heels…. add the wooden platform and heel, and, well, it’s a poor show from Jeffrey Campbell, in more ways than one.
I’ll be honest: I had to Google Charlotte Ross. (She’s an American actress, in case you’re also in the dark at this point: you can read more about her here.)
I definitely didn’t have to Google her shoes, though, because these are instantly recognisable as the Charlotte Olympia ‘Carmen’ wedges I showed you last month:
I was really pleased to come across a photo of someone wearing these, because I was curious to see what they’d look like on a foot. Setting aside the fact that Charlotte has obviously fallen victim to The Curse of the Too Big Shoes, which aflicts many a celebrity, I still like the shoes – and I still think they look a bit like boats. In a good way, though.
I also like the way these look worn with a white dress – a very summery effect.
