Retro. Glamorous and daring with just a bit of flash. Charlotte Olympia Dellal and her namesake label Charlotte Olympia both hearken to days of bygone glamour and simultaneously flash forward with daring combinations of fabric, height and styling.

Charlotte’s exotic Brazilian/English family tree reads like a classic recipe for an exotic beauty with brains, talent and a couture touch. Born to Brazilian beauty Andrea Dellal a 1970’s muse for Valentino, it was almost destiny that Charlotte become a designer, her sister Alice a model and brother Alex the owner of an art gallery.

Graduating from Cordwainers in 2004, Charlotte took only two years to launch her own label in 2006 and capture the attention of fashion mavens such as Kate Moss and Daphne Guiness (source).

So what inspires this exotic femme fatale of footwear?  The signature gold ‘web’ that appears on the sole of every Charlotte Olympia shoe gives an indication to the playfulness and quirky personality of the designer.  In an interview with Voge.com Charlotte explained her unusual signature insignia “Spider’s webs are often thought as being quite Halloweeny and dark but they can be delicate and pretty….which is what I like about them.”

Of course, an inventive mind wouldn’t be able to have an ordinary fashion show.  Inspired by the beauty of nature, a recent fashion show at the Langham hotel in the UK featured shoes encased in glass, enclosed as if they were a rare specimen of flowers.  One pair of sandals was shaped as green ivy leaves that snaked up the ankle with a delicate tie.(source)

Texture and fabric are used as trademarks of every designer.  Charlotte takes design a step further an immaculate attention to detail, evidenced by the intricately textured heel on the Ziggy Ankle Boots; a notion so precise that most would overlook it.  Combine this intimate detail with a bold and exaggerated floating platform heel and what could have been an ordinary and quickly forgotten black boot becomes a bold and adventurous statement.

Retailers such as Browns and Harvey Nichols feature the best and most promising of designers.  Charlotte Olympia has an ability to take the basic black pump and make it heart-stopping.  Take the platform pump, with its six inch heel, is not for the unsteady!  The suede inset and chunky rounded platform toe invokes the 40’s glamour and adds a welcome and unexpected twist.

Charlotte Olympia may be a young designer; but she has the pin-up style creativity that has long been missed. Forward, flashy, understated and unexpected.  What can you expect?  A long career and many gorgeous designs from Charlotte Olympia Dellal.