Nostalgic, Charlotte Olympia definitely is, and it’s in this sense that she gives few limits to her creativity. And so, it is notably the Dolly pump that, each season, sees its 15 cm camber, instantly recognizable with its gold platform, get decked out with different artsy inspirations. In 2012 at Art Basel in Miami, the designer dug up some abstraction from the great painters of the 20th century. Just for the occasion, she imagined the Roy Lichtenstein Pop Art version Dolly pump, or the Cubism Dolly inspired by Picasso. Humorously, Charlotte Dellal, model Alice Dellal’s sister, made high art out of her high heels. Her glamorous retro DNA knowingly punctuates, with its crazy charm, her uninhibited fantasy.
This year, the brand is illustrating its pumps with a little help from the Archie comic books, created in 1941 by Bob Montana. The adventures of a group of teenagers from Massachusetts, that centers around Betty – Archie – Veronica love triangle, occupied the designer’s childhood during her vacations in the U.S. And now the comic book can be read on her shoes. In just one collection’s time, the protagonists each get their time in the limelight on one of three pieces: two pairs of shoes and a satin clutch. The line takes up the Comic Book version Dolly: on suede, in comic strip bubbles, the story is revisited in a light-hearted way. These shoes are richly colored, and on the Carmen wedges, entire pages of the comic book are reproduced. This is all happening in Charlotte Olympia’s boutiques in Mayfair, Manhattan, and Beverly Hills, online, as well as at Parisian boutique Colette starting November 1st.
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