This is only your second season designing shoes. Where is Charlotte Olympia stocked?
At the moment I\'m stocked at Dover Street Market, and I also sell at Daslu in Brazil and 10 Corso Como in Korea. Next season I\'ll be in Browns, Harvey Nichols - and Net-A-Porter if you like shopping online.

Why did you decide to go into designing shoes?
Initially I wanted to do clothing. I went to the London College Of Fashion and did a foundation course, but as you do the foundation course, you learn and see if you want to do anything else. I ended up deciding between corsetry, underwear and shoes. And I ended up doing shoes.

Where are you based?
I work from home in London. My mum [ex-model Andrea Dellal] is Brazilian so at first I thought it\'d be nice to do it in Brazil - they\'ve got a big shoe industry there - but I ended up being there for five months at a time, but the quality wasn\'t good enough. The end product is much better in Italy [where Charlotte Olympia shoes are now made], and it kind of works better - I can fly there whenever, it\'s much easier. The aesthetic that they give me, the finished product, is exactly what I\'m looking for.

Picture: Greta shoe by Charlotte Olympia

So when did all this take off? Who was the first person to buy your shoes?
The first people that bought my shoes - just one style that I made in Brazil, which is like a little leopard ankle boot, a few years ago - was The Cross in Notting Hill. That was just a one-off. That was when I was just fresh out of school.

How involved are you in the whole design process, from beginning to end?
Isotta [Cleps, who helps with production] and I are really involved in the whole thing because, well, now we\'ve got help in sales. But it was literally just us at first, so we\'re very involved.

Do you change your whole theme from season to season?
I change the whole theme but there\'s always a kind of running aspect. Animal print - which I think I\'ll do again next season - I just can\'t stay away from it.

What does your spider\'s web logo, which appears on the sole of all your shoes, mean?
Charlotte\'s Web, simple as that. I\'ve got a spider on the website - she wears six pairs of shoes!

Picture: Cindy shoe by Charlotte Olympia

Are you selling online yet?
I\'ve sold to Net-A-Porter, but not on my own website as yet. I don\'t know what\'s happened to my website, actually, I can\'t get hold of the dude! It was up, and then they took it down to change my biography and the dude\'s disappeared off the face of the earth. I\'m beginning to worry, like... he\'s gone. I\'ve left him messages, I\'ve called...

Which shoe brands or designers did you wear before you started to design?
I liked collecting vintage.

It\'s a good time for shoes right now, everyone\'s sick to death of the handbag and it\'s all about shoes.
I know, suddenly shoes are everywhere, aren\'t they? I\'ve never been a handbag person. I personally prefer shoes. I have my shoes out on display. Before I even started making my own, I had a cabinet for all my shoes. I have old bookshelves and I just leave them out, rather than boxes. I like them literally to be on display, including some really nice ones that I don\'t want to wear anymore.

Picture: Cindy Piano shoe by Charlotte Olympia
 

How many pairs do you have?
Lots!

Is there a shape that you think is particular to your aesthetic or brand?
They\'re really high. My signature shoe, I\'d say, is the Cindy style which is with the floating platform... the ‘island\' platform. I called it an island platform only because it\'s stuck bang in the middle of the shoe. So that\'s my signature shoe, you could say.

Have you always worn really high shoes?
Either that or just really low... literally, Converse.

Do you design flats?
No. I did a couple of flats last season but I ended up not wanting to sell them. Eventually, yeah, I\'d like to do flats. But at the moment I\'m sticking to high because what I sell the most of end up being the higher ones. They all go for the high ones! Well, they\'re all pretty high, but they all go for the extremely high ones.

How high is high?
About 14cm, so about six inches. 

Picture: Gilda shoe by Charlotte Olympia

Did you come to a decision about that height for a particular reason, or did you just think it looked good?
There\'s a pair of shoes - I don\'t even know where they\'re from, they\'re really old - that I used to love wearing, that were this particular height. But I\'m kind of a short person, so the higher the better. I kind of like things to be extreme, for more impact. And they\'re not that difficult to walk in because of the huge platform. I only wear my shoes - I\'m not allowed to wear anything else!

What sort of price range are your shoes?
For this collection [autumn/winter 2008), they all range from £350 upwards.

They\'re very sexy, aren\'t they?
I like to think that they\'re sexy.

When you design, do you design for yourself, or do you have someone else in mind?
I guess I design for myself... for me, my sister [model Alice Dellal], my mum [ex-model, Andrea Dellal], all ages. But generally at the end of the day I still think of other people, women in general. I also have a thing against my feet so I don\'t like wearing open shoes, but I still design open shoes. So not necessarily saying I design just for me.

Picture: Cindy shoe with tassel by Charlotte Olympia

Have you done, or are you doing, any collaborations with people, like designing shoes for a clothes designer to use in a fashion show, for example?
I am actually doing the shoes for a designer next season in Paris, but I\'m not going to say now, just in case. I\'d love to do some collaborations.

Which designers would you like to collaborate with?
I love Giambattista Valli, I used to intern with him in Paris whenever I could, when I was at school, whether it was just for a week or a month, I\'d just keep on going whenever I could. When he was at Ungaro, and then when he moved to do his own thing. I love Giambattista Valli!

What others designers do you like?
I love Balenciaga - they do amazing shoes, too.

Picture: Zelda shoe by Charlotte Olympia

Where do you see all this going? Are you going to expand into clothes eventually?
In an ideal world, yes. I guess the natural progression would be to do bags, but like I said, I\'m not really a bag person. I like simple bags. In summer I like to carry a basket. In the evening I like to carry a clutch. [The bag she had at the interview was a leopard-print Pierre Hardy, given to her "by my boyfriend."] So the natural progression would go to bags. Or hats. I kind of like hats. I love that old fashioned glamour of wearing more accessories... hats, gloves, bags, shoes.

You wore that nice cat hat at the Kisa show, what the name of that designer?
Marie Mercié. I\'ve got a raffia one for summer, that I had made, and the leopard print one.

What kind of bag - evening bags?
I guess the natural progression would be to do bags, but like I said, I\'m not a bag person. I like simple bags. In summer I like to wear baskets. In the evening I like to wear clutches. So the natural progression would go to bags, but hats I\'m quite fascinated with. I guess accessories in general and then maybe branch out.

Picture: Cristabel shoe by Charlotte Olympia

Why do you think you\'re more into that lady-like style... who\'s your style icon?
I always look at old Hollywood glamour, and pin-ups, like Rita Hayworth. That\'s why I died my hair red. I love her. I\'ve got a Rita shoe which sells well so I carry it over from one season to the next . And my mother\'s always been into clothes and fashion and stuff, so I kind of grew up with it. So did your mum inform your style quite a lot?
I guess so, because my mum likes dressing up. She still has amazing clothes, stuff I\'ve got my eye on. I\'ll get my hands on it eventually! I\'ve always kind of liked watching her dress up and I used to go to fashion shows with her when I was quite young. I think that\'s what led me this.
Do you go to the shows now?
The only show I go to regularly is the Giambattista show. I went to Kisa in London, because they\'re friends of my brother. But otherwise I don\'t really go to shows, I don\'t know why. I\'m working at the moment, so I don\'t seem to have much time. I\'m happy working rather than just sitting and watching. I kind of like being involved, that\'s why I liked working at Giambattista. That\'s why I don\'t really enjoy going to the shows so much, I think.

Picture: Josephine shoe by Charlotte Olympia

Where do you like to shop?
Someone asked me the other day ‘bring me out your favourite clothes\' and they all ended up being my mother\'s old clothes, from my own wardrobe. I\'ve got a lot of stuff from my mother... a lot of stuff from eBay (although it ends up being hideous - it just looks nice on screen). Shops are hard... I don\'t have favourite shops, as silly as that might sound. I get a lot of stuff from my mother, a lot of stuff from eBay, I\'m into like vintage kind of things... or just any kind of shop where I see things. I found a nice dress in Jigsaw the other day, a shop that I never thought that I\'d go into. They\'ve got good bracelets, tops and jumpers. This dress [the dress she is wearing, a sky-blue, tight knitted jersey dress with appliqué keyhole neckline] is from Nanette Lepore. So I don\'t have one particular shop that I always go to, at all. I love Giambattista Valli dresses for evening. At the end of the day it\'s always about the shoes, really. I\'m into a lot of leopard print so that kind of catches my eye.

Picture: Daphne shoe by Charlotte Olympia

What pieces in your wardrobe are inherited from your mum?
They\'re all ‘dressing up\' - evening stuff. But I always managed to get it before my sister, because I was older and into it before she was; now that she\'s grown up I\'ve got all the good stuff! Get there first. Get everything first. Ha ha!

Any celebrities you want to dress, or have dressed?
I saw in Grazia magazine Daphne Guinness was wearing a pair of my shoes. But I haven\'t given any shoes to celebrities, so to speak.

What are you thinking about for the new collection?
Inspiration always stems from a bit of glamour, kitsch... but inspiration is actually from my grandma. My dad\'s mum. She is a very glamorous woman. So I get it from her as well. I go to see my grandma. I dress up when I visit her.

Want more fashion interviews? See Handbag.com\'s interview with Liberty\'s Tamara Salman 

Picture: Masako shoe by Charlotte Olympia