Yes this post is rather late, but hey i was having too much fun at xmas, plus i was very ill too! But xmas came early in a true Cinderella story, and i was Cinderella! A little over a year ago, i was asked to exhibit my hand painted Pop Art Bottoms for charity at The Saatchi Gallery for www.theartofgiving.co.uk to raise money for all sorts of worthy causes. I decided it would be the perfect place to show people that i actually hand-paint my bottoms, painting the actual flesh, and then photographing it, that it is not a computer generated image, something people kept assuming about my art.
So i decided to hand-paint 4 live stunning models and turn them into painted Goddess’: Not only that but to paint them in the style of Charlotte Olympia shoes, which Charlotte thought was a fab idea! So i picked the gorgeous Charlotte Olympia Piano shoe, the Greta disco, the stunning leafed Eve shoe and finally my favourite, the leopard Greta:
Actually in the end i used my own Leopard Greta’s and Pianos! All i had to do was find 4 fabulous potential Goddess’ and i didnt want size zero models, i wanted healthy real women size 10-12 with actual curves so i put a post out on facebook asking ‘do you want to get your kit off for charity at The Saatchi and be hand-painted by me in the style of Charlotte Olympia shoes? I will bring out the inner goddess in you!’ and guess what, i was inundated with friends and friends of friends offering to strip down! I found my fabulous 4, Lotta, Alex, Karima and Roseli, got sponsored by the brilliant Charles Fox makeup, given some extra helping body painting hands from fabulous Paul Merchant from Charles Fox and independent body-painter Emma Allen and lastly some gorgeous hair styling from Natalie Summerlin.
Now i needed to make the final designs and get going! When the Saatchi came and intervened and said we couldn’t paint the girls in the actual gallery, due to health and safety issues, it actually turned out to be a blessing! Thank heavens for my photographer friend Simon Addinsell living not far from The Saatchi Gallery on the Kings Road, who said we could kindly take over his flat and spray it with glitter! We now had a team and a venue and lastly but not least, my amazing friend Dita Roasted a brilliant Events manager and artist, who curated my team and put us all together like glue! All i had to do finally was get my outfit ready for the private view, and what better than to wear my own Charlotte Olympia Black Carmen Wedges!
Well apart from being nearly 2 and a half hours late for the private view, the painting took forever and we slightly mis-timed how long it would take to paint 4 naked ladies from top to toe, it actually turned out to our advantage. The girls came outside onto the Kings Road, ready to ‘hide’ in these special bin bag lined umbrellas i made for them to hide their naughty bits (they were wearing thongs and boobie stickers!) but instead they chose to toss them aside and stride across the Kings Road Zebra Crossing in all their glory! Of course we stopped traffic, with everyone jumping out of the shops to come and see the commotion! And then the paparazzi caught on, waiting for celebs to turn up to the gallery and they went nuts for the girls. I of course had to take my own pictures of the girls strutting their stuff and this is where i had to take my Carmen Wedges off and put them in my friends bag until i reached the gallery. But low and behold, by the time we reached, one of my wedges had disappeared! I was gutted and turned up in no shoes! But the show had to go on and i had a spare pair of Olympias which i threw on whilst the entire gallery wents bonkers for my goddess girls, standing still on their plinths. Everywhere i went, i could hear ‘have you seen the painted ladies?!’.
Well the night was a huge success for charity with The Evening Standard posting a huge picture of my girls the next day on page three citing Banksy and Boyarde’s ladies as the ‘highlight of the auction’ wow what a night! But i was left in mourning for my beautiful shoe, searching high and low for it, following the trail like Hansel and Gretel. I really felt like Cinderella with my missing shoe and it took me a long time to get over it, i absolutely loved those shoes!…… Until….. Well see through the pictures first………!
Dita making the home made bin liner covers for the girls in case it rained!
Alex having a nibble! This was actually taken after, hence why all the paint is coming off!
Me n my girls
So the girls get ready to put on their rain covers, but decide, bugger it we dont need them, lets do it! Ready to rock n roll along the Kings Road!
Me, the girls and gorgeous Charlotte Olympia Dellal x note im not wearing my Black Carmen Wedges but a back pair of Gretas!
Lotta in Greta Leopard
me and the fabulous team with Dita, Emma and Natalie, Karima, Lotta and Alex
Yup no shoes!
Amazing athletic Alex
pee break!
me and lotta
And so finally to bring this story full circle, there are two reasons why i decided to blog about this show that i did a year ago. 1) I was not blogging a year ago, i only started a few months back and i am still getting into the swing of it, it is a shame i was not blogging back then and could not share this fun post-feminist inner goddess glory show with you, so why not talk about it now! And 2) my love of Charlotte Olympia shoes, and my sadness for my lost CO Black carmen wedge…… 
Which brings me back to Cinderella!
Ever since that show i have talked about how brilliant it was and what a success it was, but also part of the story of me and my missing shoe and how i never found it. Until now! Around a month a go, a glorious fashion blogger http://luneetlesetoiles.blogspot.com/ decided to join Twitter by the name of Lune et les Étoiles and she sat in her room following fabulous fashion brands such as Charlotte Olmypia. She thought ‘what shall i write for my first ever tweet?!’ and cast her eye into the corner of her room. There she found her inspiration and decided her first ever tweet would be to Charlotte Olympia where she told her she had a cinderella story for her after finding one of her shoes a year ago on the Kings Road…. Yup!!!!! And charlotte, being a dear friend of mine, saw the tweet, and retweeted me saying she had found Cinderella! I couldn’t believe it, all this time this amazing girl had kept my shoe after moving house twice and i had kept mine, we both agreed ‘one never throws a Charlotte Olympia away’!!!!! And she lived just round the corner, so there we have it, im reunited with my lost Black Carmen Wedge! Cinderella lived happily ever after, and thus the Saatchi story of hand painted Boyarde Goddess’ in the style of Charlotte Olympia shoes is complete…. Until the next exciting project xxxx
