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| ARTY STEPS IN TO SAVE THE DAY
FOR SOPHIE |
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When Sophie Rhys Jones married prince Edward in
London yesterday evening there was one man who was keeping a very close eye on her feet -
Greek Cypriot shoemaker Arty Achilleous. |
London based Arty played fairy godfather to the
bride by saving the day in a last minute dash to match Sophie's shoes to her £5,000
wedding dress.
Arty (Artemis) Achilleous, who was born in Larnaca, was given the emergency task of
covering the £250 shoes by Royal dress designer Samantha Shaw after she discovered her
ivory/Pale creation had been match with a pair in an offending Peach Colour
With no success in locating a matching pair and with only two days to the wedding, She
desperately turned to Achilleous, the owner of Baboucha shoes.
"We were given the shoes on Thursday afternoon and they went back on Friday
afternoon" Achilleous told the Sunday mail yesterday from his shop in Barnet, North
London.
"We had to help so we stepped in exactly like a fairy god mother so Cinderella did go
to the ball with our help"
Rhys Jones did not make a personal visit to the shop and nor did arty receive an
invitation to the wedding, but he said he planned to watch it on television so he could
keep a close eye on his handiwork.
Hopefully the heels won't fall off he joked.
Achilleous, a third generation shoemaker, said the entire job took around 5 - 6 hours to
complete.
He said the shoes were made by a different company and with the wrong fabric and had to be
literally taken apart to be covered in material matching the royal wedding gown.
The size-five plain court shoes were described as having a sweet heart toe with scalloped
edges.
Arty said he chose a Matt, stretch jersey which he described as a light coffee cream or
antique ivory, the same colour as the dress but a different fabric.
"we also made her a matching handbag" he said " and of course it was all
complimentary."
Achilleous is no stranger to royal or celebrity shoemaking, his shop, which opened in
1983, provided the bridesmaid shoes for prince Andrews wedding to Sarah Ferguson. He also
later employed Greek shoemaker Spiros Minas who had worked on the bridesmaid shoes for
prince Charles and princess Diana's wedding in 1981.
Achilleous also counts among his client's actresses Uma Thurman and Nicole Kidman, wife of
Tom Cruise, " We make shoes for all sorts of celebrities he said. |
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