Who would have known that the inspiration behind the signature Louboutin pumps was fingernail polish? In 1993, a fellowemployee was painting her nails red. Louboutin snagged the bottle and painted the soles of a shoe. Just like that, the red bottoms were born. Christian Louboutin is a French fashion designer whose high-end shoes incorporate shiny, red-lacquered soles that have become his signature. During his early career in fashion, Louboutin was a freelance designer for fashion housesand eventually started his own shoe salon in Paris. His shoes made it to mainstream by finding favor with celebrity clientele. With prices for red bottoms ranging from $695 to nearly $6000, it is safe to say Louboutin’s are an ultimate status symbol in fashion. When it all comes down to it, everyone from middle-class fashionistas to Hollywood superstars are paying for the status symbol.
In a world where designers tend to be very vocal about who they would like to wear their merchandise, we found Louboutin’s back story very interesting and for some reason not mentioned very often in mainstream media. He was born and raised in Paris as the only son of a French cabinet-maker and housewife. He has three sisters and often felt like the outsider. Louboutin said in a 2012 interview that he was much darkerthan everyone else in his family. Therefore, he felt he wasn't French and probably adopted. But instead of feeling like a horrified outsider, he invented his own family history filled with tall tales of characters from Egypt since he had a thing forpharaohs. In 2014, one of his sisters snitched. He discoveredthat his biological father was really an Egyptian, with whom his mother had been having a secret affair. There is a Southern proverb that says, “your daddy ain’t your daddy but your daddy don’t know.” Scratch the surface of success and you will find a story!
After being a teenage runaway (ironically, he ran away to Egypt), traveling the world with shoe sketches, leaving the fashion industry as a designer to become a landscape gardener and then opening his own shop with Princess Caroline of Monaco as his first customer, his footwear was named the Most Prestigious Women’s Shoe in 2007, 2008, and 2009. His signature shoe is the most searched-for-shoe brand online. Although his shoes can be spotted on professional photographs, runways, Hip Hop music videos, and red carpet events, Louboutin’s single biggest client is American novelist Danielle Steel She is reported to own over 6,000 pairs and has purchased up to 80 pairs at a time when shopping at his stores. Not bad for a runaway Egyptian! Louboutin loves to “people watch” those who wear his designs. He is also very vocal about the sexual appreciation of a woman in heels. Christian stated, “What is sexual in a high heel is the arch of the foot because it is exactly the position of a woman's foot when she orgasms. So, putting your foot in a heel, you are putting yourself in a possibly orgasmic situation." At a recent press event in London to celebrate Louboutin's upcoming exhibition at the Palais de la Porte Dorée in Paris, the designer told journalists he's sometimes "vaguely horrified" by how people wear his shoes. However, he carefully avoided elaborating on the details which trigger being horrified. He went on to say he is always happy to see people wearing his “checks” (well “creations” was the exact word used).
“There is an element of seduction in shoes that doesn’t exist for men. A woman can be sexy, charming, witty or shy with her shoes.”- Christian Louboutin
Comments