LOUBOUTIN’S ART AND SOLE
Footwear maestro Christian Louboutin touched down in Beverly Hills recently for a personal appearance at Neiman Marcus to celebrate the 20th anniversary of his business and the new, limited-edition capsule collection of shoes and bags he is launching to mark the occasion.
A busy day of shaking hands and signing the famous Louboutin red soles culminated in a dinner at LACMA’s Ray’s & Stark Bar, where art was in motion as guests strutted past a canvas-covered wall being “tagged” by street artist Gallo Love.
(Love is himself a kind of work of art, with a beard and mustache on half his face and a single eyebrow on the opposite side. And he achieved a neat party trick when the canvas on the wall turned out to be canvas tote bags for guests to take home as graffiti-covered mementos.)
Louboutin took a few minutes to chat about his love of global handicrafts, his upcoming gig at Crazy Horse in Paris and the trademark infringement case that has him seeing red.
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Does it feel like it’s been 20 years?
It doesn’t seem like that long. I don’t see my company as a grown-up because I’m still so enthusiastic. I feel like it’s a teenage company.
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What’s a funny memory you have from the early days?
My friend Henri, who is also one of my business partners, said when we started that we needed to get a fax machine. And I said, ‘A fax machine? What for? Can we afford it?’ He said, ‘I think we have to.’ We really started from zero. There was one phone for the whole company -- one physical phone.
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Talk about this 20th anniversary collection. Is it a greatest hits collection?
Sort of. When I was working on my book [which celebrates his 20 years in business and is published this month], I realized there are certain ideas that always come back into my designs. For example, I have always loved showgirls and have done many things in reference to those birds of paradise. The Bow Bow [shoe] is about transparency, and the Havana Trash is what I imagine is on the floor at the Tropicana. I’ve always worked with artisans from different countries, as well as artists, like the 25-year-old graffiti artist Nicolas Michel who tagged some of our shoes. This collection is about all of those things.
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You tap into a global network of artisans for your designs. Can you share some of the styles from the anniversary collection that incorporate handicrafts?
On these sandals [the Copte style], this is a Coptic cross. These first were made by monks in the north of Egypt. I saw them there and asked if they could be reproduced. These gilded wood heels on the Bois Dore are done by a community in a village in Thailand.
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What’s been the most popular shoe over the years?
The Very Prive and Numero Prive, which have a hidden platform, the Pigalle and the Simple Pump.
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Have there been any unsuccessful designs?
One design I thought would be popular, and we didn’t sell any. It was a spindle heel inside a tassel. I guess people thought it was awkward. There was also a glass wedge with flower petals inside, that looked like you were walking on a bed of roses. Most of the pairs came back because the heel cracked.
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You’re working on a production opening in March at the Crazy Horse cabaret in Paris, a collaboration with David Lynch and Swizz Beatz.
I stayed true to the DNA of Crazy Horse, which is about the embellishment of women, but also the strength of the lighting and repetition. The lighting is very special; it can provoke magic. A French cabaret going African, that’s one number. Another
number is about shadows and legs. Then there is a hip-hop finale. Mark Fast did the costumes.
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You are in the midst of what could be a long and drawn-out intellectual property case with Yves Saint Laurent over the right to use a China Red lacquered sole. What if the ultimate result isn’t one you like?
I’m not going to hang myself, but I have to stand up for myself and for others. People come to me because they like the shoes but also because they love the story of a person who followed his dream and managed to stay independent for 20 years. What I see is a big company trying to break a small one.
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When you want to get away from it all, where is your peaceful place?
Portugal. I have a house by the sea. I’m not a Mediterranean type of person, but I like waves. The sound of waves is like the sound of heels. It provokes tranquillity. It rocks you.
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The Christian Louboutin 20th anniversary capsule collection of shoes and bags, $695 to $8,995, is available at the designer’s boutiques and at select Neiman Marcus and Saks Fifth Avenue stores. It will be online soon at us.christianlouboutin.com.
