NO DOUBTIN’ LOUBOUTIN
Shoe icon oozes confidence
Christian Louboutin is a big fan of art.
“I have a passion for everything that is art — artifacts, handicrafts, artisanship, different cultures, et cetera,” he admits.
Perhaps not such a remarkable revelation as the worlds of fashion and art often collide, but more surprising is the renowned French designer’s predilection for Native American and First Nations collections. For these artifacts, Louboutin has “a passion.”
“I have always been interested in ‘mixity,’ in a way,” he says. “I think ‘mixity’ — everything that is crossculture — to me, has always been more interesting than one specific culture.”
That’s why, the day before Louboutin signed hundreds of pairs of shoes for eager fans at Nordstrom in Vancouver recently, he wasn’t cavorting around the city on a glamorous agenda, but rather was “strolling” around the Museum of Anthropology. It was an activity he says he has longed to do.
“I had always wanted to go to this museum. It’s a beautiful museum,” he says. “It reminds me of a museum I used to go to when I was a kid in Paris.”
That Paris museum is the Museum of African and Oceanic Art, and it helped spawn Louboutin’s interest in women’s footwear. A young Louboutin was reportedly taken by a drawing of a woman’s shoe on a sign that warned visitors of the damage their heels could inflict on the museum’s parquet flooring.
It sounds like an odd impetus for a career in fashion accessories, but after meeting Louboutin, it fits.
The simple tale aligns with the uncomplicated air that radiates from the 52-year-old as he sits patiently — clad in a green plaid blazer, white Lacoste polo shirt and jeans — waiting for the parade of local journalists to ask him about his line, his life and almost whatever else came to mind. (Almost, because as is increasingly the case with designers and celebrities, certain questions were deemed off-the-table in advance.)
Louboutin speaks softly and openly. He makes eye contact and listens to questions. He makes a person feel instantly at ease. It’s a disarming quality. He attributes his communication style to growing up with three sisters, and later, a fourth foster sister in his teens.
“I have not only been influenced and affected but completely moulded by women,” he explains. “That’s why I often say that women have very little secrets from me. I see that women who are close to me, and even women who I meet, are very at ease with me because they see there is no judgment and just love.”
Thatopenaffectionissomething he has aimed to channel through his footwear designs, which he first launched in his own boutique in Paris in 1992. His eponymous business now includes footwear for men and women, handbags, beauty products and fragrance — all made with a mission to promote confidence.
“I’m only interested in things which have to do with confidentiality, intimacy and confidence,” he says. “I love small things which contain a secret. And shoes definitely contain a small secret. And fragrance and beauty are the same thing.”
And it’s for these reasons that Louboutin says he will never venture into the clothing business — “I was proposed to do clothes and I would never do it. I’m not interested at all,” he says — and why he still refuses to tell a customer how they should or should not wear his designs.
“I would rarely say to people, well, you have to wear that with this, or you have to wear it with that,” he says. “I quite like the fact that people are getting something and then incorporating it into their own style. Everybody is free in that. And I like seeing what people are putting my designs with. And sometimes I don’t like it, but I like the surprise. It makes me happy.”
Louboutin pointed to the quote, “It’s better to be happy than well-dressed,” by nonagenarian style star Iris Apfel, as his view of seeing his shoes worn poorly by customers.
“Myjobisdesigning,”Louboutin says. “When it’s done, in a way, I give it to people and then people are free of doing, thinking and dreaming around my work.”
That independence to interpret his creations in a personal way may be one of the reasons Louboutin’s shoes sell so well in North America, which is reportedly his strongest sales market internationally.
“Women are quite playful in North America. And quite independent,” he says. “So there is something in my shoes which is playful and definitely independent, too. So, I guess it links.”
Or, the chart-topping sales could have more to do with the fact his red-soled shoes have been a pop-culture fixture in recent years. From red-carpet appearances to artists such as Jennifer Lopez and Jay-Z mentioning Louboutins in their songs, his name is now synonymous with semi-attainable luxury.
“I think everything has an impact in a way. And of course pop culture has an impact on ... how you are perceived,” he says. “But I like that. I like that my shoes and my name have come up in a lot of songs. You can only take it as an honour, in a way. Even if sometimes you are like, why? But it’s nice when people appropriate themselves something.”
Louboutin says the idea of fluidity and freedom guides both his business and his designs.
“I remain free when I’m designing,” he says. “I really start by drawing, and then after the drawing, are the first prototypes. And it’s at this point, when it enters a real prototype, when I begin thinking about the shape, et cetera.”
While Louboutin presents four collections a year for both men and women — each collection boasting more than 300 styles — he says he doesn’t separate the two genders during the design phase.
“Frontiers are not so strict. I sort of ended up stopping the idea of having to design in a different state of mind when I was designing for men,” he says. “The only thing that is very, very different is the treatment of the shoe. The leather, the construction. So, it is when it arrives at the technical side that it is different. Then suddenly you do separate men and women, but not before.”
The blossoming trend in mainstream fashion to eschew traditional gender norms with unisex collections is one Louboutin fully supports. He says men specifically are being affected by the shift in fashion mentality and male shoppers are thinking less about purchasing legacy pieces and more about pieces they can, “get excited by.”
One area where Louboutin doesn’t exercise much freedom is in his design environment. In that he demands one thing: isolation.
“I have a booklet all the time, but when I really design the collection, I isolate myself,” he says. “I draw during the day and then in the evening I stop drawing. And then in the morning, I look at the drawing again. And then keep on drawing.
“I cannot be in a place where there are always telephones and people.”
I like seeing what people are putting my designs with. And sometimes I don’t like it, but I like the surprise. It makes me happy.