“Black soles are for widows, beige soles are for the Milanese, but red soles are for those who want to flirt and still have time to dance.”
The be-ribboned Louboutins that grace my sidebar and starred in a recent Christmas post caused a stir, not unlike the shoes’ designer, Christian Louboutin, who has been causing a sensation in the fashion and design worlds since he opened his first boutique in 1992.
Born and raised in Paris, Christian Louboutin was a landscape gardener before opening his Right Bank, Paris boutique. The story of how Louboutin came to be a shoe designer has reached near mythic proportions, beginning with one fateful day as he passed by the Museum of Oceanic Art in Paris, where he noticed a sign that would forever change his life: an image of a stiletto heel crossed out by two thick lines reminding women who were visiting the museum not to scratch the wooden floors with their high heels. Not believing that something so beautiful could have such negative connotations, it is said that from this moment on, his fascination with shoes would grow into an obsession of sketching them in the hopes of one day bringing his sketches to life.
He once famously stated in an interview {style.com} that he created shoes for pure pleasure–“a shoe you can not run, you can not even walk–if you want to run in a shoe, buy a sneaker.” Anyone who has ever teetered in a pair of his four-inch heels will concur that running is not an option! Louboutin has also been quoted as saying, “It is better to be graceful in flats, than not be able to walk in heels.”
This remarkable designer has a trapeze installed in his office, considers Caroline of Monaco and Catherine Deneuve his friends, and Roger Vivier a mentor. He divides his time between his Left Bank, Paris apartment, a château in the French countryside, and an Egyptian retreat.
Here is a glimpse of Louboutin’s stunning countryside château . . .
{Christian Louboutin}
{all images from the official Christian Louboutin website; images 1-7 from German AD February 2007}