RED MAGIC (Part II)

Louboutin’s designs are definitely theatrical and sometimes seem to even steal the spotlight. And the women of the stage can’t seem to get enough.
With a huge celebrity following that looks more like a directory listing of the whose-who in Hollywood, Louboutin is fulfilling his mission very well. “I noticed most women on stage, like Tina Turner, dance a lot. So, obviously, there’s a direct link between dancing and shoes. From the posture to the attitude, it is directly related to the shoes as every dancer wears heels. Even classical dancers like ballerinas who don’t wear heels, stand on a point that’s like the highest heel imaginable.”

But Louboutin’s work at Folies Bergères was one of pure research. “I learned a lot from the dancers about women in general,” he explains, “But I didn’t learn anything about designing as I just got coffee and ran errands; therefore, I decided to leave.”
This is when another enchanting turn of events occurred. Louboutin boldly called Hèène de Mortemart, the Couture Director for Christian Dior, and told her he wanted to design shoes. She invited him to see his designs and voila! He was offered an internship at Jourdan in Romans, the makers of Dior footwear at the time. It was there that he got his technical training; and when he left, he left as a true designer. Louboutin worked his magic again and found himself freelancing for many of the most prestigious fashion houses around — from Chanel to Yves Saint Laurent. His career then appeared to go full circle as he started working under the same man whose book had inspired him to become a designer at 16 years of age: Roger Vivier. “I loved Roger Vivier; we shared a lot of similar parallels. He once told me that Christian Dior had always said to him: ‘A shoe must appear, but it must also disappear. It has to be magic,’” retells Louboutin. And that’s just what Louboutin’s shoes are today: Magic.

“I prefer shoes that undress, rather than dress so that a woman remains nude even with the shoes on. The shoes thus become an extension of her, a privilege of nudity,” explains Louboutin. That’s the conjuring power of his designs — whether embellished with studs and big ribbon folds or simply nude-colored closed-toe heels — they become part of the wearer. It doesn’t take her over, but rather she takes over it — adopting it as a natural part of her silhouette. Her legs suddenly appear longer, leaner and just sexier overall. This is the magic wand of Louboutin’s designs — an ethereal enchantment that we cannot break away from. In 1992, Louboutin purchased his first boutique at 19 rue Jean-Jacques Rousseau in Paris. He no longer worked under a designer or fashion house and was making his own shoes under his own name.
Thus, the spell of his shoes was finally cast. Four years later, Louboutin received a FFANY Award from the International Fashion Group. And, six years later, he was chosen to create the shoes for the finale of Yves Saint Laurent’s farewell haute couture show. The masterpiece was referred to as “Christian Louboutin for Yves Saint Laurent Haute Couture 1962-2002” — the only time ever that Saint Laurent associated his name with another designer.

The year 2008 was the charmed ‘Year of Louboutin’ when he received his second FFANY Award and became the Star Honoree of the Fashion Group International. New York’s Fashion Institute of Technology even held a special tribute that was a retrospective exploration of his magnificent work, a testament to his genius.

Today, the Christian Louboutin brand can be found in 20 eponymous boutiques, 46 countries and in world famous department stores such as: Sak’s, Nieman-Marcus, Barney’s, Harvey Nichol’s, and Bergdorf-Goodman. His boutiques are magically popping up all over the globe as the spell of Louboutin sweeps the world. His latest place of conjure is Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. Located in Al Khayyat Center, this store is the perfect haven of congregation for fashionistas who are gladly possessed by the red magic. And, much like Louboutin’s career, we’re sure to see more boutiques, spread throughout the Middle East, with the flick of a wand.