Head over heels: Behind...

Last month, Maison Christian Louboutin made a splash with “Paris is Louboutining,” a synchronised swimming spectacle at the Piscine Molitor, which is incidentally where the bikini was born about 78 years ago. It was Paris Fashion Week SS25 and Louboutin, 60, had the French Olympic artistic swimming team perform underwater in his new Miss Z pumps. Art and fashion intersected as film director and photographer David LaChapelle and choreographer Blanca Li presented a hypnotic aquatic performance that included colourful projections, fountains, even a giant pair of Christian Louboutin mules that served as a pool slide.

Also read:https://www.thehindu.com/life-and-style/luxury/christian-louboutins-red-stamp-of-approval/article26819055.ece

Louboutin knows how to make an impact. As do his leg-lengthening and calf-defining shoes. His red-soled heels have become a must have accessory on the red carpet. Be it Selena Gomez at the Emilia Perez Gala during the 68th BFI London Film Festival last weekend, or Demi Moore promoting her big 2024 hit, The Substance or style superstar Zendaya, there is always a Louboutin photo op. It is no wonder that Louboutin, both creative director and shareholder of his company, doesn’t believe in advertising.

Back in the day, it was reported that author Danielle Steele owned 6000 pairs of these shoes. In a profile in The New Yorker many years ago, Hamish Bowles, the European editor-at-large for Vogue, was quoted saying, “There’s the promise of something wicked in Christian’s shoes. They’re a little dangerous, and there’s a sense of teetering on the precipice between avoiding dreary conventional good taste and tumbling into something far more outrageous.”

The installation at the PFW show featured women in Miss Z pumps and a firefighter who disrobed and dove into the pool | Photo Credit: Special Arrangement

The brand that started with only two or three stores now owns more than 160 boutiques. It has diversified to 55% women’s shoes, 30% men’s shoes, and 15% leather goods. Beauty is a recent category as well.

A celebrated Indophile, horticulturalist and passionate collector of furniture – he has an app to keep track of them – Louboutin has friends and collaborators across the world. They appreciate his hustle and his sense of humour. In India this circle includes designer Sabyasachi Mukherkjee and Chennai-based founder of Vastrakala, Jean-François Lesage.

Having been introduced to Indian cinema at a theatre near his home in Paris when growing up, Louboutin is more than familiar with Bollywood. He is quick to break into a Hindi film song – “I am often singing when I ride my Vespa, so only I can hear my voice” – and makes time for art and design shows. When in Mumbai he schedules trips to Dadar Flower Market, Chor Bazaar for film posters, and even Vandana Fabrics on Napean Sea Road. Architect and designer Rooshad Shroff, who helped design the Mumbai and Bangkok Louboutin stores, has accompanied him on some of these trips. “Christian has seen me grow. He selected me to work on his stores based on an embroidered sofa and a panel we did with embroidery on wood. I have dome some marble inlay work for his store in Malaysia. Last weekend, he came over to see my new collection, Balance, at the IF.BE (Ice Factory Ballard Estate) space and was impressed. I value his advice,” says Shroff.

Jhansi from the Salon L’Inde at the Mumbai store | Photo Credit: Barry Rodgers

Christian was in town to launch The Diwali Edit that included the Lady Bombay Diwali 85, the Kate Diwali 85 and the Pyraclou Diwali. There is a generous mix of rhinestones, fishnet, and Indian fabrics in strong pink fuchsia, rose, teal, yellow, and red in these styles. Fans, however, are already lusting after Miss Z’s metallic options in gold, pink, blue and silver. They will have to wait till January 2025. More from the designer:

Soft spot for art

Louboutin has named his guesthouse in Portugal after a cemetery. His La Folie there, a space for both meditation and parties, is inspired by Jaipur’s Jantar Mantar and stepwells. He collects Hopi masks, kachina dolls, and ceramic art and furniture by famous designers, artists and weavers. He says he loves being inspired by other cultures and has filled his recently launched hotel near Lisbon with precious works of art.

A personal favourite is British pop artist Allen Jones, “one of the rare artists for whom shoes are not difficult to draw; I see many contemporary modern artists who are great but when it comes to shoes, it is distorted.” Louboutin has artwork by Allen Jones hanging in his atelier. “There is a sense of achievement when I look at it, when as a child I read of this artist in books, then got to know him and work with him.

The French Olympic artistic swimming team revisiting a 1950s-style Hollywood water ballet at Paris Fashion Week is probably the most memorable show this year. Please take us behind the scenes?

We started it more than a year ago. There was so much about the Olympics being in France then. Initially I thought of track and field, of girls in couture and high heels, running. Nice, but it had been done in pictures already. I’ve always loved synchronised swimming and one of the places you are not expecting shoes in is the pool. I knew David LaChapelle but not very well. We have a good common friend, Daphne Guinness, who convinced him when I mentioned being interested in David’s aesthetic and his colour palette. He is a great photographer but also a good video director, and the dancers in his videos are beautiful and strong. I knew Blanca Li, our choreographer. Fortunately David had worked with her 30 years ago. She said, ‘the only time I have been photographed naked, sitting on a fridge, was by David LaChapelle!’ That first Zoom meeting between the three of us was really hilarious.

Christian Louboutin Kate Diwali 85 in Multi-Orange | Photo Credit: Special Arrangement

The girls made quite a splash in the new “Miss Z” pump. Was it challenging for them to swim in heels?

Since the shoe is pointy and didn’t take a lot of surface area, they felt it wasn’t complicated. The real problem was for the male swimmer [the Italian athlete Giorgio Minisini] as the sneaker got very heavy.

Miss Z, the last of your trilogy of pumps, after the iconic Pigalle and So Kate, has several hidden features. Is it going to be waterproof when retailed in January 2025?

We still need to see how ‘waterproof’ it is going to be. We had so many requests from people after the show who wanted to swim in their shoes. There were some who wanted to buy the giant slide! Miss Z comes with many technical updates. It gives the illusion of height but there is a lot of comfort put in that shoe. With so many actresses using our shoes and requiring continuity in scenes, it has been an obsession for 20 years [to prevent the red sole wearing off once used]. Now the sole will remain red [courtesy a newly developed coated finish]. So Miss Z is technologically super advanced. It is part of the Z generation, which is forever young.

The giant mule slide at Paris Fashion Week | Photo Credit: Special Arrangement

Fans are calling it the Zendaya shoe...are you? Much has been said recently about her wearing only Louboutins on the red carpet since she was 14.

It’s for the Z generation. Zendaya is a fantastic example of that generation. As for the personality of the shoe, it is a young girl who is responsible for her actions, fierce, multi-race, a well-travelled person. Miss Z goes everywhere.

Your Diwali Edit features gold accents and ribbons. There are silhouettes such as Lady Bombay Diwali 85 and Kate Diwali 85.

I see Diwali celebrations taking pace across the world. It is interesting to see that it has become a national holiday in North America, which proves that sometimes there is respect for different communities. Gold is not a colour but to me it is the colour of India. Even at night here, you see the shimmer of gold. I have used it as a mineral and mixed it with ribbons that I have collected and that also have a thread of gold. This edit is about my travel, and is my interpretation of this country.

Red-soled chairs

In May, the shoe designer collaborated with an old friend and design genius Pierre Yovanovitch on a series of 13 chairs that pay homage to women icons. The shoe designer from Brittany took the latter’s famous Clam chair and gave them his distinctive red sole. They ranged from Egypt’s Nefertari to Dita, inspired by his friend Dita von Teese. “Pierre is incredibly funny though he looks so serious. I call him Miss World,” shares Louboutin.

The Frenchmen were happy to include expert artisans for embroidery, upholstery and leatherwork. “My father was a carpenter so this was a tribute to him,” says Louboutin who hopes to take home the Zenobie chair, inspired by Syria’s Queen Zenobia. Crafted from solid oak with embroidered fabric, its feet feature turquoise gemstones.

In the past master embroiderer and founder of Vastrakala Jean-François Lesage has likened you to a sponge, as you are well-read and quick to absorb various influences. What was the impact of Chennai’s movie studios on you? I remember my first visit to Madras in the late ‘70s. There would be a cinema near to the airport, with hand-painted posters. Some were full of big sequins. The landscape would include men with massive mustaches, giant sunglasses, and big ties in satin. It was so cinematic, both on those posters and the streets. For me the discovery of Indian cinema in the country was more Madras than Bombay’s Juhu or Bollywood.

Christian Louboutin Pyraclou Diwali 110 | Photo Credit: Special Arrangement

Right from the age of 8 when you visited Palais de la Porte Dorée often in Paris, to your later travels around the world, you have celebrated diversity and cultural influences. You have also been outspoken about cultural appropriation.

I think it is very important to look at other cultures and to understand, through culture and the handicraft of another country, what they are about. Right now one should be able to connect and communicate with the rest of the world. It is from ‘cultural fascination’ that you get a mixed race or one of the most beautiful marriages of art, such as Gandhara art [the artistic manifestation of Greco-Buddhism]. Personally, I feel the term cultural appropriation is really racist and stupid. Stop terrorising people. It limits creativity and humour in every field.

Salon L’Inde, offering a glimpse into the Maison’s archives from 1995 to 2014, is at the Christian Louboutin boutique in Mumbai till November 6, 2024. The showcase features eight India-focused pieces as well as original archival sketches.

Published - October 18, 2024 09:44 pm IST

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