Frustrated after having tried different things to liven up the design, I spontaneously grabbed my assistant's red nail polish and painted the sole. I instantly knew that this would be a success!
Christian Louboutin (b. 1963) discovered his love of high heels in 1976, when he visited a museum in his hometown of Paris. Women with stiletto heels were prohibited from entering certain areas of the exhibition so as not to damage the floor. The 12-year-old Christian Louboutin wanted women to be able to choose exactly what they wanted to wear, and so he began to draw shoe designs.
Louboutin landed his first job at the famous Parisian performance hall Folie Bergère as an assistant to the hall's show girls. After a few years working there, Louboutin longed for adventure. He began exploring Egypt and India, absorbing all that he saw into his designs. When he returned to Paris in 1981, Louboutin began working as a freelance show designer for for prestigious fashion houses, including Charles Jourdan, Chanel, Yves Saint Laurent and Roger Vivier.
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In 1991, Louboutin finally opened his own boutique in Paris with one of his first prominent clients, Princess Caroline of Monaco. Her adoration for Louboutin paved the way for him to build a clientele of the world's most well-heeled.
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Two years after the opening of his first store, Louboutin introduced his now trademark red sole. The inspiration for the now iconic sole actually came in a moment of frustration. After unsatisfactorily comparing his sketch design with the actual shoe, Louboutin spontaneously grabbed his assistant's nail polish to paint the sole to add some excitement to the design. And today, that bright red sole has become quite the status symbol.
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Louboutin also popularized the ultra-high heel, introducing heel heights of 4 inches and higher, designed to elongate the female leg. His designs range from the classic, such as black or nude patent leather, to the outrageous and exotic, that incorporate feathers, spikes, lace, snakeskin, rhinestones, fur and more.
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However, the love of the heel is not something new. 350 years before Louboutin's red soles, another Frenchman, King Louis XIV, was using his shoes to display his superiority. Measuring only 5 feet 3 inches, Louis XIV wore vermilion shoes that were nearly 6 inches high as a symbol of his status.
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But back to the other shoe king, Christian Louboutin. The eponymous company, founded in 1991, sold 2,000 pairs of shoes in the first year and has become a highly coveted fashion staple. Today, Louboutin sells over 600,000 pairs of shoes annually, as well as purses, wallets, cosmetics and perfumes that generate a total of $250 million a year. And they've become quite the collector's item: American novelist Danielle Steel claims that she owns 6,000 pairs of Louboutin's coveted red soles. The most expensive pair of Louboutin shoes is a pair of bespoke red-spiked boots that sold at Sotheby's for $50,000 for a charity auction.
