Wish granted. At 39, Louboutin is taking on Manolo Blahnik and Jimmy Choo to be Supreme Cobbler to the Stars, and not because his trademark scarlet-bottomed stilettos coddle the arches. "They are the prettiest designs on the market," says Elizabeth Taylor. "I make a point of crossing my legs so people can see the beautiful red soles."
Other fans of his elegant, fanciful footwear include Kim Cattrall and Halle Berry, who both wore Louboutins at the Golden Globes, and Janet Jackson, who calls his stuff "smart and sexy." Sex and the City Manolo maniac Carrie Bradshaw (whose alter ego, Sarah Jessica Parker, wed in Louboutins) loves him, and so does Jennifer Lopez (even if she did tell Harper's Bazaar that his heels "kill you")
In fact, Louboutin does care about comfort—and caution. In the workshop next to his Paris boutique (one of four worldwide), he and his staff of nine aim to make shoes (priced from $345 for leather flats to $2,500 for crocodile pumps) safe for strolling. "There's a challenge to make the heel stable," he says. But that's not the fun part. Says Louboutin: "I want to help women live out their fantasies."
The son of Roger, a cabinetmaker, and Irene, a housewife, Louboutin was first captivated by towering heels during a 1976 visit to a museum near their Paris home. The lobby had a sign showing a very high shoe inside a red circle with a slash through it, meant to protect the mosaic floor from spike heels.
"I had no idea shoes like that existed," says Louboutin. "I had three sisters who wore cork platforms." Soon he was "obsessed" and doodling shoes in his school books. Four years later he enrolled in a couture trade school, where "I got to see how girls are alone together," he says. "Because of that, I really understand the female universe."
He took a succession of jobs assisting established designers, and then, he says, "asked myself an existential question: Do I follow my childhood dream to make shoes, or make an adult choice?"
He made his decision in 1991, when a friend found a charming vacant store and urged him to rent it. An early customer was Monaco's Princess Caroline. Soon women were lining up to get his signature red soles—which, he explains, have "the 'follow me, young man' effect—the modern equivalent of dropping your handkerchief." Other hits include the Trash series—made of Metro tickets and litter encased in plastic.
A travel fanatic, Louboutin mines far-flung locales for ideas: Recently, he made sandals from Indian sari ribbon. His next trip likely will be to Mongolia with pal Diane Von Furstenberg. "I'm not allowed to wear anybody else's shoes," she quips. (No word on what she'll don in the Gobi.)
Louboutin and his partner of six years, Louis Benech, 46, a landscape architect who restored the Tuileries gardens, divide their quiet time between a French country spread and a Luxor, Egypt, villa. "Christian is a go-getter," says Benech admiringly. "He has no low moments." No surprise there.
Allison Adato
Cathy Nolan in Paris, Rachel Felder in New York City and Amy Baumgartner in Los Angeles
- Contributors:
- Cathy Nolan,
- Rachel Felder,
- Amy Baumgartner.
Saved by the Bell Reunion
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