I wanted to design shoes. And somehow, I wanted women to like them and to wear them. That was my one and only clear ambition. That was my sole ambition. I had no ideas of building a brand, building a name, and all that entailed, licensing and so on. Basically, I honestly genuinely didn't have the slightest idea of what the fashion business was.
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I often get asked, when did things take off? I don't really know. I can't say such and such an event acted as a spur and suddenly things kicked off. The first pinch me, I'm dreaming moment was when someone recognized my name. I was at the airport. There was a lady, a security officer who was handing back possessions. She began shrieking, 'Oh my god, Louboutin! Ou la la!' This is fun, I thought.
Things seemed well underway. We had more customers, people who liked them, who loved them, and I like that. And things were very nice. I was meeting very funny people, I was learning several trades at once. I love my drawing and designing and seeing things come together.
I like to draw in places I know well. If I don't know the place, I'm too curious to sit at a table. This is a totally familiar place. We're in Portugal. I mainly do the autumn winter collections here. There's a ramp up. I don't just bang out designs from day one, but I do draw. If I'm not producing wonders in the first couple of days, I don't worry. It's always the same. There's always a nervy start about the quality of the first things. But I concentrate on the drawing. The first day and the second day, I need to adjust the lines. But that's a pleasure anyway. And that's a perfect start, it's like a warm up. I begin to draw and there has to be a flow. The characteristic of a collection is to draw abundantly. What inspires me the most? I'm inspired by objects. I'm inspired by music and people in general. These are people I know, totally imaginary people, or people I've met, or someone I've seen in a show, so it can come from people. Plants also spring to mind naturally. Here, for instance, is a Santolina. It's a particular yellow with a green. When it's next to another plant, a plant in the sand which is a soft purple, it's very pretty. It's a combination of colors and also materials that really comes from plants. I feel kind of like Obelix in Asterix. Whenever he sees anything, he imagines it roasted like a roast boar. I'm a bit like that. I'll see something and make a design from it. For example, this rug, it's a kind of woven leather. I see a sandal and work on that. So the starting point is an object that's familiar to me, something I like anyway. But from time to time, I let my pencil guide me. That comes from a love for drawing.
The red sole didn't come from an idea, it came from a design. I had the shoe, I had the design, and kept thinking the shoe is good, but the design is better. I turned it every which way, and when I had it like that, the sole was black and I had no black in my design. There was no beige, no gray, only bright colors. And the person trying on the shoes, Sarah, she was painting her nails. So I said, 'Would you mind if I took your varnish?' She said, 'Wait, I'll finish my nails.' I said, 'No, there's something I want to check.' So after a struggle, I managed to get the bottle of varnish. She had only done two nails. She wasn't happy. 'I've only done two!' I emptied the bottle of varnish on the sole. I looked at my design and thought, that's it! A lot of women at the time only wore black. 'I don't like color,' they said. I said to one, 'You say you don't like color, but you do have some.' She says, 'No, I have no colors.' I say, 'What about this?' She says, 'That's red.' The woman says, 'No, red's different. It's not really a color. It's more than a color.' I thought, 'Yes, I can see that.' That was when I realized that even if you didn't like colors, red existed.
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Here, I talk to the technicians about what should remain of the design. You must first respect the design and then the technique will come in support of that. If something's stuck on the foot here, it won't be glued, there'll be transparent straps or something that isn't seen. But at the design stage, I prefer to be completely free. And that's important because if there's too much technique, you get locked into technique. The design shrinks in terms of the imagination bestowed on it because you rule certain things out. Loads of things aren't possible, but that's not what matters.
We started working on a particular shape. I'd never seen anything like them. My father, who was already 60 then, said, 'These lines are impossible. You can't wear these on your feet.' But I said, 'Look, we'll follow what Christian draws and see what we get.' And that was a big hit. The fact of having lines rising where the toes begin gives the shoe a super sexy aspect.
Some people in creative jobs are inspired by technique. For example, I remember the technician at Jordan. He was an adorable bearded gentleman in a white coat. He came up to me and put his shoe on my desk just like that. And he said, 'See that? It's great. In this heel, there's one nail.' I said, 'So what?' He had a southern accent, which I can't do. You know nothing. A nail in a heel is technically very complicated. It's held with a single nail. I said, 'Yes, but it's ugly.' When a woman looks at a shoe, I want it to spark an emotion or desire, not for her to say, 'Now, that's a technical challenge!' She doesn't see that. That's why I've been pillared for the word comfort. Because that notion doesn't enter my head when I design. Ah, the French designer who doesn't like women, who wants to torture them. It's nothing to do with torture. But if your basic purpose is comfort, I always say, 'Place the word comfort uppermost in your mind and see what you design.' You'll make slippers and Scholl's. It's just the heel. Otherwise, it's good.
They look like scales. It's lovely. The idea is, is to realize that until the end, they're pyramids, inverted pyramids, in fact. Not in that way, in this way. It might be pretty to have the tip here. Leaving it high will make a rather thick ornament like a jewel. And to have a ball here. Here, put this one on.
I have thoughts that match various personalities. I have the eye of a creator, the eye of a man who thinks of his wife, his mistress, or his fiance. Watch, I take off the heels. One, two, three, turn. Then I have the girl's friend relationship and the almost a girl relationship. I can have a totally different analysis of the same design. So in my work, there are various types of characters who intermingle who from time to time will collide, yell at each other, and not agree. So throughout the collection, there's a part of all these fragments of my own personality but which I let speak inside of me. That's important.
A woman's shoe only touches the foot, but radiates throughout the whole body, the whole figure right up to the head, the way you are. The shoe is a very transformative object. The woman wears her clothes, whereas shoes wear the woman.
Punakha Hills, that's pretty river like. Let me look. This one's flowers. Himalayan flowers.
Flowers.
This one's Bhutan Beauty.
Oh damn, this was Himalayan flowers. They're all the flowers. Okay, Fairy Garden. So now, are we agreed on Heaven and Earth? That's Himalayan Garden.
Flowers. Those are all the names.
We have them all. Okay, I'll carry on.
I come here for one week a month. When you stay for a week, it allows you to start things, amend things, and review them two or three days later rather than waiting for the next time so you make several adjustments. So it's instantaneous. It's important to me to sleep in the factory because maybe around 9:00 or 10:00 in the evening, I remember things and go back down but the factory is locked up with alarms, et cetera. So I don't actually enter, but I need to be connected to the offices where the pencils are at all times.
When what you do at work works well, it just means you can do it better. Anything that springs from my imagination, a design that may be more complicated, or technically difficult, or very expensive to manufacture, all that I can allow myself to do, it always leads to something. It means that we've sidelined this thing. Whenever I do something that I dismiss for lots of reasons, visual reasons or that it doesn't work, et cetera, it isn't a waste of money or time. In fact, success has given me the chance to experiment a lot and to do even more.
I've known Christian for 20 years. When I met him in 2000, he already had a name of certain fame, but not many boutiques. At the time, the name Christian Louboutin didn't have the planetary reach and incredible influence that he can have today. Nevertheless, Christian's way of life is strictly the same. It hasn't changed. And that commands admiration because it means there's something within him that is stronger than success, than a desire to succeed, than the spiral of enrichment. It's staying true to yourself. He could very well have turned his life into the hell of a big industrial boss, like many successful people who can't stop along the way and who buy up companies, they want to build an empire, be number one, et cetera. Christian doesn't.
Delphine's smoking out front. The rest, I don't know.
These really need to be tried out. I'd be scared that. They're pretty, they're very pretty though. You'd have to make a pair in 43 and try them, walk in them.
Beyond designing shoes, now it's a company so there are lots of things, events, photography, stores, sets, architecture. There are meetings, collaborations, lots of things going on. I like to see everything, to look after everything because it interests me. I really do look for fun in everything I do and to improve everything.
We'll put Oscar and Marie at one o'clock.
You are with us at 1:00 p.m.
Oh, yes. So we'll put Oscar and Marie at 12:30. Yeah, it won't take long. What time did Lavinia say, 12:00?
Simon, can you see Christian now?
Oh, when will you be ready, Simon?
Give me 20 minutes. I'll prepare all the documents and come down.
In 20 minutes. What time is it now?
At 12:00 then. Thank you.
So Simon at 12:00, that's good. What else is happening, one o'clock? And how long will Simon take?
You can only do it in velvet or satin.
In satin. We'll do it in satin. Satin or what we saw below. All the tests were beautiful.
Yes, they were beautiful and we should test some more.
Yes, but it doesn't take. I don't think it will take the light.
It doesn't reflect light.
I'm not a control freak. We hear a lot about things needing to be perfect. I want this to be perfect. I don't seek perfection. What I want is for things to be good, to be beautiful, to be interesting. I can't understand why we have to be perfect.
This time, we showcased water skiing. All the water skiing products, some on lifesavers. Super fun.
That's very good. The only thing is the waves should be more cut up. It's a bit regular, boom, boom, boom. It needs to turn. Straight things aren't pretty. Especially since everything has a round base, suddenly boom with something straight with lines. That's the first thing I see.
That's better, more magical.
It looks a bit like a cloud now, but here we need a ball. There, yes.
Is there any wind in these shops because it'd be nice to have a zibeedee like that. A little spring? You know?
I work in the great domain of the useless, but the great domain of the useless is wonderful. I have a clear memory of a woman coming into the boutique. It was in the early years in Paris. I was working in the boutique as a salesperson too. And I remember this woman who sees a high heel sandal model with a club heel like that in pale pink crepe with a rosette of feathers at the front of the foot and a feather behind on the heel. Powdery pink, the thing that if you have dirty fingers, it's ruined. It marks in crepe. And she looks at things and after a while comes over and says, 'Oh, I love that. It's so useless. I really need it.' Obviously, she'd never seen a shoe like that, so here it is. We absolutely need things to make us dream. Even totally useless things can protect us.
