Welcome Christian Louboutin. Is the temperature comfortable for you?
Yes, because we were told to be careful about the temperature. You are very sensitive to temperature.
Who told you such a thing?
No. Or warm. Yes. The tea, the coffee, it has to be lukewarm. It has to be lukewarm. That's true. It's true. Yeah. Yeah. Otherwise, I start sweating immediately. That's why I have the cap here. Because if I start sweating, I'll do this. I'll keep it. Otherwise, I have tissues. I have... There. Otherwise, I was told that tissues are not good.
No. All right, okay.
You are a legend of fashion because what I am holding in my hand is your invention, the famous red-soled stiletto. One of the most iconic and desirable objects in popular history. The legend says that your vocation was born at the age of 10.
Approximately. Yes. Yes, approximately. I started drawing shoes. Yeah. 10, 11 years old because I have drawings, uh, I have drawings. When my mother died, she kept drawings, and my sister, who had kept everything she had, gave me those drawings, and underneath it was written 'Christian 10, 11.' She wasn't very precise.
But what gave you this vocation? What was the trigger?
Well, I always wanted to work, actually, from quite early on, for the dancers. And so I would go, when I went to school, after school, I first watched movies with dancers, and then I started going to the Folies Bergère, to the Paradise. I had noticed one thing: it was quite easy when there was intermission, everyone goes outside, well, to smoke a cigarette, and then people come back, and nobody asks for the ticket again. So with my best friend from class, we would go see the second act, and so we went to see things at the theater, etc. But my favorite thing was still to go see, well, the musical.
And when you were a kid, when you drew shoes, did they already have that?
No, no, no, no, no, no. That came later. I started drawing under my own name at the end of '91, and it arrived about 2 years later.
And is the story about the nail polish that someone in the company used, a red nail polish, true? Did it inspire you like that on the spot to use red, to take the nail polish, to try?
In fact, what happened is that I was drawing, and I do the drawings in color, and then I keep the drawing and I look at the prototypes. So I was in Italy where the factories that make the shoes are, and I was looking at the drawing, I was looking at the shoe from the side, the drawings were inspired by Andy Warhol's screen prints. So they were all pop, so there were many, many colors. And so when I looked at the drawing from the side, it was good, from the front, it was good. It was a stiletto with a big colored flower, so there were different colors, and then from the back, everything was black, and that didn't exist in my drawing. Everything was really bright color. And then the girl who was trying on the shoes, she had finished trying on the shoes, it was the end of the day, and so she was painting her nails, and I said to her, 'I want to try something, I want to remove the black.' So she had her nails. I said, 'Can I take it?' 'Yes, wait, I already have two, but I'm doing three more.' I said, 'Anyway,' I grabbed the thing, and I emptied her nail polish, and bam, it looked exactly like my original drawing. And I said to myself, 'Well, that's very good, it's very pretty, and really you can see the line of the drawing, it's prettier.' So I said to myself, 'Well, I'll make the soles in color to begin with.' So it didn't start with red at all. Well, it started because I put a touch of red, but I said to myself, because it's a stupid idea, I said to myself, 'It's going to come out practically around Christmas, so I'll make you green soles.'
So there exist green Louboutins?
No, because I thought about it and I said to myself that Christmas doesn't last very long. Number one. And I also continued to think, and in fact in the 90s, many people didn't like color. And in fact, if you don't like color, you don't like green. If you don't like color, you don't like yellow. If you don't like color, you don't like orange. But if you don't like color, you always like red. Why? Because it's between color and non-color. It's a bit like gold, silver, red. They are really non-colors. Well, look at our logo. Well, there you go, our logo is red. But for you, Christmas is green.
Maya dived into the Louboutin mythology. And yes, you don't need to be a fashion fan to know Louboutins. Just turn on your TV or even listen to music. It all starts in 2000 with Sex and the City. Carrie Bradshaw, a huge fan of high heels, wears mismatched Louboutins. The look becomes legendary, and a quarter of a century later, in series, women and legends still wear Louboutins, whether it's Emily in Paris for the straightforward side or 2 Broke Girls for the much funnier side.
Music is not left out. In 2009, Jennifer Lopez sings a song that bears your name, 'Louboutins'. And in the video, she comes down a staircase shaped like a red stiletto. Obviously.
Since that image, pop stars are at your feet. Beyoncé and her fringe boots for the album Cowboy Carter, Rihanna at the Met Gala, Taylor Swift for her Eras Tour, Lisa from Blackpink at Coachella. The red sole is so iconic that it becomes a subject of jokes. Proof with Zac Efron in 'The Lucky One'.
But in my opinion, what explains the triumph of the brand in pop culture is not just the fashion side, it's also an ambiguous side because often the woman who wears Louboutins is also a femme fatale. And typically in the series 'The New Pope', when Sharon Stone comes to titillate Pope John Malkovich, well, guess what she brings?
Same subversion when female rappers talk about the brand. Yes, Louboutins are beautiful. Yes, Louboutins are luxury. But it's also a bit dangerous. Cardi B tells us.
There is something troubled about Louboutins, and for artists, it's completely irresistible.
Are you aware of all that before it came out?
No, no, there are things I had seen. Well, Cardi B, I had seen. Sharon Stone, I had seen an image, but I hadn't seen her push the shoes and offer them to Malkovich, well, to the pope. So there are... No, I don't know everything. And for example, Zac Efron, I had never seen that.
So, you are the only one who can use the red sole. How do you globally trademark a red sole?
Well, it's called a trademark and it's quite complicated. A recognition mark. Well, that would take 2 hours to explain.
It's been a long battle to obtain the right to deposit the Pantone.
But can I launch a shoe with a blue sole? And red no, and red slightly orange? Can I or not?
I think if it's confusing, that is, if it looks like a red. No. But purple, yes.
Okay. You deposited all reds?
No, but it's a fairly precise red, a red really like a lacquer. It's the same as the one you have here? Approximately. Yes, it's a bit darker this one.
We're going to look at images of your last fashion show. It was last Thursday at the Dojo de Paris. It was magnificent. Staged by David LaChapelle and Blanca Li with the Super Ball theme. Why Super Ball, American football?
Well, that was a big battle with David because we wanted to do a sport. We started with the pool last year, and this year I was thinking of rugby, and he, being American, was thinking of American football. I said, 'But it's the same thing, it's the same size of ball, it's roughly the same.' But he thought that for the costumes it was more interesting, and because of what we see there, actually, the cheerleaders, but it wasn't the idea of a Super Bowl, it was more the idea of in an average American city, there is a, a, what do you call it? A stadium.
Yes, a match. And so it's really a preparation for the match. So finally I gave in, I said, 'OK, there are cheerleaders, that's not French at all. So let's go, and that's how it started.'
