In celebration of his achievements, New York's The Museum at FIT is currently holding an exhibition of Christian Louboutin shoes entitled "Sole Desire - the Shoes of Christian Louboutin."
With his instantly recognizable trademark red soles (no matter what color the shoe), an increasing number of A-list celebrities such as Kylie Minogue, Gwen Stefanie, Madonna and Jennifer Lopez are choosing a pair of Louboutin’s as their favorite red carpet accessory.
With boutiques in New York, Beverly Hills, Las Vegas, London, Paris and Hong Kong , women the world over crave the status that owning a pair of red-soled Louboutins bring. No longer just the footwear of fashion-conscious celebrities, since the late 1990s Louboutin has enjoyed unprecedented levels of popularity and today's copycat celebrity culture has meant a great deal of media attention has been given to this much sought-after shoe.
Inspiration for Footwear
“Few designers have soared as quickly – and to such heights,” says Christian-louboutinshoes.com. Known just as much for his sexy fetish designs as his creations inspired by exotic destinations, Louboutin’s famous red soles were officially trademarked in January 2008 to discourage imitations.
Louboutin draws the inspiration for his collections from art, history and the world around him, including his own garden. Since a brief foray into landscape gardening in the ‘80s many of Louboutins creations are influenced by his passion for nature, flowers and trees. He admits needing to control his passion for flora and fauna, and concentrate on designing shoes.
The Famous Louboutin Red Soles
Louboutin is one of the few designers to play on the power of red soles. He refers to these as his “follow me shoes” as the heel leaves an imprint of a red rosette. These distinctive crimson creations originally have their roots way back in the French court of King Louis XIV, in the 17th century. The king wore red soles which were known to draw attention to his shapely calves and legs whilst dancing. Such was their popularity that he dictated that red-soled shoes could only be worn by members of his court, a privilege for the elite aristocracy. Today a flash of Louboutin red sole is the ultimate in status symbols.
Shoe Designs
Many of Louboutins designs are drawn from his love of far flung places. Influenced mainly by the sights and sounds of Asia , the Middle East and Africa, Louboutin himself has a house in Luxor, Egypt.
He is also known as a master of the fetish shoe, with sexy high heels and bondage inspired designs, using leather, metal studs, ruffles and feathers.
Singer Gwen Stefanie has been seen in nearly all the variations of the "Pigalle", Louboutin's collection of sexy stilettos, with pointed toes and 5 inch heels. Christina Aquilera wore "Prive" Louboutins on her recent tour and Madonna sported killer-platformed, studded "Mad Mary" mary-janes for her performance at Live Earth on 7 July 2007. Kylie Minogue also showed off her red-soled Louboutins to the music world when she danced on the piano during her "2 Hearts" video of 2007.
A Celebration of Christain Louboutin Shoes
Such is his celebrity status that chat-show icon Oprah Winfrey dedicated part of her 18th January 2008 show "A Face Behind the Name" to Louboutins collection of shoes, describing them as "little pieces of sculpture."
From March 13 to April 19, 2008, The Museum at FIT in New York is featuring a special exhibition of the Shoes of Christian Louboutin, entitled "Sole Desire." Organized by FIT Fashion and Textile graduate students, the exhibition showcases examples of his work and details his rise to stardom in the world of elite fashion footwear. For those who are unable to attend, an online display of his work is available.
Says Louboutin of his own footwear, "My shoes are perfect for the very sexy woman who wants to be elegant." Such elegant women who proudly wear his red soles are Elizabeth Taylor, designer Diana von Furstenberg, Princess Caroline of Monaco and Catherine Deneuve.
