The History of Legendary Louboutin Shoes That Became Popular by Accident, Thanks to Ordinary Nail Polish

Even people that are not very interested in fashion have probably heard about Louboutin shoes and their most distinctive feature — red soles. They are worn by the Royal family members, stars on red carpet events, characters from very popular series and movies. This brand is truly iconic today. But few people know that this amazing success happened accidentally.

We at CHEERY wanted to find out how Louboutin shoes appeared and why they are so successful.

The boy who dropped out of school

• Company founder Christian Louboutin was born in Paris. His father was a cabinetmaker and his mother was a housewife. He also had 3 sisters.
• In one of his interviews, Louboutin said he was “much darker-skinned than everyone else in his family. You know, I felt I wasn’t French. My family was very French, and so I decided they had probably adopted me. But because this feeling was terrible and that I was an outsider who had to go and find my real family, I invented my own history, full of characters from Egypt because I was very into the pharaohs.”
• When he was 51 years old, his sister told him that his biological father was, in fact, Egyptian, and his mother had an affair with him.
• Louboutin was always rebellious. When he was a teenager, he was expelled from school 3 times, and then he decided to escape from home at the age of 12. His mom let him move into his friend’s place.

• He didn’t worry much about leaving school. He says that an interview on TV with Sophia Loren helped him a lot. She mentioned her sister who needed to drop out of school when she was 12, but she got her diploma when she turned 50. Louboutin said, “Everybody applauded! And I thought, ’Well, at least if I regret it I’m going to be like the sister of Sophia Loren!’”
• Instead of going to school, Louboutin started drawing sketches of shoes and had a punk phase. He was even in a few successful films. Later, he found a job at a cabaret where he assisted the entertainers backstage. He was also a fixture on the city’s party scene alongside Mick Jagger and Andy Warhol.

“I wanted to create something that broke rules”

• According to Christian, he got really interested in shoes in 1976, when he visited the Musée national des Arts d’Afrique et d’Océanie. There, he saw a sign which prohibited women from wearing heels in the building in order to protect the wooden floor.
• The image of that classic shoe of the 1950s on the forbidding sign stayed in his head, and he even used it in his sketches later. “I wanted to defy that,” Louboutin said. “I wanted to create something that broke rules and made women feel confident and empowered.”
• The aesthetics of the forbidding sign seemed very attractive to him, and he realized that “most objects begin their life as a drawing.” Several years later, this memory inspired Louboutin to create his biggest best-seller — scarlet-soled Pigalle shoe.

• At some point, Christian got interested in world cultures, he spent 1 year in Egypt and he lived in India for some time. When he returned to Paris, he developed a portfolio of elegant shoes on high heels that he later tried to sell to the top couture houses. The effort resulted in employment with Charles Jourdan. Louboutin met Roger Vivier, who claims to have invented the stiletto.

Princess Diana inspired Louboutin to design shoes under his own brand

• Very soon, Christian became a freelance designer, developing shoes for Chanel, Yves St Laurent and Maud Frizon. But in 1991, he used the money from the first 2 sponsors to make his own company, and opened the first shoe store in Paris.
• It is interesting that some of the most memorable shoes developed by Louboutin under his own brand, were inspired by Princess Diana. He once saw the famous photos of Diana sitting in front of Taj Mahal during her visit to India in 1992. He later said, “You could see she was looking at the floor and feeling so desperate, bored, and sad or something, and I thought if there was a message on her feet saying, hi, hello, like a little mouse saying something to her, that maybe she would have a smile.”
• So, he designed a pair of black shoes with the red word “LOVE”. The “LO” was on the left foot, and the “VE” was on the right.

• After he opened his shoe store, Princess Caroline of Monaco was one of his first clients. She complimented the store one day when a fashion journalist was there, and, after the journalist published an article, Louboutin became really popular. Clients such as Catherine Deneuve, Christina Aguilera, Madonna, and many others followed. And Sarah Jessica Parker wore Louboutin shoes for her wedding.

Red nail polish was in the right place at the right time

• The famous red Louboutin soles appeared in 1993. It happened accidentally. Louboutin remembers, “My sketches were not reproduced exactly as I had designed them, and I couldn’t figure out why. The two-dimensional sketch was so powerful on paper, but when turned into a three-dimensional object, it was somehow lacking energy. 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!”
• The idea turned out to be genius and made Louboutin designs unique. Christian says, “Men are like bulls. They cannot resist the Red Sole.”

• Since then, the company has been fighting for its exclusive right for the red color of the sole and sued everyone that tried to copy this design. In many countries, it’s a trademark and other shoe companies can’t use it in their models. Louboutin has sued Zara, and Yves Saint Laurent. The latter can use the red sole color only if the entire shoe is red, too.
• Interestingly, for a short period of time, some Christian Louboutin models were made with blue soles and meant for future brides. Because blue used to symbolize “purity and love”, until it was replaced with white. The models were accessible only on special orders and were not for sale for a long time.

Uncomfortable shoes everyone wants to wear

• Christian made stilettos popular again by creating and releasing dozens of models with heel heights of 120 mm (4.72 inches) and higher. The goal was to “make a woman look sexy, beautiful, to make her legs look as long as possible”.
• Louboutin never even intented to make comfortable shoes. In a Vogue interview, he said, “People say I am the king of painful shoes. I don’t want to create painful shoes, but it is not my job to create something comfortable. I try to make high heels as comfortable as they can be, but my priority is design, beauty and sexiness. I’m not against it, but comfort is not my focus.”

• His shoes cost quite a lot. Unfortunately, he’s not going to make cheaper lines because it would worsen the quality. Christian says, “It would offend me to put my name on a design I would not be proud of. It’s non-negotiable.”
• But neither discomfort, nor the high price, scare buyers. Stars from Zendaya and Bella Hadid to writers, such as Danielle Steel who has more than 6,000 pairs, wear them. And actress Blake Lively said that these shoes have a therapeutic effect on her, “I also like to dress up. I also think that’s relaxing—to put on a great pair of Louboutins”.

The designer is not afraid of the no-stiletto trend

• As feminism started to develop and more comfortable shoes, such as sneakers, became more popular, stilettos’ sales have dropped. But Christian doesn’t think this trend is a problem. He’s convinced that women wear stilettos not for men, but for themselves.
• More than that, he’s offended by the idea that women are not independent in their decisions, that they can wear shoes for someone else, “A woman puts a pair of shoes on. She goes straight in front of the mirror. She looks at herself, she looks at her body, she turns her back, then she turns again, and if she likes herself, she’s considering the shoe. She’s not looking at the shoe wondering if it will be attractive to men”.

• Louboutin didn’t change his opinion even after celebrities started fighting against uncomfortable shoes. For example, in 2018, Kristen Stewart publicly took off her Louboutins during the Cannes Film Festival saying, “If you’re not asking guys to wear heels and a dress then you can’t ask me either.”
• Louboutin was okay with that saying the Cannes organizers “love a polemic”. The designer also added, “Do not forget [Stewart] is an actress, a fantastic actress and a smart girl. She has been wearing my shoes for a long time... I’ve never been on my knees begging her to wear high heels. I don’t think anyone has obligated her to wear high heels. She could be in flat shoes [if she wanted], so it’s a whole ball game there.”
• However, he also released sneakers, flats, and sandals today. But the designs and good quality remain as good as usual.

• According to Christian, the thing he values most is freedom, “For me, remaining free is the most important thing. And showing you can remain free. It’s more work and sometimes it’s difficult being independent because people try to crush you but it’s worth it”.

What do you think of shoes with high heels?