| Christian Louboutin | |
|---|---|
| Born | 7 January 1963 France |
| Occupation | Shoe designer |
| Years active | 1991–present |
Christian Louboutin (pronounced [kʁis.tjɑ̃ lu.bu.tɛ̃]) (b. 7 January 1963) is a French footwear designer whose footwear has incorporated shiny, red-lacquered soles that have become his signature.[1]
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Louboutin was born in Paris. His father is cabinetmaker Roger Louboutin and homemaker mother Irene,and has three sisters. Although Louboutin faced much opposition following his decision to leave school early, he claims that his resolve was strengthened after watching an interview on TV with Sophia Loren in which she introduced her sister, saying she had to leave school when she was only 12, but, when she turned 50, she got her degree. "Everybody applauded! And I thought, 'Well, at least if I regret it I'm going to be like the sister of Sophia Loren!'"
Landscape architect Louis Benech has been his partner since 1997. Louboutin and his partner Benech spend time in their Luxor, Egypt, vacation home, which has been featured in Vogue and Harper's Bazaar magazines. Louboutin claims that his unusual pastimes include trapeze flying, inspired by the film Wings of Desire, and that inspirations come from showgirls and music halls--not fashion (or la mode), which he asserts becomes quickly dated.
| Type | Private,S.A |
|---|---|
| Industry | Consumer Goods |
| Founded | 1991 |
| Headquarters | Paris, France |
| Key people | Christian Louboutin Founder Jean Francois Roncatti COO/CIO |
| Products | Shoes,Purses,Wallets |
| Revenue | $ 250 million (31 December 2010 on 60,000 pairs of shoes a year[2] |
| Website | christianlouboutin.com |
He began sketching shoes in his early teens, ignoring his academic studies. In fact, he was expelled from four schools. Going through a punk phase, he was in a few films, including 1979 cult classic Race d'ep. Under the title The Homosexual Century, the film attracted an English-language audience.
His little formal training included drawing and the decorative arts at the Académie d'Art Roederer. Louboutin claims his fascination with shoes began in 1976 when he visited the Musée national des Arts d'Afrique et d'Océanie on the Avenue Daumesnil in Paris. It was there that he saw a sign from Africa forbidding women wearing sharp stilettos from entering a building for fear of damage to the extensive wood flooring. This image stayed in his mind, and he later used this idea in his designs. "I wanted to defy that," Louboutin said. "I wanted to create something that broke rules and made women feel confident and empowered."[3]
Fascinated by world cultures, he ran away in his teens to Egypt and spent a year in India. Louboutin returned to Paris in 1981, where he assembled a portfolio of drawings of elaborate high heels. He brought it to the top couture houses. The effort resulted in employment with Charles Jourdan. Subsequently, Louboutin met Roger Vivier. (Claims about Vivier is that he invented the stiletto [or spike]-heel shoe.) Louboutin thus became an apprentice in Vivier's atelier.
Going on to serve as a freelance designer, Louboutin designed women's shoes for Chanel, Yves Saint Laurent, and Maude Frizon.
With funds from two backers, he opened a Paris shoe salon in 1991 with Princess Caroline of Monaco as his first customer. Her compliments in the store one day when a fashion journalist was present. The journalist subsequently published the Princess's comment helped greatly to increase Louboutin's renown. Clients such as Diane Von Furstenburg and Catherine Deneuve followed. Later ones interested in his stiletto heels have included Jennifer Lopez, Madonna, and Gwyneth Paltrow. Sarah Jessica Parker wore a pair of shoes by Louboutin for her wedding.
Louboutin has topped The Luxury Institute's annual Luxury Brand Status Index (LBSI) for three years; the brand's offerings were declared the Most Prestigious Women's Shoes in 2007, 2008, and 2009.[4][5][6]
Louboutin helped bring stilettos back into fashion in the 1990s and 2000s, designing dozens of styles with heel heights of 120mm (4.72 inches) and higher. The designer's professed goal is to “make a woman look sexy, beautiful, to make her legs look as long as [he] can.” While he does offer some lower-heeled styles, Louboutin is generally associated with his dressier evening-wear designs incorporating jeweled straps, bows, feathers, patent leather and other similar decorative touches.[7] In 2011, Christian Louboutin filed a trademark infringement of their red soled shoes against designer Yves Saint Laurent.[8] Louboutin is expecting for the YSL shoe to be revoked and is seeking US $1 million in damages.[9]
In August, U.S. District Judge Victor Marrero denied Louboutin's request to stop the sale of women's shoes with red soles by Yves Saint Laurent. The judge questioned the validity of the trademark, saying, "Louboutin's claim would cast a red cloud over the whole industry, cramping what other designers do, while allowing Louboutin to paint with a full palette." [10] Judge Marrero also wrote, "Louboutin is unlikely to be able to prove its red outsole brand is entitled to trademark protection, even if it has gained enough public recognition in the market to have acquired secondary meaning."[11] Jewelry company Tiffany & Co., who has a their blue box trademarked, filed a "amicus curiae" brief focusing on trademarking a color. Fashion journal WWD reported that Tiffany's brief supports Louboutin's appeal to reverse the decision made by Judge Marrero.[12]
The list of distributors and location of the stores can be found on the Christian Louboutin website.New boutiques have been scheduled to open in Turkey and India in 2012[13].
The Miami location was, like many Louboutin stores, designed by Eric Clough of New York architects 212box, has walls covered with thousands of ceramic tiles that display alphabet letters from 28 languages and hundreds of symbols. The arrangement contains messages in plain text and code, poems and riddles, hiding in plain sight amid the jumble of text and symbol. [14] These coded tiles appear in many Louboutin stores designed by Clough around the world, including Sao Paolo Brazil. [15]
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