Christian Louboutin, the French shoe designer best known for his signature red-soled has just opened his first men’s shoe store in New York. GQ magazine recenly sat down with Christian Louboutin, just after his Meatpacking District boutique opened it’s doors for business and learned how his men’s business almost happened by accident. Highlights from Mr Louboutin’s interview are as follows. For more, be sure to pay a visit to GQ!
GQ: You’ve designed for other entertainers on stage, women and men, aside from Mika. Is there a secret to designing a shoe meant for the stage versus one for daily life? Does it come down to materials that are reflective or shiny or does the silhouette change?
Louboutin: It really depends on people, on the performer. Some performers are very sleek and so the design is going to be very simple, very straight lines, or either pointed really, I’d say in terms of line. Depending who is on stage it can be the shape as it really is or it can be an added element. It really depends on people.
GQ: Technically speaking, what’s the biggest difference between designing for a man and for a woman? Obviously it’s different based on heel height, but are there details that are particular to designing a shoe for a man?
Louboutin: Definitely, you know it’s a funny, it’s quite rare that when I’m designing shoes for men and then for women at the same time because…
GQ: Do you have any idea why that is these days?
Louboutin: The spectrum is so vast. I have a lot of sport people that wear the shoes, a lot of singers and entertainers. It goes through that. It’s also that people need to be in a suit on the red carpet and twenty years ago those people who have a tie or bow tie and want their collars to stand out. Now if you look at pictures you see that most guys have the same black suit with the same white shirt. The difference is that the shirts can be open, no bow tie, no ties and the fantasy exists in the shoes. So I think the fashion fantasy shifted from the tie or bow tie to the shoes.